SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

rodrig58 I will write a little more about this, because it's a bit special, at least for me, being myself born beyond the iron curtain, just like the main female character of this film. I saw Charlton Heston in many movies that I liked very much: "Soylent Green", "Planet of the Apes", "El Cid", "Ben-Hur", "The Big Country", "Touch of Evil", "The Wreck of the Mary Deare", "Major Dundee", "Agony and the Ecstasy", "Khartoum", "The Omega Man", "Antony and Cleopatra", "The Three Musketeers", "Airport 1975", "The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge", "Earthquake", "The Awakening", "Mother Lode", "Tombstone", "True Lies". All big, great films, in which he usually has the lead role. All films which delighted my childhood and adolescence beyond the iron curtain, in the same country as the character Elena Antonescu from this film. A character played by the beautiful French Nicole Maurey, whom I have seen also in "Sale temps pour les mouches", "Killer Spy", "The Scapegoat" and "Diary of a Country Priest". She is very convincing here, playing a character similar to me in real life, being also born in the same country, Romania. I've seen Thomas Mitchell in many famous and very good movies, he's a very good actor, "Gone with the Wind", "Tales of Manhattan", "It's a Wonderful Life", "High Noon", "Pocketful of Miracles". Yma Sumac, probably the greatest voice of all time, in her first role as an actress, also singing and being very funny. Leon Askin, who I saw in "Road to Bali", "The Terror of Doctor Mabuse" and "Airplane II: The Sequel", very good in the role of the Romanian officer of Securitate Anton Marcu. The story is very simple and very well accomplished by Jerry Hopper.

gsbltd Several years ago I met a Production Assistant who worked on RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and was told an interesting story: that SECRET OF THE INCAS was indeed the inspiration for RAIDERS... but it went much further than that. The PA stated that George Lucas had seen SECRET years before and adapted the story into his own vision for Indiana Jones. Lucas screened SECRET -in secret- for Spielberg who immediately attached himself to the project. Here's where it gets interesting: Spielberg quickly negotiated the rights to SECRET and the contract demanded it be shelved and never released in the United States so there couldn't be any direct comparisons to RAIDERS. That's why even today you can't buy an official NTSC copy of SECRET; my region-free disc came from the U.K.! And the similarities between Heston's costume and Harrison Ford's some 30 years later were no accident, either: the PA told me that the RAIDERS creative staff were required to watch SECRET and use it as source material as much as possible to save production time/expense. And, it's clear they took a lot of notes! Others have mentioned the obvious similarities, but there's another really quick one that most people overlook: it's a little musical phrase on the SECRET soundtrack that is identical to one that John Williams used later on when he scored RAIDERS. Listen closely and it'll jump right out at you. Another coincidence? I'm not so sure! Further, Charlton Heston was famous for talking about his filmmaking experiences, yet he never directly -or publicly- mentioned SECRET... not even in his detailed autobiography, "In The Arena". He would only say that he once made a film high in the Andes where it was very difficult to breathe! Privately he allegedly had plenty to say: that he was contractually prohibited from mentioning his work on SECRET and that he seriously resented the fact that Spielberg had so thoroughly usurped his character and with little alteration turned it into the cult-status-cash-cow that Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones attained.

bensonmum2 Harry Steele (Charlton Heston) is working as a tour guide of sorts in the Peru. However, his ultimate goal is the treasure he believes he can find high in the mountains at Machu Picchu. Into his life walks a woman with the answers to his prayers - a plane that can get him to the top of the mountain. But she brings something else - he falls for her. In the end, what will it be - treasure or love?As others have pointed out, the comparisons with Indiana Jones are more than obvious - dress, map room, search for treasure, etc. When Secret of the Incas focuses on the adventure and the search for gold, it's very good. Too bad melodrama too often gets in the way of a good time - but wasn't that the case in a lot of these 50s era adventure films. Charlton Heston is quit good here and very believable. Nicole Maurey, whom I don't remember seeing before, is a revelation. One of the real stars has to be the locations. The real life Peruvian sets are spectacular. Overall, not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

MARIO GAUCI Despite the intriguing title, this is a tedious potboiler with very little to commend it save the evocative Peruvian locations. A stiff, pre-stardom Charlton Heston is an arrogant opportunist whose dress code might well have inspired Indiana Jones but his adventures, unfortunately for the viewer, are nowhere near as exciting. Robert Young (unconvinging as a belatedly introduced archaeologist), Thomas Mitchell (as Heston's double-crossing partner) and Michael Pate (ridiculously decked out in a Rumpelstiltskin hat as the Inca High Priest or something) are on hand to lend the film some much needed support but the female cast is very weak: Nicole Maurey tries too hard as the damsel-in-distress heroine, Glenda Farrell is wasted as an American tourist with an eye on Heston, and Peruvian singer Yma Sumac almost sinks the film with her embarrassing over-the-top chanting!