Apr 19, 2026The_Most_Casual_Observer rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
A silly but enjoyable noir adventure, the 1953 Warner Bros. John Wayne production has about four things going for it—director John Farrow’s inherent sense of entertainment, the fantastic location work including extensive scenes staged in impressive Mexican ruins, the striking Jack Draper black-and-white cinematography, and the winning appeal of the movie’s star, Glenn Ford, whose character gives as good as he gets. The 81-minute feature seems to have been at least partially inspired by "The Maltese Falcon"—there is a fat man, and an actor who plays his scenes as if he’d just sat through a Peter Lorre festival—and is standard gobbledygook about a treasure map that Ford’s character innocently comes into the possession of and that everyone else is literally dying to obtain. The film is no great classic, but it is too much fun to pass by, since with every advancing year, its own treasures become as valuable as the ones the characters are striving to obtain.
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Plunder of the Sun