Plunder of the Sun

Making unique and extensive use of the ruins of Mexico’s Zapotec civilization, the ancient pyramids and courtyards forming a glorious backdrop for several action scenes, John Farrow’s Plunder of the Sun is a sort of treasure hunt noir that has Glenn Ford sailing from Cuba to Mexico to transport a secret package which, for all he knows, could have “pages from the latest Sears Roebuck catalog.” Ford plays broke adventurer Al Colby, hanging out in smoky Havana cantinas to avoid his cash-collecting innkeeper, who accepts a $1,000 offer from antique dealer Thomas Berrien (Francis L. Sullivan) aka “Berrien, Antiquarian” to smuggle a package into Mexico so its contents can be appraised by a professional. In Mexico, Colby learns that the package contains a manuscript with a cryptic code for tracking down a stash of priceless jewels and artifacts buried somewhere in the ruins. Colby teams up with a mysterious man named Jefferson (an underwhelming Sean McClory), who wears dark sunglasses and has been tailing and harassing Colby since Cuba, but their unearthing of the treasure will only open a new chapter of betrayal, theft, and murder. Throughout his journey, Colby is accompanied off and on by two women: Anna Luz (Patricia Medina) is Berrien’s pretty, young “wife” who may also covet the package’s contents, while Julie Barnes (Diana Lynn doing her best Gloria Grahame impression) is a sex-starved lush (“I’m a tramp and everybody knows it”) who tries to wrap herself around Colby several times and may know more than he thinks. Even if the stylistics are less pronounced than other noirs, craftsmanship is still top-notch (it’s John Farrow after all), and Ford’s soft-spoken, put-upon anti-heroes are practically a genre of their own.