I'd read David Dodge's novel a couple of years ago because it was set in Peru. The movie, as it turns out, is set in Mexico, so the Incan ruins of the novel become Aztec ruins in the movie. Sine the movie was filmed in 1953, it's a record of a different time. When Ford and Diana Lynn traipse around the deserted ruins (today, there'd be thousands of tourists swarming over them), he's in a suit and tie; she's wearing a coctail dress and heels. In fact Ford's nearly always in a suit and tie, even when digging up atifacts. Those were the days.
The plot from Dodge's novel is pretty much intact, though in a Cliff's Notes version (the screenplay is by Jonathan Latimer): ancient manuscript, treasure, everyone trying to beat everyone else to the treasure, and nobody's motives made clear until the end. Though the movie's short, there's a foot chase near the end that's dragged out for too long. There's some atmospheric B&W photography, but the ruins really aren't done justice. Color would have worked better.
Ford is very good as hardboiled Al Colby, and I enjoyed the performance of Sean McClory as the bespectacled villain. Patricia Medina looks great, as always, and Francis Sullivan dies too soon. Overall, about a C+. You could do better, but you could also do worse.
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