Noted in Dave Kehr's blog: commenting on the death of the great Heston, the long-memoried expert on pre Star Wars film writes "one of Heston's most influential roles remains one of his least known: that of Harry Steele. Dashing though cynical adventurer who wears a fedora and a leather jacket, as he searches for Incan treasure in a manner that distinctly suggests a certain later day hero created by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The film is Jerry Hopper's 1954 Secret of the Incas and Paramount has been strangely reluctant to release it to TV or DVD ... reportedly, Spielberg and Lucas screened it for members of the production team planning Raiders of the Lost Ark." One Raiders of the Lost Ark fansite, theraider.net. has already commented: "the atmosphere of the story is so similar that any Indiana Jones fan will be smitten with this film."
Why doesn't Paramount fess up and re-release this? It'd be worth $20 to see Heston as Steele, searching for a jeweled relic in the Inca Temple of the Sun among real life locations in Machu Picchu (as visible above, but here's a better look at the poster). He's up against a first-rate villain (Thomas Mitchell, of Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach, and many other classics). And then there's the matter of the film's discovery, the debuting "bird girl of the Andes" Yma Sumac. Seen here at YouTube demonstrating her world-famous 5 octave pipes in one of her numbers from the film. Don't believe the horrible lie that Yma Sumac is really Amy Camus from Brooklyn!
1. Interesting! While For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) is a different plot than all the Indiana Jones films, Gary Cooper is dressed just like him. In fact the only thing he's missing is a whip. Here's a couple of links to pics from the film.
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=76481&rendTypeId=4
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=77210&rendTypeId=4
Posted at 1:50PM on Apr 8th 2008 by Angie