Harry Steele (Charlton Heston) is a tour guide in Cusco, Peru. He hangs out at the airport to spot likely marks for his tour. However, it turns out that Harry is just biding his time, waiting for a private plane he can use to enact a heist. When Elena (Nicole Maurey) arrives in Cusco, Harry's plans get underway. Elena is a defector who wants to get to the United States. The man pursuing her has a private plane! Harry uses Elena as bait to get the plane then flies it to Machu Picchu.
Sometime before our story begins, Harry acquired a piece of rock that indicated where a golden treasure was hidden, but he needed a way to abscond with the loot once he dug it from its tomb. That's the plane. Now that he is at Machu Picchu, there are complications. An archeologist, Stanley Moorehead (Robert Young), is excavating the very tomb that Harry planned to rob! Worse still, Ed Morgan (Thomas Mitchell) has followed Harry from Cusco and intends to take a share of the loot, at gunpoint. Can Harry get the golden starburst from the tomb and escape Machu Picchu with it? Does he take Elena with him or leave her behind?
There are parts of this that felt like an Indiana Jones adventure. Harry has a talent for languages, speaking both Spanish and Quechua. He wears a leather jacket, khaki trousers, and a fedora, and he's armed with a revolver. He plans to extract treasure from a tomb. Then there is the presence of an archeologist and a reflecting light that shows where the treasure is hidden. It looks a lot like both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg watched this movie and got some ideas. Is it coincidence that Raiders of the Lost Ark opens in Peru?
On the other hand, the action is quite limited. The location shooting is cool but most of the movie is clearly on sound stages. Harry is not a particularly likable character. Robert Young's part is so small as to be hardly worthwhile. His love-at-first-sight routine with Elena is silly. That a notable Peruvian singer - Yma Sumac - was cast meant that several opportunities for her to sing needed to be included. Meh.
There is a great and exciting adventure to be had here but the execution is just so-so.
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