SECRET OF THE INCAS

US, 1954, 100 minutes, Colour.
Charlton Heston, Robert Young, Nicole Maurey, Thomas Mitchell, Glenda Farrell, Michael Pate, Leon Askin.
Directed by Jerry Hopper.

Secret of the Incas is one of the many action adventures directed by Jerry Hopper during the early 1950s. He was to work with Charlton Heston in Pony Express, Private War of Major Benson and One Desire.

This is an adventure set in the Andes, adventurers from the United States in search of treasure, Charlton Heston as the hero, Thomas Mitchell as a shady adventurer. Robert Young appears as a doctor and Nicole Maurey as an archaeologist. Michael Pate portrays one of the Incas.

The film is quite predictable in the setting up of the search, the confrontations, the triangle romance, the presentation of the Incas. Nevertheless this was a fairly unpretentious film of the 1950s – and this kind of storytelling still remains entertaining pastime,

1. Was this a good adventure film? Was it too conventional? Or did it have original ingredients well presented?

2. How typical an adventure film of the fifties was this? Would it have been made differently now? In what way?

3. The importance of the mountain locations for the film's success? Peru, the style of the mountains and ruins for the Inca atmosphere? The value of the introduction?

4. The film as an adventure quest? The reality of greed? What attitude towards good and bad did the film show? its mixture in each of the characters? Did this make it seem real rather then just comic strip heroism?

6. Was Harry Steele a good hero? Charlton Heston style? As bad and on the make? Audience sympathy for him? His self-resources and vanity? His using of Elana at of the Romanian consul? The clashes with Morgan? What affected his change? The influence of Elana? His quest for the golden wealth and his change?

8. How interesting a character was Doctor Morehead? Was he a credible archeologist? The film's interest in showing what he was doing and its value? Drama-wise as a balance to Harrry Steele? Different character? As a rival for the affections of Elana? The credibility of his proposing to her? Her final rejecting of him? Why? What values did he stand for?

9. Morgan a convincing villain? His age and weight? His greed and the quest for gold? The importance of the mirror theme: as his being a mirror of what Harry Steele would be like? The influence of this mirror theme on Harry's behaviour? The melodramatics of his death?

10. How well did the film give the atmosphere of Cusco? The visitors, the planes, the thin air, the seedy atmoophere, the university where Incan was learnt?

11. How did this contrast with the jungle and the mountains, the village and the ruins?

12. How well did the film portray the Inca background? the quest for the sunburst for the Incas themselves? The importance of songs and the Inca dances? The legends? The association of the sunburst with civilizations and their being lost?

13. What values did the film presuppose in its audience? The audience response to such adventurea? Did it satisfy audience expectation?