SECRET OF THE INCAS (1954) – Considering that some of the costume and design staff members for Raiders of the Lost Ark have openly stated that they did repeated viewings of this neglected Charlton Heston film while putting together the “look” of that 1981 blockbuster I admit to being as puzzled as they are that Secret of the Incas isn’t mentioned as much as old serials are as an influence.
And let me emphasize that I do mean “influence”, and not imitation or rip-off. In my opinion, the most that could be said is that this 1954 flick is like Raiders of the Lost Ark before they added the choreographed action scenes and special effects. The storyline in Secret of the Incas involves violent, double-crossing and deadly attempts by shady and not-so-shady figures to discover and claim/ steal an ancient Inca relic … from Machu Pichu itself!
Location filming in Peru greatly improves the quality of this overlooked film. Footage of Machu Pichu’s 1950s condition is fascinating and Peruvian singer Yma Sumac as priestess Kori-Tica performs a few folk songs in honor of Inca culture. Expect a movie closer to Film Noir with archeological trappings rather than an action spectacle and you may enjoy Secret of the Incas as much as I do. Beautiful Nicole Maurey plays Heston’s love interest.
Moving on to the elephant in the room, Charlton Heston as Harry Steele wears beard stubble and what is now called “an Indiana Jones hat” in addition to an Indy jacket. Heston’s character is also a pilot so the jacket has logo patches on each side and is accessorized by a flight scarf but otherwise he looks every inch the visual basis for a certain two-fisted archeologist.
Remember when Marion Ravenwood tells Dr. Jones “You’re not the man I knew ten years ago.” Well, it’s tempting to think that Harry Steele IS what Indy was like ten years ago. Brasher than Jones in Raiders and as ruthless as Han Solo, Steele is also fluent in multiple languages, including Quechua. As a veteran relic hunter he’s also well-versed in ancient cultures and is buddies with the scholars at Cuzco’s museum.
As much as modern audiences automatically think of Dr. Jones when watching this movie, back in the 50s I’m betting viewers automatically thought of assorted Humphrey Bogart characters. The way Harry Steele gets leaned on regarding his possession of a stone relic which can lead to Machu Pichu’s Tomb of Manco you half expect him to make with this paraphrase of a Rick Blaine line – “It seems as long as I have that stone fragment I’ll never be lonely.”
Ironically, Charlton Heston remarked that looking back he felt embarrassed about playing the Harry Steele character because of Steele’s black-hearted nature. Harry is pure anti-hero and Heston’s tastes apparently trended toward more virtuous figures, generally speaking. Hell, Steele is even willing to play gigolo for ladies among the expeditions he guides, if the price is right. A young Marion Ross appears as one of the ladies from a previous Steele-led group.
Taking things step by step, including SPOILERS:
Roguish and ruthless Harry Steele has been staying close to Cuzco in recent months in hopes of digging up information that will enable him to use a stone relic to find a fictional Inca treasure – a solid gold sunburst adorned with hundreds of precious gems. This sunburst is the Maguffin of the film and is sought by other interested parties, too.
One such party from among Harry’s rival relic hunters is Ed Morgan (Thomas Mitchell), expatriate American, who is growing weary of running the black-market rackets in Cuzco and wants the sunburst as his ticket to retirement. Morgan is part Sidney Greenstreet from Casablanca and part Rene Belloc (if you insist on Raiders comparisons).
Another party is Stanley Moorehead, PhD (THE Robert Young), an archeologist working with the Peruvian government in a legitimate archeological dig in Machu Pichu. He dismisses the gold-and-jeweled sunburst as mere legend so initially is not after it, but he’s 100% honest and so poses an obstacle to the likes of Steele and Morgan.
Elena Antonescu (Nicole Maurey) is a beautiful but shady escapee from a Communist regime being tracked by their Secret Police, led by Anton Marcu (Leon Askin). Elena needs covert transportation to Mexico or America and hires the conscienceless Harry Steele to smuggle her there.
Steele is only interested in stealing the plane of Communist Agent Marcu and uses his pretense of taking Elena northward as an excuse to have her help him get his hands on the aircraft. He and the reluctant Elena fly and otherwise make their way toward Machu Pichu instead, bickering and getting the hots for each other.
After consummating their passion in the wilderness one night, they at last reach Machu Pichu, only to encounter additional complications in the form of Dr. Moorehead’s archeological dig, Peruvian authorities and the dogged Ed Morgan, as mentioned above.
We now get some more legitimate parallels to the much later Raiders film. The forces opposed to Harry and Elena are literally “digging in the wrong place” because they lack that certain stone relic that Harry has had all along.
Harry, working covertly overnight while his competitors are sleeping, labors away at using calculations like Indy did in the Map Room to get his hands on the priceless sunburst. After all that work, including using refracted light to point to the proper site, Ed Morgan does a quasi- “once again, what was briefly yours is now mine” bit by covertly getting the drop on Steele.
This leads to the climactic chase and fight scene as Morgan kills several Peruvians while trying to make off with his ill-gotten treasure. Harry Steele intercepts him and recovers the sunburst. Harry, completing his character arc in the story, gives the priceless relic to the Peruvian people rather than escape with it, as he easily could have.
The catalyst for this character evolution was the way Elena, Ed Morgan and even Harry himself began to notice that he and the malevolent Morgan were “not so unlike” a la Indy and Belloc. In Steele’s case, a desire to NOT turn out like Ed Morgan fueled his discovery of a conscience.
So, the good guys win and Elena & Harry decide to marry, with our still-roguish but no longer ruthless hero using a small gold item he lifted from Manco’s Tomb as a figurative engagement ring.
*** I can’t emphasize enough that IF YOU GO INTO THE MOVIE UNDERSTANDING THAT IT’S NOT AN ACTION EPIC I think you’ll find Secret of the Incas very enjoyable. Most of the negative reviews I’ve seen of this film are from people who apparently thought the many references to it as a forerunner of Raiders of the Lost Ark meant it would be like a modern blockbuster.
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