Professor Kelada (Topol) is an authority in pretty much every field of
archeology, & he prides himself to be able to guess the period &
region of every artefact shown to him just by looking at it - which might
not have to do with science as such, but it has made him a tv-personality,
& a rich one too. But Kelada is not only a scientist but also a
womanizer, & he's good at picking up women too. & he doesn't even
make a secret of it ... much to the dismay of Cranley (Edward Wiley),
manager of the conference hotel Kelada's staying at, who prides himself
running a decent hotel (& is not very amused when Kelada asks him for
hookers) & who is in panic that Kelada might pick up his own wife
(Leslie Lyon). & he also warns Elly (Kim Thomson), Kelada's
chambermaid, of the professor's reputation - but Elly considers herself
too sophisticated for Kelada's humble approaches anyway. But Kelada of
course is much more sophisticated than she thinks, first giving her an authentic,
unique Mayan artefact to make her feel special, even though she
doesn't give in to his advances ... then he has her accidently find more
of the same authentic, unique Mayan artefacts, which are of course
neither authentic, unique or Mayan, but crafted for Kelada as a special
pick-up device ... & it is especially this imperfection on Kelada's
behalf that gets Elly into his bed (right where he wanted her) ... When
Cranley finds that out, he uis furious, but also happy because now he has
a reason (in his mind at least) to toss Kelada out ... but not before he,
trying to unmask Kelada's alleged genius as an archeologist, gives him an
artefact to judge that Cranley's own wife has dug up herself 6
years ago ... & it is one of Kelada's own little authentic, unique
Mayan artefacts - & only now he realizes, he already had an affair
with Mrs Cranley 6 years ago. Contempt with his little triumph but not
wanting to make a fuzz of it, he makes a bogus judgement, saving
everyone's face ... As ever so often with the Tales of the
Unexpected, this one is directed in a very stagey, unexciting manner, but
features a nice ironic story & a good cast to make up for it.
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