For his birthday, Joan Lowell invites her father (Nicholas Wagner) to a
sea cruise around the Kap Horne ... but soon they get into a storm that
damages their mast so they have to get a new mast ... from a shipwrecked
century old sailship ... & on that ship, Joan finds a treasure map
that kleads to a Mayan temple at the Rio Dulce, Guatemala. But since her
father would never agree to go on a hunt for a dead man's treasure, Joan
tricks him to somehow going to Guatemala anyways ... There, she &
sailor Bill Sawyer soon make friends with native leader Maya, who agrees
to take them up the Rio Dulce ... without knowing their ulterior motives,
of course. & what neither Joan nor Maya, nor Bill for that matter,
knowis that native chievftain Manolo & his man are always just a few
yards behind them. Soon, Maya, Joan & Bill have found the legendary
ancient temple from the map, & a vast treasure that seems to customary
go with it. But to not let Maya know that they only want the treasure,
Joan persuades Bill to involve Maya in a conversation about ancient Mayan
architecture, while Joan can calmly snath a few emeralds. But of course,
Maya finds out eventually, & before long the 2 women get into a
catfight, which is only ended when Manolo takes Joan prisoner, brings her
down the river to his village, & prepares to burn her alive ... but of
course, they all have forgotten Bill. When the fire is already lit, Bill
takes the heavy smoke as cover to get Joan out of her rather uncomfy
situation, & the 2 try to make their escape on a raft, but soon the
natives have looked through it all & caught up with them, so bill
opens a barrel of oil (that the raft seems to be equipped with), throws it
into the water & lights it ... & soon the water burns all around
them, so for Joan it seems out of the fire iinto the ... well, fire. Somehow
thought the 2 manage to dive through the flames, make it to the ship where
Joan's father is waiting & away from Guatemala, without any treasure,
but at least alive ... Allegedly based on real life events,
this film partly plays like a documentary, with no spoken dialogue but
off-screen narration by Joan Lowell herself (who claims all this has
really happened). However, while there is no dialogue, some sound effects
were included for realism's sake (well ...). The story of this documentary
though is pretty pedestrian, having more in common with pulp novels about
pirates & svages than real life ... & the story is not even all
that good, nor is it too well filmed considering that it was shot at the
authentic (almost) locations. What makes this one worthwhile though for
the connoisseur of the unusual though is its very naive I-want-to-be-an-adventure-story-charm,
paired with the somewhat weird silöent (over-)acting of non-actress Joan
Lowell. So ok, this might not be too much of a recommendation, but maybe
the film really isn't all that good ...
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