Secret of the Incas (1954)

Film: Secret of the Incas (1954)

Stars: Charlton Heston, Robert Young, Nicole Maurey, Thomas Mitchell

Director: Jerry Hopper

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Robert Young: click here to learn more about Mr. Young (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Last week we discussed They Won't Believe Me, which was made during Robert Young's time as a freelance artist after his contract with MGM expired.  This was the best and most interesting time of Young's career as a leading man, making movies like The Enchanted Cottage and Crossfire which won acclaim (and Oscar nominations, though never for Young).  But in the early 1950's, Young's career started to falter badly.  Without a studio contract he didn't get steady work, and couldn't guarantee a substantial part even if he could get decent billing.  By 1954, when he made today's film (his last film) he hadn't worked in a major movie in two years (and his last film had been a generic western from RKO called The Half-Breed).  Secret of the Incas didn't even have him as the star-Charlton Heston, who was having a bit of a hot streak coming off of The Greatest Show on Earth (and 16 years Robert Young's junior) got the leading man role while Young was decidedly supporting.  This could've been the end of Young's career...but his luck was about to change.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is focused on Harry Steele (Heston) who is a tour guide in Peru (the film was actually shot at Machu Picchu, a first for a Hollywood movie).  He is in search of a rare Sunburst (a gold & jeweled plate), and has a map of where it is but has no means of getting there.  He works with a double-crossing associate named Ed (Mitchell), who frequently tries to kill him.  Enter a woman, Elena (Maurey), who is beautiful but doesn't have money...and is trying to find a way to America.  Harry makes an exception to his "only for money" tours, and helps her, but uses her to to get to Machu Picchu, therefore getting him a shot at the treasure.  When he gets there he meets Dr. Stanley Moorehead (Young), who is also in search of the Sunburst, but doesn't have the coordinates like Harry does (Stanley also falls for Elena, but you'll be forgiven for ignoring this plot as Elena sure does).  Harry eventually steals the Sunburst, having to fight off Ed to get it (Ed dies, falling down a cliff to his doom), but returns the Sunburst to the Incan people, realizing he loved the chase (and Elena) more than the treasure itself.

If you're having a sense of deja vu reading that, you're not alone.  Secret of the Incas was a hit in 1954, but it's not a particularly good movie.  Heston is not quite sexy enough to pull off an adventurous role like this (he was better suited for the stoic biblical epics that would become his bread-and-butter), and Young is banal in his supporting part.  But Secret of the Incas is noted for being the clear inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it's staggering watching this that Spielberg doesn't owe the writers money.  Not only do they completely crib Heston's look for Harrison Ford in the movies, but they actually steal scenes from this movie to put in Raiders.  The famous scene where they discover the location of the grail through light-and-mirrors...that scene actually happens in Secret of the Incas as Heston finds the Sunburst.  So if you're an Indiana Jones fanatic, you need to see this even if it's not great, simply to marvel in what was clearly an inspiration for the movie.

As I mentioned above, this was Robert Young's last movie, but Young would quickly transition to massive success on television.  For years Young had been doing a radio program called Father Knows Best, which in 1954 became a TV show which he made with Jane Wyatt.  He'd follow that a decade later with a second hit, Marcus Welby, MD.  Both series won Young Emmy Awards, making him the first actor to ever win Emmy Awards for both comedy and drama (actors like Edie Falco, Carroll O'Connor, & Ed Asner would eventually follow).  Young would continue to make reunion films & specials for both series (as well as being the spokesman for Sanka for years), but would largely retire after Marcus Welby, dying in 1998 from respiratory failure at the age of 91.