Ostensibly the initial Canadian produced film that was intended for pay television, this dreck could not have developed a sense of entitlement within its creators, since it fails to entertain a viewer and it is apparent throughout the piece that creative cinematic values are subservient to what may have been intended to be a pastiche, leaving one to wonder as to what, if anything, could be the movie's purpose. The plot, stated to have some basis in a story by Arthur Conan Doyle, bears upon a search for an aggregation of ten meteorite fragments, believed to be somewhere in a Mexican jungle, the stones said to possess properties essential in the construction of an overwhelmingly potent laser-based military weapon. A reporter avid for a journalistic scoop (Simon McCorkindale), along with an archaeologist (John Marley), head an expedition to locate the stones, accompanied, as will be expected, by two young females (Louise Vallance/Blanca Guerra) and upon nearing their target, they meet competition from a reptilian arms dealer. This picture does not succeed as satire, as an adventure, or for that matter in any mode, the acting being uninspired with both McCorkindale and Guerra doffing their apparel often, a poor aesthetic choice here, and since stunt performers occupy a good deal of the screen time, in the end one perceives clearly that the need for a sounder script should have received priority over stunt work. Filmed in Mexico and with an adequate budget, the film is advantaged with the efforts of Laszlo George as cinematographer, and editor Ralph Brunjes, but flaccid direction, an inane scenario and sloppy post-production efforts convert what was possibly intended as an old-fashioned adventure tale into an unintended farce; a correct action would have been to keep this mess in its can.
3 Reviews
Hunt for treasure in South America
ChrisGarrity26 October 2000
A made for tv movie as Simon MacCorkindale goes into South America and must overcome all manner of obstacles (including surprising amount of naked women, for a tv movie) in order to find the treasure he is looking for.
Cable movie is nothing special
lor_12 February 2023
My review was written in July 1984 after watching the movie on Prism video cassette.
"Raiders of the Sacred Mountain" is an okay pulp adventure film inspired by the success of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Filmed in 1982 under the title "Falcon's Gold" as the first of the cable-backed feature films (by Showtime), pic is now available in the home video market.
The late John Marley toplines as Dr. Christopher Falcon, an archaeologist called away from an Arabian dig to Mexico where his expert opinion is needed on a recent find. Items, including a fertility goddess statuette much sought after by Falcon, turn out to be from a legendary treasure lost in a 1645 earthquake, containing material from meteorites and thought to have supernatural powers.
A shady, fabulously wealthy industrialist Murdoch (George Touliatos) stakes Falcon to an expedition to find the rest of the Mexican treasure, with gung-ho reporte Archibald 'Hank" Richards (Simon MacCorkindale) tagging along in hopes of writing about Falcon, and a beautiful Mexican woman B. G. Alvarez (Blanca Guerra) hired as gide. Falcon's feisty young daughter Tracey (Louise Vallance) stows away also.
Punctuated by frequent action sequences, treachery and twists, tale is an effective low-budget update of traditional serials and benefits from a more explicit sexiness (cable backing shows up in frequent nude scenes by the striking Mexican actress Guerra, balanced by equal ime skin displays by hero MacCorkindale) thn its more famous big-screen competition.
Cast is okay, though villainy is not hissable enough and despite supernatural and sci-fi easing story elements, the plot payoff is conventional. A Canadian production company delivered the goods.
"Raiders of the Sacred Mountain" is an okay pulp adventure film inspired by the success of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Filmed in 1982 under the title "Falcon's Gold" as the first of the cable-backed feature films (by Showtime), pic is now available in the home video market.
The late John Marley toplines as Dr. Christopher Falcon, an archaeologist called away from an Arabian dig to Mexico where his expert opinion is needed on a recent find. Items, including a fertility goddess statuette much sought after by Falcon, turn out to be from a legendary treasure lost in a 1645 earthquake, containing material from meteorites and thought to have supernatural powers.
A shady, fabulously wealthy industrialist Murdoch (George Touliatos) stakes Falcon to an expedition to find the rest of the Mexican treasure, with gung-ho reporte Archibald 'Hank" Richards (Simon MacCorkindale) tagging along in hopes of writing about Falcon, and a beautiful Mexican woman B. G. Alvarez (Blanca Guerra) hired as gide. Falcon's feisty young daughter Tracey (Louise Vallance) stows away also.
Punctuated by frequent action sequences, treachery and twists, tale is an effective low-budget update of traditional serials and benefits from a more explicit sexiness (cable backing shows up in frequent nude scenes by the striking Mexican actress Guerra, balanced by equal ime skin displays by hero MacCorkindale) thn its more famous big-screen competition.
Cast is okay, though villainy is not hissable enough and despite supernatural and sci-fi easing story elements, the plot payoff is conventional. A Canadian production company delivered the goods.
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