Secret of the Incas (1954)

Goodeknight

New member
James Byrne said:
I like the fact that you are on the Raven site while at work. Good man, goodeknight.
Hehe.

I should add that I actually do get a lot of work done, too. :)

Of course all work and no play...well, you know...
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Yma!

James Byrne said:
Stoo

I bought a dvd of a very rare Heston movie called LUCY GALLANT and was surprised to see that for a few seconds he was geared up like Harry Steele/Indiana Jones. That makes three movies in which Chuck resembles that Indy guy!
Super! I've never even heard of that film. Is it good?
James Byrne said:
...and I'm pleased that the great Yma Sumac is growing on you.
James, she has grown on me to the point where you can now consider me an Yma supporter. I was always an admirer since she had an unparalleled talent but it was the songs, themselves, in "Incas" that rubbed me the wrong way but that has changed. They don't bother me anymore. Therefore, on your website where you wrote:

"Yma Sumac's musical interludes are a distraction to some critics of SECRET OF THE INCAS, in particular Indiana Jones devotees, but the Inca world was full of music."

...should be changed to say: "in particular some Indiana Jones devotees"!;)
AndyLGR said:
No doubt she has an amazing voice and range, her Louis Armstrong to Mariah Carey in the second song showcases it perfectly. But without knowing any Peruvian history they came across as odd.
That's a great comparison, Andy!:D However, I doubt they are traditional Peruvian songs but, rather, contemporary modern tunes and, as you said, they come across as promos for Yma to sell records.

Anyway, I'm really glad that you finally managed to watch (& own!) the movie. Reading your comments (along with goodeknight's) has been highly enjoyable. Welcome to the club!:hat:
 

Goodeknight

New member
Stoo said:
James, she has grown on me to the point where you can now consider me an Yma supporter. I was always an admirer since she had an unparalleled talent ..... Therefore, on your website where you wrote:

"Yma Sumac's musical interludes are a distraction to some critics of SECRET OF THE INCAS, in particular Indiana Jones devotees, but the Inca world was full of music."

...should be changed to say: "in particular some Indiana Jones devotees"!;)
Suck up.

Stoo said:
Anyway, I'm really glad that you finally managed to watch (& own!) the movie. Reading your comments (along with goodeknight's) has been highly enjoyable. Welcome to the club!:hat:

And all I got was a parenthetical...

WilliamBoyd8 said:
In a parallel universe somewhere, Yma Sumac is singing "Anything Goes".

:)
In Quechua? Now that would be interesting. (y)
 

Stoo

Well-known member
goodeknight said:
No, I'm being serious. Yma is the "cat's pyjamas"! She is the "bee's knees"!(y)
goodeknight said:
And all I got was a parenthetical...
Don't fret, goodeknight, I'll get to your comments soon enough. One thing at a time, eh? ;)
goodeknight said:
Regarding the sunburst itself, I did notice during the Indy marathon the resemblance of the disc in the Chacapoyan temple just before Indy reaches the inner room with the fertility idol. Has anyone posted side by side comparison shots of those? (I haven't searched thru all 17 pages of this thread.) I didn't get that close of a look. Perhaps it was a calendar disk or a mask and not that similar.
Comparison photos on deck...;)
 

James Byrne

New member
I love Lucy!

Stoo
LUCY GALLANT is excellent Stoo, but I think it was geared towards being a flick that would appeal more to ladies than blokes. In his amazing film career Chuck Heston was up against marauding soldier ants, earthquakes, fanatical Roman Generals, fanatical Egyptian Pharoahs, fanatical Muslim leaders, vampires that looked like Jimmy Saville, talking apes, redskins, nazis, japs, African ivory poachers, drugged-up lesbians, Chinese boxers, etc. etc. but in LUCY GALLANT Heston is up against Women's Lib. Of course, him being Charlton Heston, he wins in the end!

Heston is only geared up like Harry Steele/Indiana Jones for a few seconds though Stoo, so don't go buying the dvd just for that reason alone.

Yma Sumac didn't sing authentic Quechuan folk songs in SECRET OF THE INCAS, her husband Moises Vivanco jazzed them up slightly, and I'm so pleased to hear that you are now fighting the good fight in Yma's defense.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Will keep my eye out for "Lucy Gallant" all the same because I'm a Chuck fan.:)

Nice list, James. I got most of the titles but could you fill me in on the one I didn't?

marauding soldier ants - "The Naked Jungle"
earthquakes - "Earthquake"
fanatical Roman Generals - "Ben Hur"
fanatical Egyptian Pharoahs - "The Ten Commandments"
fanatical Muslim leaders - "Khartoum" (One of my favourites.)
vampires that looked like Jimmy Saville - "The Omega Man" (Ha! Great description!)
talking apes - "Planet of the Apes" & "Beneath the Planet of the Apes"
redskins - "Arrowhead"
nazis - "Counterpoint"
japs - "Midway"
drugged-up lesbians - "Touch of Evil"
Chinese boxers - "55 Days at Peking" (Another favourite of mine.)
---
African ivory poachers - ??? (I'd really like to see this one!)
 

James Byrne

New member
John Rhys-Davies and an older Harry Steele

Stoo said:
Will keep my eye out for "Lucy Gallant" all the same because I'm a Chuck fan.:)

Nice list, James. I got most of the titles but could you fill me in on the one I didn't?

marauding soldier ants - "The Naked Jungle"
earthquakes - "Earthquake"
fanatical Roman Generals - "Ben Hur"
fanatical Egyptian Pharoahs - "The Ten Commandments"
fanatical Muslim leaders - "Khartoum" (One of my favourites.)
vampires that looked like Jimmy Saville - "The Omega Man" (Ha! Great description!)
talking apes - "Planet of the Apes" & "Beneath the Planet of the Apes"
redskins - "Arrowhead"
nazis - "Counterpoint"
japs - "Midway"
drugged-up lesbians - "Touch of Evil"
Chinese boxers - "55 Days at Peking" (Another favourite of mine.)
---
African ivory poachers - ??? (I'd really like to see this one!)

Hey Stoo, well done mate, you are a great Heston fan!
Heston was up against ivory poachers in a tv movie called NAIROBI AFFAIR, filmed on location in Kenya in 1984. Indy fans might like to know that John Rhys-Davies (or as my kids used to put it when watching the video - "There's that fat bloke from Raiders!) is in it.

Its available on dvd Stoo, but my dvd isn't as good quality as my 25 year old video of it!
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Sunburst Comparison

goodeknight said:
Regarding the sunburst itself, I did notice during the Indy marathon the resemblance of the disc in the Chacapoyan temple just before Indy reaches the inner room with the fertility idol. Has anyone posted side by side comparison shots of those? (I haven't searched thru all 17 pages of this thread.) I didn't get that close of a look. Perhaps it was a calendar disk or a mask and not that similar.
A side-by-side comparison of the 2 discs:

Sunburst.jpg


(There could be a better image of the one from "Raiders" somewhere but I just took a screengrab from the DVD.)
 

Goodeknight

New member
Stoo said:
A side-by-side comparison of the 2 discs:

Sunburst.jpg

While I know gold discs aren't that uncommon, I'd call that a pretty striking resemblance, even if it's a sunburst vs. a skull. (Looks like a skull to me at least.)
 

James Byrne

New member
Treasure Twins

Stoo said:
A side-by-side comparison of the 2 discs:

Sunburst.jpg


(There could be a better image of the one from "Raiders" somewhere but I just took a screengrab from the DVD.)

Wow! well done Stoo. Looks like Spielberg really did like the look of that Sunburst from SECRET OF THE INCAS.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
goodeknight said:
While I know gold discs aren't that uncommon, I'd call that a pretty striking resemblance, even if it's a sunburst vs. a skull. (Looks like a skull to me at least.)
It seems like a skull to me, too, and the one from "Incas" has a face on it as well. As you say, those types of discs aren't uncommon so the resemblance could be just a coincidence but my gut feeling says otherwise.
James Byrne said:
Wow! well done Stoo. Looks like Spielberg really did like the look of that Sunburst from SECRET OF THE INCAS.
Yes, it's very possible that the one in "Raiders" is another intentional nod to "Incas". We know from Deborah Nadoolman that Spielberg showed the film to the crew a couple of times. It's easy to imagine Spielberg saying, "It would be fun to put that sunburst in the film somewhere".
James Byrne said:
Hey Stoo, well done mate, you are a great Heston fan!
Heston was up against ivory poachers in a tv movie called NAIROBI AFFAIR, filmed on location in Kenya in 1984. Indy fans might like to know that John Rhys-Davies (or as my kids used to put it when watching the video - "There's that fat bloke from Raiders!) is in it.

Its available on dvd Stoo, but my dvd isn't as good quality as my 25 year old video of it!
Thanks for the info, James. "Nairobi Affair" sounds worth seeing. I also like your anecdote about your kids so I've got one to share with you about being a kid.

I've actually been a Heston fan ever since I was a wee lad because of the "Planet of the Apes" films, "Ben-Hur", "Ten Commandments", "Airport '75", "Earthquake", "Gray Lady Down" and "Two Minute Warning". He was always such an heroic figure and I admired him greatly. When I was about 8 years old, I remember saying to my mother (who was divorced):

Me: Mom, I wish Charlton Heston could be my dad.
Her: Ha! I wish he could be, too!
 

James Byrne

New member
Hahaha, Stoo, I liked your Chuck anecdote very much. You being a great aficionado of adventure movies you will surely enjoy NAIROBI AFFAIR.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
James, I forgot to mention "Midway" in my list. I was nuts about that movie as kid and saw it in the theatre with "SENSURROUND"! (Where the bass was so loud that the seats trembled with the action, just like in "Earthquake".) They were 2 of the very few movies to use this gimmick.

Also, when I saw "Wayne's World 2" in the early '90s, the whole audience CHEERED when Chuck appeared on-screen for his very, brief part. The reaction made me grin like a Chesire Cat!:D
 

Goodeknight

New member
Stoo said:
Also, when I saw "Wayne's World 2" in the early '90s, the whole audience CHEERED when Chuck appeared on-screen for his very, brief part. The reaction made me grin like a Chesire Cat!:D

Great scene in a funny film, and it shows off what real acting talent can be. Though used comically, that scene has actually given me goosebumps. What a screen presence!

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Stoo

Well-known member
goodeknight said:
Great scene in a funny film, and it shows off what real acting talent can be. Though used comically, that scene has actually given me goosebumps. What a screen presence!
30 seconds of quality Chuck! Great to see again. Thanks for finding & posting the clip, Goodeknight.:hat:

Speaking of "Wayne's World", I still have my recording of the Apes segment from Charlton Heston's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in '93. It's pretty danged funny!:D
 

James Byrne

New member
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was never broadcast here in the U.K.
I have read that some guy used to do a spot-on impersonation of Chuck in SOYLENT GREEN. Is that correct, Stoo?
 

Stoo

Well-known member
It was the late, great Canadian native, Phil Hartman. I wouldn't say it's 'spot-on' but it's funny.

"Saturday Night Live" is notorious for removing uploads of their material from YouTube but I managed to find the skit. Watch the whole clip:

http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/12/phil-hartman-as-charlton-heston-619854

This is from the early '90s because Mike Myers (another Canadian) and Chris Farley (R.I.P.) are both there.

P.S. I found a webpage with some clips from Chuck's appearance on the show.
http://pota.goatley.com/prophecy/snl.htm
 
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James Byrne

New member
Stoo said:
It was the late, great Canadian native, Phil Hartman. I wouldn't say it's 'spot-on' but it's funny.

"Saturday Night Live" is notorious for removing uploads of their material from YouTube but I managed to find the skit. Watch the whole clip:

http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/12/phil-hartman-as-charlton-heston-619854

This is from the early '90s because Mike Myers (another Canadian) and Chris Farley (R.I.P.) are both there.

P.S. I found a webpage with some clips from Chuck's appearance on the show.
http://pota.goatley.com/prophecy/snl.htm

Stoo,
I was slightly disappointed with Hartman's impersonation of Charlton Heston in SOYLENT GREEN. I reckon I can do a better Chuck than that!

I liked Chuck monkeying around with the apes though ... particularly the "mutant who talks" bit.
Thanks for posting them Stoo.
 
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