PLEASE HELP with this film. I can’t seem to locate it either on film, VHS or DVD or anytime on television.

Is it a Lost Film  ?

I saw it as a young kid and it was probably a second feature as it is labelled a B Movie. Saw it at the Pavilion Cinema – like so many no longer there.

I have looked for it  for years and didnt know the name of the film but remembered something of the storyline. I had missed the ending at the cinema having to catch a bus home.  I had thought it centred around Inca treasure but just by chance I got a clue to the name.

A few Christmases ago I purchased a Glenn Ford film ‘Lust for Gold’ made in the late forties and sat down and watched it.  I then saw some of the same scenes as I had remembered for more than 50 years involving Indians firing arrows and attacking in a mountain terrain which was a very large and well prepared studio set. 

However even though the shots looked the same this was NOT the film I remembered – I knew that.

 I looked Lust for Gold  up and sure enough turned up the following:-

Extensive stock footage from 1949 film Lust for Gold with Glenn Ford,  is used to flesh out the Columbia potboiler Secret of Treasure Mountain….

 So this was the film and then on searching further found a storyline that I recognised:-

 The Apache Indians made three crosses of gold, which, when combined, will reveal the gold’s hiding place.  One of the crosses  is held by the people searching for the treasure and if they find all three crosses they will locate the horde.   Two men later become involved in a fight  and roll down an embankment. Their fall loosens some rocks and another cross is found.

 The two characters Audrey and Robert find some unusual rock formations,  and in a rock archway  Robert notices that his body casts a shadow across the rocky valley. Where the shadow is cast is where they need to be but then they are attacked by the Indians and the rest I do not know as I am still waiting after all these years to see the end !!!

Another synopsis from the Columbia film book states:-

Two Hundred Years after the Apache Indians killed a Spaniard – who buried gold on their land, then cursed the spot – a villain and his henchmen  attempt to find the gold. They fall victim to the curse and the treasure remains buried (65 mins.)

One other clue is that I seem to remember that the items that linked up for the treasure were called The Braganza Crosses’.  That is a 50 plus year old memory but I am pretty sure thats what the name was.

The film starred Raymond Burr – who the following year started his long stint as Perry Mason – Valerie French and William Prince and was a Columbia Pictures release in June 0f 1956. It was in Black and White.

Don’t know much about Valerie French except that she was born in London and had been married to Michael Pertwee.   As for William Prince well I feel I should know a lot about him as he made loads of film and TV appearances over many years.