Great Film overall

A Disappointing Continuation

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Imagine if Indiana Jones and Dr. Belloq from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK had gone on their archaeological quest in the real North Africa-- i.e., Hollywood characters filmed inside a creditable documentary. That's the GOLDEN MASK-- well, without the whip and the Nazis.Van Heflin plays a writer who is "along for the ride" on an archaeological quest with a rather stuffy British archaeologist (Eric Portman). They head to North Africa, in search of the priceless eponymous mask which legend says is in the lost tomb of a Roman emperor in Djemila (ancient Cuicul, now a UNESCO site).That's the plot-- with the addition of Wanda Hendrix as the love interest-- but never mind, because the plot is not what makes this movie worth watching. The director, Jack Lee, even said, ""was a piece of old hokum, made almost entirely on location. It was quite fun, but it was all cliché stuff, with goodies and baddies and all those spahis riding around chasing bandits." He's got a point, but who cares? What makes the movie-- whose alternate title is SOUTH OF ALGIERS-- fascinating is the location:It was indeed filmed largely in and around Algiers by D.P. Oswald Morris (Oscar for FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, and multiple BAFTA awards), who pointed his camera at Algerian people, scenes and moments such as tribal dancers, including a male belly dancer in the street, a cavalry charge by desert soldiers in flowing robes, camel traders, hardscrabble oases, stretches of wild open road through the desert ("When it rains," says a character called Thankyou, "there is no road"), sites from antiquity including ruins at Djemila and Carthage (Tunis), and more. Much more.In fact, forget RAIDERS. The film that THE GOLDEN MASK really reminded me of is GRASS: A NATION'S BATTLE FOR LIFE, the unforgettable Merion C. Cooper (KING KONG) silent documentary that follows the harrowing trek of 50,000 nomads, with their livestock and belongings, from northern Turkey to western Iran in the early 1920s. Nothing against RAIDERS (which I've seen multiple times, it's such fun), but GOLDEN MASK is like RAIDERS in a real world of tribal cultures. And that's a combination that's hard to beat.

Writer Nicholas Chapman (Van Heflin) teams up with archaeologist Dr. Burnet and his pretty daughter (Eric Portman, Wanda Hendrix) to search for golden mask of Moloch. Two thieves (Jacques Brunius and Charles Goldner) try to sabotage the expedition to get the mask for themselves. Tomb-raiding adventure film is very dry and very dull. Forced romance between Van Heflin and a girl young enough to be his daughter doesn't help. Partially shot on location in Algiers but there's still plenty of poor rear projection effects. Ultimately, it's an avoidable film that is lacking adventure or suspense -- two prerequisites for movies of this type.

I watched this film for Van Heflin and Eric Portman; both usually excellent when given some half decent material. Here they floundered, unable to make something of the dreary dialogue and predictable plot. There was jerky editing of the film, with obvious back projection and use of actors' doubles on location, as well as location shooting cut in from another (bigger) budget film (maybe Portman's and Thorold Dickinson's earlier 'Men of Tomorrow') mixed up with studio close ups. The mix is very uneven and after a while it becomes part of the entertainment to spot whether it's a) studio b) location c) doubles etc Van Heflin does his best, trying to instill some oomph into his supposedly devil may care risk taker entrepreneur character. Trouble is Heflin looks as though he checks the risk percentage on ev ery step he takes. Portman has to watch endless tribal singing and dancing, probably taken from that other African film cut into this one. Wanda Hendrix has so little to do she could have phoned her performance in. However it passed away an hour or so on a wet winter's evening.

This movie has not been seen anywhere for several years (that I am aware of. The story deals with an archaeologist's passion to find a fabulous golden mask thought to be buried in a Roman tomb. The hunt begins in Rome and ends in the sands of Africa.The pursuers of the mask range in character from good to evil. The movie rather reminded me of the movie,Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Both are in black and white, dealing with greed and the consequences of greed.The flavor of this movie was interesting to me. The rather bleak desert locations were more than made-up for by the depiction of the local tribes and their customs. Unfortunately for this movie, the background music was seriously overdone, almost detracting from it. I find this to be the case often with early European movies. However, if you enjoy treasure hunts and ancient history somewhat fictionalized, this is a treasure hunt movie worth seeing. I'd like to see it again.