The Treasure of San Teresa (1959)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The plot is hackneyed, even for the period, and the pace plodding. However it does have some fascinating, documentary-quality external shots of steam locos, railway stations, bridges and rivers, etc., often filmed in a pleasingly 'noir-ish' style and, if nothing else, must still be of interest to transport enthusiasts and post-war historians. In contrast, the studio filming looks extremely flat and conventionally composed. It would be interesting to know who the second unit director was.It is also of some interest to see Christopher Lee in an early role although, as usual, he is woefully underused.

THE TREASURE OF SAN TERESA is an odd little British film noir with more intrigue than resolution. It's a sloppily-written little thing that fails to build on relevant Cold War tensions, instead delivering a rather stodgy adventure despite the globe-trotting nature of the narrative. Viewers watching this under the American retitling - HOT MONEY GIRL - will certainly be disappointed! TREASURE is a UK production made with some West German financing, and stars the reliable Eddie Constantine as a man on the hunt for some missing treasure. Assisting him is the beautiful and exotic Dawn Addams, and hindering him are a couple of foreign heavies (Christopher Lee as the dodgy Jaeger and Walter Gotell as a copper).Sadly the production has little life or atmosphere to recommend it and indeed things only pick up right at the train station climax. Until that point it's a run-of-the-mill production in which the lack of budget and ambition is always well apparent.

Whilst i agree the sentiments of the other reviewer about the lack of reviews for British films ,i cannot share any enthusiasm for this film.It is poorly constructed with gaping holes in the plot.The film completely changes tack after about 50 minutes so that instead of a hunt for treasure it becomes over complicated with characters introduced with very little explanation.The tie in to these characters is a conversation between Considine and Adams overheard by her flatmate.This begs the question as to how the flatmate came to be in the right place at the right time.The support cast is good but unfortunately by the time the climax came around i felt totally disengaged and disinterested.

I love British 'B' pictures of this period and watching them is invariably more fun than working. Wish they could attract half the comments (and viewers)that Mars Attacks or Independence Day receives. Unfortunately, British film makers in the 1950s and 60s often seemed careless over continuity. (I shall record the relative cock-up as a 'goof'.)