THE EMERALD OF ARTATAMA is a Spanish adventure/thriller/heist movie from prolific producer Sidney Pink, a guy who seemed to rule the Spanish box office in the late 1960s. This one features a very aged Rory Calhoun (clearly too old for his role) as an intrepid explorer who assembles a team to go to Egypt in search of a priceless emerald. Inevitably with a heist flick the thieves end up falling out which leads to a handful of action sequences. It's quite low rent, this one, with stock plot ingredients and some glamorous femmes to enliven it a bit; the best thing about it is the exotic Egyptian location photography.
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Leofwine_draca26 September 2021
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exoticafan8 April 2003Emerald of Artatama is one of 25 films made by producer Sid Pink in an amazingly prolific period while he was in Spain during the seven year period of 1961-1968. Other notable films of this output were Pyro (a colorful prefigurement of the slasher film), Finger on the Trigger (first Western made in Spain) and Madigan's Millions, famous for the first screen appearance of Dustin Hoffman. Pink's recollections of this hectic yet productive period are detailed in his autobiography, So You Want to Make Movies, published by Pineapple Press of Sarasota, Florida.
Veteran tough guy Rory Calhoun stars as a hard-drinking, two-fisted womanizer and (lovable) con-man attempting to find the Tomb of Artatama, rumored to house an emerald as large as a man's fist. The story follows his attempts to find a crew, get financing, and the inevitable search for the lost tomb. Along the way, he must tackle hijackers, loan sharks, desert bandits, clinging women and a writer/friend who has long since found solace in alcohol.
This kind of film was probably dated even as of 1967, but Pink peoples it with quirky characters and dialog that knowingly winks at its anachronistic origins.
My OOP video boasts lush colors and a well-crafted, comic-book influenced video jacket. The movie itself is visual impressive, with bustling bazarre scenes, majestic vistas of Egypt, and a sense of timelessness that suggests modern audiences who enjoyed the new Mummy movies, the TV series The Search, and various Tomb Raider knock-offs will find much to appreciate here.
With the recent passing of Sidney Pink, it is hoped that his monumental output will find its eventual home on DVD.