Willard Parker plays Breen Mathews, an insurance agent hired to make sure the Salazar Treasure, a chest full of jewels and gold, gets to its rightful heir. Problem is, the Salazar Treasure carries the Salazar Curse, since many of the riches were stolen from a village of Indians massacred by Mexican revolutionaries.
Mathews and the chest arrive in the town of Topaz, and the curse goes wild. Topaz is run by saloon owner Barton MacLane, who keeps selling and reacquiring his business because the new owners keep dying.
Helping him, unbeknownst to most of the townsfolk, is Judge Cole, who likes nothing better than to sentence a man to hang. As Mathews arrives in town, Barnum has just sold his business again — to Sonny Glenn, a gambler known for his expertise with a gun and a Bowie knife.
As usual, Barnum frames Glenn for running a crooked card game. Glenn is tried and sentenced to death by the judge. But the judge and saloon owner didn’t figure on two things — just before dying, Glenn warns all those who helped frame him that he’ll see them in hell. And reacquiring the saloon won’t be as easy as in the past, because no one knew Sonny was married to his partner, Susan Stark, who inherits the place.
Meanwhile, someone has stolen the Salazar Treasure from the jail, where it was put for safe keeping. When bodies start turning up dead with Bowie knives in them, everyone begins to panic, thinking either the Salazar Curse or Glenn’s ghost is responsible. Mathews sets out to find the treasure and the killer, figuring the two mysteries might be related.
Review:
A whole lot less interesting than it sounds. Pretty deadly dull, in fact, considering the number of bodies that keep turning up. There’s more action in the five minutes of stock footage that prelude to the real story than there is in the rest of this film.
Mara Corday plays Louisa Jackson, niece of the sheriff, a pretty young lady who’d like to sing in the bar. She’s also the love interest for Mathews. At one point, he gives her a gift. She unwraps it and finds a very unromantic six-gun. But, hey, it’s practical considering she might need to protect herself from all the evil going on in Topaz.
The story is told flashback style by a character named “Shakey” Wilson, who’s blabbing about the treasure being hidden in the Topaz jail leads to its theft. This was one of only three films directed by Eddie Dew.
Veda Ann Borg plays the saloon owner’s wife here. If Western fans remember her, it’s likely as the blind wife of a defender of the Alamo in John Wayne’s 1960 film of the same name.
Directed by:
Eddie Dew
Cast:
Willard Parker … Breen Mathews
Mara Corday … Louisa Jackson
Barton MacLane … Joe Barnum
Billy House … Judge Cole
Veda Ann Borg … Susan Stark
Tom Brown … Sonny Glenn
Morris Ankrum … Sheriff Jim Jackson
Chick Chandler … ‘Shakey’ Wilson
Jody McCrea … Young man
Timothy Carey … Hartman
Ben Frommer … Joe
Jim Hayward … Carl Weber
Runtime: 72 min.
Memorable lines:
Narrator: “What kind of a town was Topaz? Well, let’s put it this way, if ever there was a town that didn’t need another curse, Topaz was that town. You see, we already had our quota.”
Narrator, speaking of Judge Cole: “He was the best thing that ever happened to the rope business. He’d given Topaz more stretched necks than a herd of giraffes.”
Sheriff (Uncle Jim): “The only place you’re going to sing, young lady, is in a bathtub.”
Louisa Jackson: “Well, in that case, we’d better bring the bathtub into the saloon. Wouldn’t that wow the customers?”
Sheriff Jackson, about the murdered running loose in Topaz: “I’ll get him, whoever he is.”
Judge Cole: “Hmm, as always, your promise is all gristle and bones. No meat on ’em.”
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