William Prince is Barry Storm, grandson of Jacob Walz, who once struck it rich by locating an abandoned gold mine on Superstition Mountain in Arizona.
He decides to travel there, figuring he might just have claim to part of the $20 million left behind in what’s become known as the Lost Dutchman Mine.
Floyd Buckley, an expert on the mine, has reached the area first. He’s sure he knows its location.
Intrigued, Storm follows. Until Buckley is shot in the back and killed.
Then Storm rushes back to town, delivering the news to Sheriff Lynn Early. The lawman isn’t surprised; Buckley is the fourth recent murder victim who was trying to find the mine.
Storm then learns the true story of the Lost Dutchman. His grandfather wasn’t the first to discover the mine. That distinction belonged to the Peralta family from Mexico.
And the mine was originally lost when Apache Indians attacked one of the Peralta brothers and wiped out all the miners with him. Since the mine was on sacred ground, the warriors hid the bodies and the gold.
Years later, Jacob Walz (Glenn Ford) and his partner (Wiser) overhear when a mountain guide calls his client Peralta.
So they follow them to Superstition Mountain. And once they locate the mine, Walz kills both men, then his own partner.
He’s now the only person who knows the location of the richest gold mine around. But the lust for gold isn’t limited to the men who want to dig for it.
Julia Thomas (Ida Lupino) is dissatisfied with her hardscrabble life as the wife of down-on-his-luck husband Pete.
She hears of the gold strike and decides to try to snag a piece of the fortune by stirring up some lust of a different kind in Walz.
Pete quite reluctantly agrees to stand aside while she does so. The real trouble starts when Jacob Walz learns the truth about their motives.
Glenn Ford as Jacob Walz, making the first deposit from the gold mine he found in Lust for Gold (1949)
Ida Lupino as Julia Thomas, hatching her plan to get her hands on Jacob Walz’s fortune in Lust for Gold (1949)
Review:
Get past the almost laughable purple prose that comes out of the mouth of the narrator in the opening scene, and this turns into a taunt little Western.
That’s particularly true once Jacob Walz lures the conniving Julia and her husband to Superstition Mountain to dole out his own form of justice.
The Old West portion of the film is told in flashback. In fact, top-billed Ford doesn’t appear on screen until 20 minutes into the movie.
The present-day (as of 1949) portion of the film is pretty well done too, with Jay Silverheels of Tonto fame playing the part of one of the deputies trying to solve the string of murders.
And the film is based on a real legend about a lost gold mine in the Phoenix, Arizona, area.
William Prince as Barry Storm, determined to relocate the rich mine found by his grandfather decades earlier in Lust for Gold (1949)
Paul Ford as Sheriff Lynn Early, a lawman with a new set of Lost Dutchman Mine killings to solve in Lust for Gold (1949)
Directed by:
S. Sylvan Simon
Cast:
Glenn Ford … Jacob “Dutch” Walz
Ida Lupino … Julia Thomas
Gig Young … Pete Thomas
William Prince … Barry Storm
Edgar Buchanan … Wiser
Will Geer … Deputy Ray Covin
Paul Ford … Sheriff Lynn Early
Hayden Rorke … Floyd Buckley
Percy Helton … Barber
Jay Silverheels … Deputy Walter
Myrna Dell … Lucille
Arthur Hunnicutt … Ludi
Harry Cording … Joe
Runtime: 90 min.
Edgar Buchanan as Wiser, Jacob Walz’s partner in the search for gold, until the Lost Dutchman Mine is located in Lust for Gold (1949)
Gig Young as Pete Thomas, the husband Julia pushes aside in her play for Jacob Walz’s fortune in Lust for Gold (1949)
Memorable lines:
Narrator of Superstition Mountain: “She looks easy, from the outside. Inside, it’s like Satan’s private art gallery.”
Pete Thomas: “I’ve had bad luck. I’m doing the best I can.”
Julia Thomas: “Yes, you’ve done very well. Have you been able to keep a job? Have you been able to replace our savings you so cleverly invested in grazing land no animal could live on?”
Pete: “That wasn’t my fault. I got swindled.”
Julia: “No. I got swindled.
Jacob Walz to Julia Thomas: “You are more beautiful every time I see you. All the way to and from the mine, I keep praticing pretty speeches to say to you. When I see you, I forget them. I forget them.”
Barry Storm, as he heads back toward Superstition Mountain: “I got nothing to lose, except for my life.”
Glenn Ford as Jacob Walz, spruced up and smitten by Julia Thomas, just as she intended in Lust for Gold (1949)
Will Geer as Deputy Ray Covin, following Barry Storm to Superstition Mountain in Lust for Gold (1949)
Jay Silverheels as Deputy Walker, one of Sheriff Early’s two deputies trying to help solve a string of murders in Lust for Gold (1949)
Hayden Rorke as Floyd Buckley, the expert who thinks he knows the location of the Lost Dutchman Mine in Lust for Gold (1949)
Ida Lupino as Julia Thomas, realizing her ploy has been discovered by Jacob Walz and she’s now at his mercy in Lust for Gold (1949)
Glenn Ford as Jacob Walz, well-provisioned and watching two enemies suffer in the heat in Lust for Gold (1949)
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