THE EMERALD OF ARTATAMA (1969)
aka The Girl of the Nile, La muchaca del Nilo
Article 3009 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-3-2009
Posting Date: 11-9-2009
Directed by Jose Maria Elorrieta
Featuring Pilar Arenas, Frank Brana, Rory Calhoun
Country: Spain

An adventurer seeks financing for an expedition to the tomb of Artatama to recover a legendary emerald.

In the first half hour of the movie, we have some voice-over narration, a fistfight, a little exposition about how the hero is planning an expedition, some dancing, some womanizing, a reunion of old buddies, and another fistfight. By the time the second fistfight came along, I was wondering when the movie was really going to get started. Which goes to show how clueless I am; all that stuff IS the movie, and the plot is strictly an excuse for the action scenes and the beautiful women. The fantastic content isn’t much; there’s some talk about a curse on Artatama’s tomb, but it comes to nothing. Does our hero reach the tomb? Does he find the emerald? Does he survive the several plots that are made against him? Does he end up with the woman who really loves him? Does the movie ever rise above the run-of-the-mill bottom-of-the-bill action flick it appears to be? One of the above questions has an answer of ‘no’, and if you follow the path of fewest surprises, you’ll know which one it is. Watchable and forgettable.