The Treasure of Lost Canyon ** (1952, William Powell, Julie Adams, Charles Drake, Tommy Ivo, Rosemary DeCamp) – Classic Movie Review 10,991

Director Ted Tetzlaff’s 1952 Universal International Pictures Technicolor Western adventure film The Treasure of Lost Canyon retells the Robert Louis Stevenson short story The Treasure of Franchard, set in 1870 California. William Powell enjoys a useful role as an eccentric old retired miner and pharmacist called ‘Doc’ Homer Brown, who adopts a thieving orphaned boy, David (Tommy Ivo). They discover an outlaw’s hidden treasure but then bad guys come for the gold.

It is a humble film, even looking nice in Russell Metty’s Technicolor cinematography, modestly made and sparing on thrills. But it makes a pleasant enough adventure for youngsters, with a decent, mildly witty screenplay by Brainerd Duffield and Emerson Crocker, and Powell’s easy-going, but careful performance as its main attraction.

Alas, Tommy Ivo (born April 18, 1936) was one of many child actors who disappeared from movies after puberty threatened, though happily he had a second career as a drag racing driver. He played Cousin Arne in I Remember Mama (1948), Joey in Prejudice (1949), William Button in Plymouth Adventure (1952) and David in The Lost Volcano (1950) with Johnny Sheffield.

It is shot in the studio at Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, with location shooting at Feather River, California, and McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, Highway 89, Burney, California.

Homer ‘Doc’ Brown: ‘A pair of self-centered people like us should avoid children as if they were germs.’

Julie Adams (born Betty May Adams; October 17, 1926 – February 3, 2019).

Also in the cast are Julie Adams as Myra Wade, Charles Drake as Jim Anderson, Rosemary DeCamp as Samuella, Henry Hull as Cousin Lucius Cooke, Chubby Johnson as Baltimore Dan, John Doucette as Gyppo, Marvin Press as Paddy, Frank Wilcox, Griff Barnett, Jack Perrin, Virginia Mullen, Paul Newlan, George Taylor, Jimmy Ogg, Ed Hinckle and Hugh Prosser.

 © Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,991

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