SECRET OF THE INCAS
TRIVIA
Yma Sumac jokingly tells the bathing Nicole Maurey that ‘Iaconka’ means ‘beautiful’. In Quechuan, the words yma sumac mean ‘How beautiful’.
Harry Steele and Indiana Jones are said to have been based on the explorer and archaeologist Hiram Bingham who discovered Machu Picchu in 1911. But if you look at photos of Bingham he actually resembles Dr Stanley Moorehead more, in looks and attire.
Yma Sumac is a descendant of the last Inca Emperor Atahualpha, Madam Sumac’s mother being Donna Emilia Atahualpha.
When Charlton Heston is cadging tips off the outgoing tourists at Cuzco Airport, look at the surprised look on the face of Marion Ross as Miss Morris. Her quizzical expression is real – Heston was indulging in a bit of improvisation.
The most memorable line in SECRET OF THE INCAS is when Heston threatens Thomas Mitchell for sending a hit man to frighten him. ‘The next time you send a rifle after me I’m going to bring it back here and ram it up your nose!,’ a priceless quote from the future NRA President.
The museum scene has two classically trained actors, Heston and Booth Colman, who both went on to play elderly apes in different versions of PLANET OF THE APES.
The opening SCENE OF THE MOVIE HAS Heston shooing away two donkeys from the railway track. Look closely at the passengers when Heston is outside the autocarril, they are completely different when he gets back in the tram.
Heston’s first words ‘Burro burro’ set the tone for the “Animal crackers” dialogue. Heston calls Thomas Mitchell an ‘ape’ and a ‘bat’. He refers to the tourists as ‘pigeons’ and describes Nicole Maurey as a ‘dead fish’. When Heston turns his attentions from Glenda Farrell to Nicole Maurey, Glenda asks him, ‘Are you changing horses in mid stream?’
Heston offers the excuse “She reminds me of my mother!” to Glenda, who WAS old enough to be his mother. Glenda Farrell was famous for being able to speak 390 words per minute when she played Torchy Blaine in the 1930’s, and was the cousin of Jerry Hopper, director of SECRET OF THE INCAS.
Alvy Moore plays the young guy at the bar with a crew cut who trys to chat up Nicole Maurey by pretending to be Harry Steele. When Heston questions this, Moore turns into a trembling, timid weakling. In reality, Moore was anything but timid, as a US Marine in WWII he fought gallantly at the battle of Iwo Jima.
At the Cuzco Airport scene at the beginning of SECRET OF THE INCAS, look out for the female extra wearing a green dress and red scarf. She goes back and forth three times.
Charlton Heston made many movies around the world, but SECRET OF THE INCAS was the first time he went on location. Chuck was filmed at the Plaza de Armas, Cuzco Airport, the Urubamba River, and the Plaza Rogocijo.
The tourists Heston is seen leading around the Plaza de Armas are completely different to the ones he shows around the museum, a few seconds later.
Leon Askin plays Anton Marcu. Born as Leo Aschkenasy into a Jewish family in Vienna, he had to escape to America in 1940 with no money and less than a basic knowledge of English. Askin joined the U.S. Army and while on active service learned of his parents death at Treblinka extermination camp. After the war Askin appeared in many movies, and in the late 1960’s gained wide popularity on tv as General Burkhalter in the comedy sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes”.
Kurt Katch, who plays the sniper, went to the United States in 1937 to escape the
Nazis. He became type-
Thomas Mitchell was the brother of James P. Mitchell, who was the Secretary of Labour in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1962 Thomas Mitchell played Lt. Columbo on stage, a role that Peter Falk eventually made his own on tv.
There are five character actors from SECRET OF THE INCAS who also appear in the 1950 movie CRISIS; Robert Tafur, Zacharias Yaconelli, Martin Garralaga, Carlos Rivero and Rodolfo Hoyos, Jr.
Australian Michael Pate portrays Pachacutec, who was one of the greatest heroes to the South American Indian. Australian Pate was more famous for playing North American Indian heroes, like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, in countless westerns on television and the cinema in the 1950’s.
Nicole Maurey was very brave getting into that Piper Cub aeroplane with Chuck Heston, considering what happened to the planes in some future Heston movies: MOTHER LODE, CRASH LANDING, AIRPORT1975, TRUE LIES and SKYJACKED, Heston crashed his plane in MIDWAY, THE OMEGA MAN and PLANET OF THE APES.
Charlton Heston should have played Indiana Jones’ father, not Sean Connery. Apart from the Harry Steele connection, Heston has played an archaeologist at the Valley of the Kings in THE AWAKENING, explorer William Clark in THE FAR HORIZONS and adventurers in NAIROBI and ALASKA. Heston’s real name was John Carter, coincidently the name of the adventurous hero in the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories.
Take a close look at the clothing the American tourists are wearing at Cuzco Airport. Not exactly suitable apparel to be walking around high altitude Cuzco, the “City of
Light”.
Cuzco was still showing evidence of the 21 May 1950 earthquake three years later when the Paramount film unit shot location footage there. Look closely when Chuck Heston is delivering his tour guide spiel to his group in the Plaza de Armas, the La Compania Cathedral is still being supported by scaffolding.
Irmin Roberts captured some incredible footage of the Andes and Machu Picchu before the tourist explosion Check out the scene when hundreds of Quechua Indians are climbing up the slopes of The Lost City to celebrate the finding of the Mamacuna mummy. One of the extras, playing a charango, actually looks straight into the lens of Roberts camera as he walks past.
Yma Sumac sings “Earthquake” at the top of Machu Picchu, sitting directly behind her is her husband, Moises Vivanco They married and divorced twice.
Another husband and wife appear in SECRET OF THE INCAS, but they don’t share a scene together. Rosa Rey, who is hilarious as Yma Sumac’s mother, was married to Martin Garralaga, who as Dr. Cesar Perez can be seen briefly at the archaeological ruins towards the end of the movie. Rosa Rey was born Isabel Mercedes Tarrago in Madrid and Garralaga was born in Barcelona.
Martin Garralaga was a stalwart of hundreds of movies, among them THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, CASABLANCA and SECRET OF THE INCAS, the three biggest influences on the Indiana Jones series.
Thomas Mitchell, Ed Morgan in SECRET OF THE INCAS, starred in two other classics that are closely linked with influencing Indiana Jones. ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS and STAGECOACH. Mitchell came out with some deep quotes in real life. “A man looks bigger in the bathtub than he does in the ocean” was a good one.
SECRET OF THE INCAS is set in Peru, but features only one native born Peruvian , Yma Sumac. The rest of the cast come from America, France, Australia, Austria, Poland, Spain, Mexico and Italy.
Two of the actors in SECRET OF THE INCAS named their houses after their most successful movie and tv show. Robert Young’s home was THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE and Marion Ross lives in HAPPY DAYS FARM. Alvy Moore, Hank Kimball in GREEN ACRES, had the car number plate GRN ACRE5.
Glenda Farrell is the only actress to be buried at West Point Military Academy.
Eight of the cast of SECRET OF THE INCAS have died in May or June.
Is there any wonder that Harry Steele had a chip on his shoulder, with comments like this from Rumanian Consul Anton Marcu, “I can buy him like potatoes!”
“Who cut down the Cherry Tree?” is a running line throughout the movie and, bizarrely, only mentioned during romantic interludes. In reality, George Washington never did ‘cut down the Cherry Tree’. It was a moral fable made up by Washington’s biographer Parson Weems.
When Chuck Heston first meets Robert Young at Machu Picchu, he jokingly says the
oft-
Geraldine Hall plays Mrs. Richmond from St. Louis, one of the tourists Harry Steele meets at the airport. Before filming SECRET OF THE INCAS Geraldine’s husband, Porter Hall, died suddenly. He had just made a movie with Chuck Heston, PONY EXPRESS, which was also directed by Jerry Hopper.
