Gilbert Roland, elegant Mexican-born character actor with great appeal, was not legitimately in this movie. He is our "host" who appears at the beginning of the film to tell us we're about to see a film, & at the end of the film to bid us farewell.

Regarding the "lost Tayopa mine" famous among treasure hunters, the real Tayopa mine was a source of Spanish wealth for the first half of the 1700s, but was abandoned in 1750 because of unebbing strife with the Aztecs or other aboriginal people, & its location subsequently forgotten, though several places on the map would like claim it.

Treasure of Tayopa (1974) is a Z-film version of Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948). A small group of cowboys with a cowgirl as their leader head off toward the mountains across the desert, inexplicably encountering the sea along their route.

Eventually they will find the lost Tayopa treasure (a few coins scattered in the dirt), but nothing else will go as planned.

The acting is just so awful & the only thing that makes the racist stereotypes of Mexican banditos tolerable is that one of them turns out to be the hero of the piece, & it's not that often a minority is still standing at the end of a pick-em-off-one-by-one exploitation film, let alone wins the white girl, supposing she was worth winning.

What's so special about the Mexican in Black (Frank Hernandez), besides being the only guy who isn't homely, is he wears a sexier hat than those clowns in sombreros.

Psycho Sally (Phil Trapani), probably nuts because his pappy named him Sally, kills the Mexicans for pushing his horse. Their friend, the Mexican in black, sets out on the trail of revenge.

As crazy Sally continues killing even his fellow cowboys, the Mexican in black becomes the closest we have to a hero. He'll save beautiful cowgirl Kathryn Delgadillo (Rena Winter).

The music for this film is much better than the film itself, having an almost Gordon Lightfoot feel to it, sung by regionally well known Arizona country singers Marty Martell & Garn Littledyke.

copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl