We all have a childhood memory of watching a film and retaining a certain line of dialog or particular scene. If you are lucky, you will discover that scene or particular speech in an adulthood and finally have a title to add to the memory.That is the case for me with "Lust For Gold", an adult western with certain elements of film noir, much like " Pursued" and "The Furies". I happened upon this several years ago and just about choked when the scene from my childhood came back. My brother and I had been watching this some rainy afternoon and we both laughed at the scene where Glenn Ford happens to leave a shop with two baskets of cookies. He gives them to a little boy who happened to be close to my age with truly comical results. For years afterwords until our adolescence came to an end, we would remind each other of the line.The story surrounds a rich gold mine and the mystery surrounding an alleged curse. Starting in the present day with Ford's grandson William Prince trying to find it, then flashes back 60 years to Ford's discovery of it and how it ruined his life.Along the way, he falls for the secretly scheming Idea Lupino, a married woman who pretends to be in love with him to get her hands on the bulk of the hidden claim. Sort of like a period version of " Double Indemnity", it ends up with the two playing cat and mouse with each other which leads to an ironic conclusion.A very intelligent opening narration by William Prince sets the intrigue in motion and there is a fine cast of character actors in support, among them Paul Ford, Hayden Roarke and Edgar Buchanan. A great bit by an old lady claiming in 1949 to Prince leads to a funny sequence with Ford from years ago where the obnoxious little old lady becomes an obnoxious little girl. This is smart in every way, making it a sleeper of a western film noir that is hard to resist.

William Prince (Barry) goes in search of gold in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. He is the grandson of Glenn Ford (Dutch) who discovered the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine located there in the 1880s. Before that the Indians had sealed it up after the Spanish had discovered it. To the Indians, the area represents a sacred ground dedicated to the "Thunder God" as there are many storms in the area.Well, Willy Prince follows another explorer Hayden Rorke (Buckley) who claims he knows where the mine is located, only Rorke doesn't make it as he is shot by a sniper. It seems that a sniper has been killing anyone who gets close to this particular gold mine. Prince rushes back to report the crime to Sheriff Paul Ford (Lynn) and Deputies Will Geer (Ray) and Jay Siverheels (Walter). The rest of the film is told in flashback as we learn of the history of Ford's discovery of the mine and his association with crafty baker Ida Lupino (Julia) before we return to solve the outstanding mystery of who the killer is. And whether or not there is any gold for the taking.As regards the cast, the acting is OK with a few faults along the way. Ida Lupino starts well but ends up overdoing the melodrama while Glenn Ford is clearly no good at all with a German accent. Thankfully, you don't really notice at first - he sort of slips in and out of something that isn't really German anyway. And his singing in a saloon sounds more Russian to me. Lupino does impress when she speaks in German to him, though. I actually found myself in sympathy with the character of Gig Young (Pete) who plays Lupino's husband, even though he isn't very nice. William Prince is a bit naïve and his narration at the beginning is fairly monotonous. My personal triumphs in this film include the following 2 moments - 1) spotting tarty saloon girl Myrna Dell (Lucille) who I have just seen in another western from the same year entitled "Roughshod" which is as good as this film, and in which she has a more substantial role, albeit a tragic one; 2) correctly naming the killer at the beginning of the film.The storyline is nicely layered with different sections and you find yourself siding with different characters at different times even though you are aware that nobody is particularly likable in this film. It's still very watchable, though. Anyway, I'm off for another visit to Arizona. The plan is to stay up in the Superstition Mountains for a year just watching the moon. I'll hopefully crack this case once and for all. This film has been really useful for my preparation. I'll be taking plenty of water, some rattlesnake anti-venom serum, an umbrella for shelter from the storms and falling rocks from earthquakes, some gumdrops and lots of meat to feed the mountain lions (although the film didn't mention these).

After the first 20 minutes of the film, I was asking myself, where are the main stars: Ida Lupino, Gig Young and Glenn Ford? My question was soon answered when a grandson of Ford, looking for the elusive mine filled with gold, stumbles on to an old age home where an old-timer relates the story of his grandpa and the others within his orbit.I must say that flashback was used effectively here but the film boils down to a western atmosphere, where our 3 ruthless stars are caught up in the gold madness, after the Ford character discovers the gold.In modern times, 20 people were murdered while searching for the treasure. The role of the greedy- woman was tailor made for Ida Lupino, and Gig Young is effective as her murderous husband, agreeing to her scheme, before realizing that he is being used as well. Ford is excellent as the prospector, vicious and insane to the core.The scenes showing Ford torturing the other 2 prior to the earthquake hitting are amateurish at best. When we head back to modern times, it becomes obvious who the killer is, since he was missing in action each time a killing occurred.

I saw this on TV years ago and was very impressed and needless to say the recent DVD release got me really excited. I am pleased to say LUST FOR GOLD lives up to my memory. The first thing that struck me was the film noir aspects of LFG - the flashback structure, the first person narration, the anti-heroes of the flashback story and those dark shadows and sinister characters. I have always loved Ida Lupino and what a great femme fa-tale she makes - cold, greedy and obsessed with "lust for gold". Glen Ford is at his most villainous and gruff - although his German accent comes and goes.Gig Young is the perfect scorned husband patsy. There are surprises galore like the abrupt ending of the flashback and the parallel "natural" threat that is a warning to the modern day hero and the undoing of the villain. Coming a year before WINCHESTER 73, LFG is one of the earliest noir westerns ( like Blood on the Moon and Pursued) and has a cast of noirish actors fulfilling their doomed roles. A real classic!