Sharks' Treasure

By far the worst movie of all time. Even Yaphet Kotto could not save this turkey. I have heard that the movie was originally supposed to be titled "The Treasure" but was changed to "Sharks' Treasure" in order to take advantage of the excitement created by "Jaws". I think sharks were in one scene of this movie; the fact that they happened to be included in this "thriller" was supposed to sell tickets. Didn't work. Anytime something "good" happens in the movie, the ship's crew toasts each other with a certain brand of beer that had just been introduced at the time the movie was made. Gee, do ya think that beer might have been a sponsor? Could they have made it any more obvious? The only time anyone should break out the beer is if they make it through this thing. That's cause enough for celebration.

It looks like an amateur film and has an intense hatred for sharks, as it shows numerous of them getting killed by charges or spears, only to fill up space in the run time. The story is so blatantly absurd that you can guess most of it. It's hard to get through, since seeing Cornel Wilde and Yaphet Kotto in racing bathing suits, doing a "fake" row, is too hard to bear. It has a few character actors from the 1960's like David Canary (he gets hit by Paul Newman in "Hombre" (1967), and Cliff Osmond (He was in the original Twilight Zone in "The Gift", 1962)) as Lobo. Similar themes found later in The Deep (1977).

There's some really impressive underwater action and ocean photography, but the rest of the movie is pretty tedious and unless you really want to watch old men in speedos yelling at each other or innocent sharks getting killed on camera, I can't recommend sitting through this forgotten slog.

Since this movie will inevitably be associated with "Jaws" contrasts are inevitable, so here's one for you: In Spielberg's classic the shark is mechanical while the characters are real. In Cornel Wilde's film it's the opposite. Fortunately, as the title suggests, Wilde spends quality time with the sharks. Give it a C plus. PS...You haven't lived until you've heard the Slovakian born star of this film channel his inner Randolph Scott.

Shipowner Cornell Wilde and some youngsters go in search of sunken Spanish treasure. Along the way they encounter sharks and pirates. Cornell Wilde wrote, directed and starred in this loosely plotted modern adventure story, along with Yaphet Koto and a couple of youngsters. There's as much underwater photography -- a bit faded in the print I saw -- as story, and as much character exposition as gold. Wilde had spent the 1950s as a dashing but minor action hero. Born in Hungary in 1912, he came to the US four years later. After a few uncredited bits in the 1930s, his break came in HIGH SIERRA, and he spent the next 20 years playing in a mix of costume dramas and more modern fare; he was one of the movies' better swordsmen, and was reputed to have turned down a slot in the American fencing team at the 1936 Olympics. His career slowed down in the 1960s, but some television guest shots and a few kept him reasonably active until shortly before his death in 1989.

Jim Carnahan (Cornel Wilde) is a charter boat skipper. A kid found a coin off the coast of Belize and he partners with him to look for the sunken treasure. Ben Flynn (Yaphet Kotto) and Larry Hicks join them as divers. Once they get there, they're told that some Americans have escaped from the local prison. The fighting between the four original crew feels a bit forced. Despite being weeks in building, it feels too abrupt and too random. As for the shark hunt, they are actually battling and killing real sharks. I prefer not to do that. Once the convicts arrive, the intensity becomes more real. The first half of the movie can do with a bit of squeezing. The acting is a little overwrought at times. This is a tough little indie.

Sheesh! What a dreadful movie. Dodgy camera work, a script with more corn than Kellogg's, and acting so hammy you could open a pig farm with it. To cap it all, it doesn't know which audience to aim at - we have Cornel Wilde - or is that Corny Wilde? - getting on his soap box about the hazards of smoking any time someone lights a cigarette, dear oh dear, and in another awkward scene we have the baddie, Lobo, forcing his, ahem, if you will, 'male friend' to do a striptease dressed in a bikini. Try explaining that one to the kids... Throw in an overly contrived Treasure Island-*-Jaws type storyline, and the result is a film so unintentionally funny, it's enjoyable - I shouldn't expect a Special Edition DVD any time soon, though.