Lurker at Populaari noted the quite negative review of Plunder of the Sun that's screening today on Finnish TV. The reviewer, Timo Peltonen, wrote that the plot behind the film is stupid, and he said it was the fault of the book that's basis for the film: David Dodge's hardback novel of the same name, from 1949.
Now, I've read several novels by David Dodge and can tell that they are of pretty high quality, of funny and wise-cracking hardboiled adventure variety. His novel To Catch a Thief (which peculiarly has never been translated in Finnish, despite being filmed by Hitchcock) is also outstanding, a very good adventure novel. And what's more interesting is that Plunder of the Sun came out rather recently as a paperback, by the deservedly famous Hard Case Crime, with a nice cover. At least Timo should've Googled for the book and found out about this pretty good review by Bill Crider - or this, also a very positive one. Here's also a nice site that David Dodge's daughter keeps.
Of course Timo is entitled to his opinion, but it seems there's a lack of cultural knowledge behind the negative review. Another reviewer, Tapani Maskula of the Turun Sanomat, gave the film three stars (out of five) - he knows the classical Hollywood cinema from A to Z and knew how to put the film into context.
PS. Oh my God! Christa Faust's Money Shot already has a cover. Check it out! Awesome!
