Mother Lode * (1982, Charlton Heston, Nick Mancuso, Kim Basinger, John Marley, Dale Wilson) – Classic Movie Review 13,368

Director Charlton Heston’s 1982 search for gold adventure thriller film Mother Lode also finds him starring, along with Kim Basinger and Nick Mancuso.

Director Charlton Heston’s 1982 adventure thriller film Mother Lode also finds him starring in dual roles as a Scottish prospector prepared to defend his gold at all costs and as his much nicer twin brother. This flabby search for gold outdoors adventure is written and produced by his son Fraser Clarke Heston.

Kim Basinger (in her second feature film) and Nick Mancuso are the gold-hunting couple of good guys out to stop Charlton Heston. While young adventurer Jean Dupre (Mancuso) becomes obsessed with buried treasure, his gorgeous girlfriend Andrea Spalding (Basinger) wants to go home, but meanwhile old treasure hunter Silas McGee (Charlton Heston) manipulates both of them.

Mother Lode is a disappointing, overlong, rambling, low-interest tale with static action scenes, but the wilderness looks stunning in a handsomely made movie, attractively photographed by Richard Leiterman, with lovely aerial shots.

Mother Lode is also called Search for the Mother Lode: The Last Great Treasure.

Fraser Clarke Heston was thinking of John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) when he came up with the idea and wrote the script

Filming took place at Lake Lovely Water near Squamish, British Columbia, with aerial scenes filmed along the Fraser River Valley, and other shooting near Vancouver, British Columbia.

The floatplane in the film crashed accidentally and sank, so the Hestons were forced to incorporate the crash into the plot, a highlight of the film.

The cast

The cast are Charlton Heston as Silas McGee / Ian McGee, Nick Mancuso as Jean Dupre, Kim Basinger as Andrea Spalding, John Marley as Elijha, Dale Wilson as Gerrard Elliot, Rocky Zantolas as George Patterson, and Marie George as Elijha’s wife.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,368

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