The Treasure of San Teresa [Hot Money Girl] ** (1959, Eddie Constantine, Dawn Addams, Marius Goring, Christopher Lee) – Classic Movie Review 11,007

Director Alvin Rakoff’s 1959 British-German co-production The Treasure of San Teresa [Hot Money Girl] stars Eddie Constantine as former World War Two OSS agent Larry Brennan, who goes to Czechoslovakia after the war and gets the help of a German general’s daughter Hedi von Hartmann (Dawn Addams) and his aide Rudi Siebert (Marius Goring) to try to discover a hoard of German treasure in jewels in a box hidden somewhere in St Teresa’s Convent in Czechoslovakia.

Hedi is Brennan’s former lover as well as the daughter of the German general who owned the gems, and Larry is rightly not sure whether he can trust her. That would be because ‘She was Trash! She would do anything for a price!’

The Treasure of San Teresa is an economically made, but pacily handled and complex post-war crime thriller, with a twisty plot of double-cross and triple-cross, a slick noir look, and an effective climax aboard the Munich express. Goring, Christopher Gotell (as the Hamburg top cop Police Inspector) and Christopher Lee (as a German character called Jaeger) work hard in support.

Admittedly the UK original title is dull, and the lurid American title, Hot Money Girl, is explained by Addams’s supposed street-walker profession in the movie. That is again because ‘She was Trash! She would do anything for a price!’

The screenplay writer is Jack Andrews, from a story by Jeffrey Dell.

Also in the cast are Nadine Tallier, Willy Witte, Gaylord Cavallaro, Hubert Mittendorf, Derek Sydney, Penelope Horner, Georgina Cookson, Clive Dunn, Sheldon Lawrence, Tsai Chin, George Mikell, and Philip Ray.

The Treasure of San Teresa [Hot Money Girl] is directed by Alvin Rakoff, runs 84 minutes, is made by Beaconsfield Productions, Kurt Ulrich Filmproduktion and Orbit Films, is released by British Lion Film Corporation and Britannia Films (1959) (UK), Constantin Film (1959) (West Germany) and United Producers Releasing Organization (1962) (US), is written by Jack Andrews, is shot in black and white by Wilkie Cooper, is produced by Sydney Box, Kurt Ulrich, John Nasht, Patrick Filmer-Sankey, is scored by Jeff Davis (music from themes by), Don Banks (additional music) and Philip Martell (musical director), and designed by George Provis.

It is filmed on location and at National Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,007

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com