A long time ago ('50s), there was a b/w movie, set in the western U.S., that had as a finale the finding of a treasure trove by the sun, at a certain point in time, shining thru a slot in a rock formation, illuminating the treasure spot.
Anyone have any idea on the name of the movie?
Every time I watch “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, I think of it and I think it dates from that era.
Eve?
I believe that would be MacKenna’s Gold, 1969. Odd movie; Omar Sharif as a Mexican, and a host of veteran Western actors who are mostly killed early on.
The “sun through the slit” sequence involves truly bizarre, in fact impossible actions on the part of shadows in the early morning. Another oddity: although Apaches are among the shorter American Indians, two of them are played by – I kid you not – Ted Cassidy (Lurch on “The Addams Family”) and Julie Newmar, a six-foot tall blonde.
On the plus side, Julie Newmar swims underwater butt-naked.
Could be a B-western titled Secret of Treasure Mountain (1956), starring Valerie French, Raymond Burr, and William Prince.
From a plot description in the AFI Catalog of Motion Pictures:
Damn it – Walloon’s movie sounds a lot more likely. Thanks for destroying my sense of self-worth. Think I’ll go throw myself on my bed and weep like a nine-year-old girl.
I haven’t seen either movie so perhaps I am not the best one to contribute. But while walloon definitely tells a better story, said story does not seem to contain an element where sunlight shines through a slit in the rocks to illuminate the location of the treasure. Which, given the original question, seems kind of pertinent. So far I’m voting for you on this one.
But my movie is older and in black and white. Nah nah. 
There was also an episode of “The Wild, Wild West” that rings a bell with this one. Don’t recall the title, but I know it starts with “Night of the. . . .”
Baldwin
I thought of McKenna’s Gold also. As you said it was a strange movie and that Sun pointing to the treasure was really weird. But hey … Julie Newmar !!
Earl Snake-Hips Tucker
The Wild Wild West episode was probably “Night of the Egyptian Queen”. It was a 4th season episode and among others it starred Sorrell Booke (aka Boss Hogg).
IIRC, this is also how they found the secret entrance to the Lonely Mountain in the Hobbit.
Incidentally, the video game series Gun also has a similar plot device, centering around the proper placement of an ancient gold cross, but in this case, the important thing was lining up the parts of the cross with the appropriate parts of the landscape, and THEN looking through a hole in the top of the thing at the right angle (the bad guy spends the entire game mining for the treasure in the wrong place, apparantly, because he was significantly taller than the main character)
That’s also how they found the entrance to the cave in Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Raiders of the Lost Ark also uses a similar device.
Yup. When Elrond took a peek at Thror’s Map on a crescent-moonlit evening in Rivendell, he found moon-letters that read “Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the keyhole”. Durin’s Day was not only the last day of autumn but entailed a specific configuration of the moon and the sun. What the hell the thrush had to do with it is anyone’s guess, unless thrushes in that part of Middle-Earth only ate snails at one highly-specific time of day. Anyway Thorin and co. had the good luck that there was a Durin’s Day that very year (much as we occasionally get “blue moons” when there is a second full moon in a calendar month) and the rest is history.
IIRC, the Thrush in question was a member of an ancient race of birds that could communicate with a race of men that lived in and around the Lonely Mountain before Smaug came along. The thrush was also the one who told Bard (IIRC) how to kill Smaug when he attacked Laketown.
Yes, in the latter case because it overheard Bilbo telling the dwarves about the bare patch in Smaug’s diamond-encrusted underside. It set off (as we later learn) for Lake-town pretty smartly straight afterwards, which was a very good piece of timing as it found Bard only just in time - he was already down to his last arrow (the Black Arrow) by the time it reached him.
Bard understood the thrush because he was of the race of Dale, although how this granted linguistic understanding without instruction isn’t explained. Still, it’s not unreasonable for a fairy story. But the thrush understood human speech, which dwarves and hobbits also used, regardless of their origins, and was smart enough to fetch a raven as an interpreter when it needed to tell Thorin and company that Smaug was dead.
This still doesn’t explain why the thrush only ate snails at one particular time of day on Durin’s Day, though.
Maybe that’s just his job. Be there at that time and place, doing that thing, so people can find the back door when needed. Also possible that the Thrushes, for whatever reason, ALWAYS had a representative tapping away at snails there, maybe out of tradition, or just to keep watch to see if anyone enters the city that way. (For any number of reasons, it might be of concern to the thrushes that someone was going and pissing off the dragon)
Jeez-us, you Hobbit nerds. I mean, there are hijacks and there are hijacks. Could you take your banter somewhere else and give the OP a break? He’s looking for a b&w western from the '50s. We get it that you know everything there is to know about the Hobbit, etc., but it really isn’t helping here at all.
Stuyguy, I could understand your grumping if you had been one of the folks offering answers, but you didn’t help, either. Ignatz asked about a film where the sun through a rock slot revealed The Treasure (trumpet crescendo.) He got some solid answers, too. Then, enough other examples piled up to show that the rock slot was an old, hackneyed plot device. Thus, just that concept will net a whole lot of fish that Ignatz wasn’t looking for.
So. The question was asked and answered (probably,) and the thread is fair game. You called a foul, but the replay reversed the call. You lose a time-out. 
Possession goes to the Hobbits on the OP’s 32 yard line. Fweet.
I’m taking the Hobbits and giving the 7 points.
Duuuude! It’s the Durin’s Day Snail Festival. The parade is incredible. They cook escargot every way possible. The guy who can throw the most snail shells through the rock slot in the time it takes the Snail Queen to count to 60 gets a date with her! 
Snail stew, six local ales, you gotta be there next year.