The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948

     This film is an adaptation of B. Traven’s 1927 novel with the same title.  The setting of this film is the Mexican oil town of Tampico in 1925.  Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin were almost cheated out of their promised wages but they beat up the man and took their money.  Dobbs buys a lottery ticket and he wins a small jackpot.  They meet Howard and he’s an old prospector.  The three men decide to prospect for gold and they can use the money Dobbs won to bankroll the project in the remote Sierra Madre mountains.  They take a train into the desert and bandits attack the train.  Howard discovers the gold and he instructs Dobbs and Curtin how to dig a mine and extract the gold.  The rugged country, the isolation and the difficult work starts to take a toll on Dobbs.  He begins to get very worried that the other two men will cheat him or kill him to get his share of the gold.  Dobbs also begins to think about how he can get all the gold for himself.  Curtin goes to the nearest village for supplies and he meets another American, James Cody.  He follows Curtin back to the camp.  They tell Cody that they are hunters but he tells them he knows they are looking for gold.  He wants to join them, the other men don’t like this turn of events and they debate about what to do with Cody.  They decide to kill him but bandits appear and they pretend to be Federales. 

     I didn’t know how this film was going to end?  At first I thought that Bogart was too busy telegraphing the ending during his acting but this isn’t the case.  It doesn’t end at all like I thought?  His character Fred C. Dobbs is not very likable from the beginning.  He’s suspicious, greedy, without feeling, easily enraged, a savage, easily corrupted and a lose cannon waiting to explode!!  He thinks the absolute worst of Howard and Tom Curtin.  Tom has a conscience and he's a better person but he’s uncertain about how to cope with Dobbs.  Howard is a wise old man and he knows all along what could happen.  4* (I really liked this movie)

126 min, Western directed by John Huston with Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett, Barton MacLane, Alfonso Bedoya, Arturo Soto Rangel, Manuel Donde, Jose Torvay, Margarito Luna.

Note:  Imdb 8.3 out of 10, Roger Ebert 4*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 632 reviews, TCM Leonard Maltin 4* out of 4* user rating 4.5* out of 5*, Slant Magazine 4* out of 5*, Empire Online 5*, Showtimes 5* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Kernville, Mojave Desert, Los Angeles, Burbank, California; Yuma, Mojave Desert, Tucson Mountains, Arizona; Tamaulipas, Sonora, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sierra Madre del Sur, Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico.  This film earned $2.3 million in 1948.  John Huston won an Academy Award for Directing and also for Writing Adapted Screenplay.  Walter Huston won for Best Supporting Actor and this was the first father-son win.  This film was nominated for Best Picture but lost to Hamlet by Laurence Olivier.  Using jet engines from the Mexican Air Force created the windstorm in the final scenes.  Ranked by the American Film Institute as #38 on the list of the Greatest Movies of All Time.  Humphrey Bogart commented on the depth of Walter Huston’s performance.  He said, “One Huston is bad enough, but two are murder.”