The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ***** (1948, Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt) – Classic Movie Review 1,350

John Huston’s renowned 1948 adventure thriller film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre showcases one of Humphrey Bogart’s finest hours as the greedy Fred C Dobbs, one of three itinerant American prospectors, who try to find gold in Mexico.

Writer-director John Huston’s renowned 1948 adventure thriller film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre showcases one of Humphrey Bogart’s finest hours as the greedy, financially desperate Fred C Dobbs, one of three initially lovable rogues, itinerant American prospectors, who try to find gold prospecting in Mexico during the gold rush there.

Although it is set in the 1925, it slots comfortably into the classic Western genre.

Dobbs and Bob Curtin (Tim Holt), cheated out of their wages and down on their luck, meet old prospector Howard (Walter Huston) in the Mexican oil-town of Tampico and join him in the search for gold in the remote Sierra Madre mountains. In a classic tale almost worthy of the greatest Greek tragedy, they then strike it rich, only to find the pursuit of wealth leads to mistrust and inexorably turns Dobbs into someone capable of killing his buddy.

As the other sides of the odd triangle, Walter Huston as the grizzled old-timer Howard and Tim Holt as Dobbs’s callow colleague Bob Curtin also grab their acting opportunities by the scruff of the neck. They are ideal, and it is certainly Holt’s best performance, maybe Huston’s too.

John Huston’s screenplay rigorously brings out the strengths of B Traven’s novel about greed and betrayal, based on a 19th-century ballad by a German poet, and he keeps his script quite faithful to the 1927 source novel, unusually for a movie adaptation of the era.

John Huston first read the novel in 1935, reminding him of his adventures in the Mexican cavalry, and he thought it would make a great movie with his father starring. His success with his directorial debut, The Maltese Falcon, gave him his chance, and his star in that film started badgering him for a part.

Bogart said beforehand: ‘I play the worst shit you ever saw’ and afterwards he said: ‘One Huston is bad enough, but two are murder’.

As director Huston films excitingly and atmospherically on location to try to avoid that regular stagey, artificial Warner Bros studio look that might have eroded its credibility or even sunk it.

It is one of the first Hollywood films to be filmed on location outside the United States – in the state of Durango and street scenes in Tampico, Mexico. However, many scenes were still filmed in Warner Bros’ Hollywood studio (and they do look stagey and artificial), as well as on American locations.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre proved a Huston family triumph: in the Academy Award gold rush, John won two Oscars for the screenplay and direction, while Walter won for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first father-son win.

Despite these successes, the movie did not fare as spectacularly as everyone hoped. It has a downbeat, heavily moral ending that probably counted slightly against it at the box office. Thanks partly to the location filming, it cost an unusually high $3 million, but it still made back a neat little profit with cinema rentals at $4,300,000.

The Max Steiner score is, as always, a huge asset and so is Ted McCord’s black and white cinematography.

John Huston has a cameo as a tourist named White Suit, who is pestered for money by Dobbs. Robert Blake appears as a young boy selling lottery tickets. And Holt’s father, Jack Holt, star of silent and early sound Westerns and action films, has a one-line cameo at the beginning of the film as one of the men down on their luck.

There is also a rumour of an Ann Sheridan cameo as a streetwalker; she certainly seems to have filmed the sequence, though a different woman seems to appear in the movie. A photograph included in the documentary accompanying the DVD release shows Sheridan in streetwalker costume, with Bogart and Huston on the set. It’s a mystery.

It co-stars Bruce Bennett (formerly Herman Brix) as James Cody, Barton MacLane as Pat McCormick, and Alfonso Bedoya as Gold Hat.

Arturo Soto Rangel, Mañuel Dondé, José Torvay, Margarito Luna, Jacqueline Dalya, Spencer Chan, Julian Rivero, Pat Flaherty, Clifton Young and Ralph Dunn appear in support.

It was premiered on January 14, 1948 (Los Angeles) and released on January 15, 1948 (limited) and January 24, 1948 (United States).

Running time: 126 minutes/

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre shared the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture with Johnny Belinda.

The film was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1990 as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Bruce Bennett, Tim Holt, Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston.

The film-makers failed to bribe the editor of the newspaper in Tampico, which printed a false story accusing the film of denigrating Mexico and the local government shut the production down. Two of John Huston’s associates approached the president of Mexico and the accusations were dropped. A few weeks later, the newspaper editor was caught in flagrante and shot dead by a jealous husband.

The cast are Humphrey Bogart as Fred C Dobbs, Walter Huston as Howard, Tim Holt as Bob Curtin, Bruce Bennett as James Cody, Barton MacLane as Pat McCormick, Alfonso Bedoya as Gold Hat, Arturo Soto Rangel as El Presidente, Mañuel Dondé as El Jefe José Torvay as Pablo, Margarito Luna as Pancho, Jacqueline Dalya, Spencer Chan, Ralph Dunn, Robert Blake as the Mexican boy selling lottery tickets, John Huston as the American in Tampico in the white suit, Jack Holt as a Flophouse Bum, Julian Rivero as the Barber, Jay Silverheels as the Indian Guide at Pier, Pat Flaherty as the Bar Patron and Clifton Young as another Flophouse Bum.

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