The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

John Huston (screenplay)
B. Traven (novel)

Release Date:

24 January 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Western | Action

Tagline:

The more he yearns for a woman's arms . . . the fiercer he lusts for the treasure that cursed them all!

Plot:

Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled...

Plot Keywords:

Mexico | Gold | Prospector | Tampico Mexico | Bandit

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Dobbs
Walter Huston	...	Howard
Tim Holt	...	Curtin
Bruce Bennett	...	Cody
Barton MacLane	...	McCormick (as Barton Mac Lane)
Alfonso Bedoya	...	Gold Hat
Arturo Soto Rangel	...	Presidente (as A. Soto Rangel)
Manuel Dondé	...	El Jefe (as Manuel Donde)
José Torvay	...	Pablo (as Jose Torvay)
Margarito Luna	...	Pancho

Also Known As:

Treasure of Sierra Madre (USA) (poster title)

Runtime:

126 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | South Korea:12 | West Germany:12 (nf) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Norway:16 | West Germany:6 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:AL | Sweden:15 (1977) | UK:PG | USA:Approved (certificate #12347)

Filming Locations:

Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

John Huston played one of his infamous practical jokes on Bruce Bennett in the campfire scene in which he eats a plate of stew. Bennett knew that his character was starving so he wolfed down the food as quickly as possible. Huston then demanded another take. And another. In both extra takes the rapidly filling-up Bennett again had to eat a large plate of stew. Unbeknownst to him, Huston had been happy with the first take. The cameras weren't even rolling for the second and the third. He just wanted to see how much food Bennett could lower before he became too stuffed. As soon as the joke was revealed, Huston added insult to injury by calling for a lunch break.

Goofs:

Factual errors: At the end, the gold dust would have never blown away, even by an especially strong wind such as the "norther" - gold dust is far too heavy. It could have been recovered by panning the topsoil where it was dumped. Also, no Mexican bandit would have mistaken gold dust for anything but gold.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dobbs: Say buddy, will you stake a fellow Am...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Friends: The One with the Baby Shower (#8.20)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms

All that glitters is not gold

This is one of those great old movies that is worth a repeat viewing every now and again in a person's life. Sure, much of the acting and dialog have gotten corny and dated over the years, and I agree with one of the previous commenters who said that Bogart's acting seems very forced - like he's obviously just reading lines from script. Be that as it may, the story that is told here is every bit as important and thought provoking as something from the Bible. Throughout the film there is a spot-on wisdom about man and his endless quest for wealth (in this case, gold). I always come away from this movie feeling secure in my belief that in life you just can't have it all, and all that glitters is not gold (i.e. there are things in life more important than money).

Since this movie was largely about lost fortunes (literally "dust in the wind" if you think about the end sequence), it must have made quite an impression on audiences back in the forties when it was released. I'm sure more than a few viewers back then still had painful memories of catastrophic losses caused by the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Depression of the 1930's. Also, many people lost a lot in the war years that followed, and which predated this movie by just a few years.

That's why I think this movie qualifies for repeat viewings, because just think how appropriate this wisdom is for our current generation of people: just consider the losses from, say, the stock market crash of 2000, the events of September 11th, and of course we just witnessed the horrific losses caused by the Asian tsunami... the cycle repeats. Fortunes come and go, gold is often times nothing but dust in the wind, but life goes on and so man must go on. That's what this movie says to me whenever I see it.