Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Humphrey Bogart is Fred C. Dobbs and Tim Holt is Bob Curtin, new acquaintances who’ve landed in Tampico, Mexico.

They’re down and out, forced to beg for meals and they’ve just been cheated out of the money they’re owed for weeks of hard labor.

So they rent cots in the cheapest joint around. That’s where they encounter an old-timer named Howard (Walter Huston).

He’s spent most of his life searching for gold, and he’s seen what finding gold can do to a man, especially if there are partners in the gold-seeking adventure.

Dobbs and Curtin don’t believe his tales. How could a fortune in gold lead to mistrust and treachery?

So when they land a grubstake, they look up the old man. It doesn’t take much to convince him to take them deep into the Mexican wilderness on another prospecting expedition.

And they learn that the old man was right. Turns out finding gold is easier than keeping it. Especially when you don’t trust your partners.

Humphrey Bogart as Fred C. Hobbs, suspicious of a stranger in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Tim Holt as Bob Curtin reads a letter written by a dead man’s wife in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Review:

This highly acclaimed film earned Oscars for director John Huston and his father Walter and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture.

Today, it’s certainly worth a watch, but probably not as affective as it was in 1948 because its gold lust plot has been used so often in the decades since.

Of course, our three stars aren’t only plagued by their mistrust of one another. In their quest to become men of wealth, they have to deal with harsh terrain, the intrusion of a wannabe fourth partner and encounters with a Mexican bandit.

The film features cameos by director Huston as the man Bogart pesters for money, Tim Holt’s silent screen star father Jack Holt as another American down on his luck and a very young Robert Blake as the Mexican boy selling lottery tickets.

Walter Huston as Howard, the old-timer who’s seen what gold does to men in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Bruce Bennett as James Cody, trying to become the fourth partner in a gold strike in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Directed by:
John Huston

Cast:
Humphrey Bogart … Fred C. Dobbs
Walter Huston … Howard
Tim Holt … Bob Curtin
Bruce Bennett … James Cody
Barton MacLane … Pat McCormick
Alfonso Bedoya … Gold Hat
Arturo Soto Rangel … El Presidente
Manuel Donde … El Jefe
Jose Torvay … Pablo
Margarito Luna … Pancho

Alfonso Bedoya as Gold Hat, the Mexican bandit who roams the hills the men are mining in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Barton MacLane as Pat McCormick, the man who tries to cheat Dobbs and Howard out of wages they’ve earned in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Memorable lines:

Howard: “Say, answer me this one, will you? Why is gold worth some twenty bucks an ounce?”
Second man at rooming house: “I don’t know. Because it’s scarce.”
Howard: “A thousand men, say, go searchin’ for gold. After six months, one of them’s lucky: one out of a thousand. His find represents not only his own labor, but that of nine hundred and ninety-nine others to boot. That’s six thousand months, five hundred years, scramblin’ over a mountain, goin’ hungry and thirsty. An ounce of gold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that went into the findin’ and the gettin’ of it.”
Second man: “I never thought of it just like that.”
Howard: “Well, there’s no other explanation, mister. Gold itself ain’t good for nothing except making jewelry with and gold teeth.”

Howard: “I know what gold does to men’s souls.”

Howard, on having partners in gold mining: “As long as there’s no find, the noble bond will last. When the piles of gold begin to grow, that’s when the trouble starts.”

Dobbs: “Gold don’t carry any curse with it. It’s whether the guy who finds it is the right guy.”

Curtin: “Remember what you said in Tampica? About us having to carry that old man on our backs?”
Dobbs: “That’s before I knew that man was half goat. Look at him climb, will you.”

Dobbs: “What a dirty, filthy mind you’ve got.”
Howard: “Oh, no, not dirty. Not dirty, baby. I know what kind of ideas even supposedly decent people get when gold’s at stake.”

Gold Hat: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.”

Howard: “We’ve wounded this mountain. It’s our duty to close her wounds. It’s the least we can do to show our gratitude for all the wealth she’s given us. If you guys don’t want to help me, I’ll do it alone.”
Curtin: “You talk about that mountain like it was a real woman.”
Dobbs: “She’s been a lot better to me than any woman I ever knew. Keep your shirt on, old-timer. Sure, I’ll help ya.”

Tim Holt as Bob Curtin and Humphrey Bogart as Dobbs, intrigued by Howard’s talking of gold mining in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Humphrey Bogart as Dodds and Tim Holt as Curtin learning what they’ve found is fool’s gold in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Tim Holt as Bob Curtin, enduring the grueling trip to the mountains in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Humphrey Bogart as Fred C. Hobbs, wondering what will happen while he’s off getting supplies in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Walter Huston as Howard, being treated like a king in an Indian village after saving the life of a young boy in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Walter Huston as Howard and Tim Holt as Curtin come across an unfortunate discovery in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)