The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – 1948
This was, I’m sorry to say it, a weak film. It wasn’t a bad film, just a weak one. It had some interesting performances, fairly believable realism in the sets and costumes, and an un-stereotypical ending for a Hollywood movie. But the main point of the story seemed a bit farcical. I know… Hollywood puts out films that stretch credibility all the time, but I hold a Best Picture nominee to a higher standard.
Let me explain. In a nutshell, the main point of the plot was that the prospect of money is enough to turn good men to murderers and thieves. That’s it. The film begins as Fred Dobbs, played by Humphry Bogart, is stranded in Tampico, Mexico. He has no money, no work, and is forced to beg strangers for a few pesos so he can buy food. He meets another man in the same situation, Bob Curtain, played by Tim Holt. Together, they find work doing hard manual labor, employed by a charlatan who tries to cheat them out of the promised wages.
They meet an old prospector, Howard, played by Walter Huston, who agrees to guide them into the wilderness to dig for gold. But he warns them that gold changes a man. A good man might do anything for the rare treasure, even murder his best friend for it. The three men set out into bandit-infested wilderness and set up their mining operation. They find about $75,000.00 in gold dust and divide it between the three of them.
But this is where the plot really made me roll my eyes. Dobbs begins talking to himself and becomes wildly paranoid, thinking that his partners are after his gold. The three partners take their treasure and head for home. Along the way, Howard leaves Dobbs and Curtain to help a sick boy in a small Mexican village, entrusting his share of the gold to the two men.
Dobbs then starts behaving as if he has completely lost all his marbles. He changes from a somewhat sane man, to a murderer and a thief. He shoots Curtain and takes off into the desert alone with all the gold. I don’t know. I was reminded of how cartoon characters behave when a pretty girl walks by. As soon as they lay eyes on her they start panting, drooling, and hooting. Their jaws hit the floor and in a microsecond, they become senseless morons. Dobbs’ reaction to the gold was very similar, almost cartoonish in its absurdity. Does gold really make men act like that? Only in the movies, I think.
Along the way they have to fight off Mexican bandits who are smart enough to rob trains and out-maneuver the Mexican Federales, but dumb enough to not know what gold dust is. The leader of these stupid criminals, known only as Gold Hat, played by Alfonso Bedoya, has the only line in the movie that actually became a famous quote. He and his banditos try to convince the three prospectors that they, themselves are the Mexican police, Dobbs asks them where their badges are. He responds, “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!”
Bogart’s performance really wasn’t anything special because he just seemed to play himself. There seemed to be nothing new about his portrayal, and unfortunately, I am starting to see this as a trend with him. I liked Tim Holt’s performance as the honest Curtain well enough, but it was Walter Huston that really caught my attention. As the seasoned prospector, he not only looked the part, but the character was well written. He was the wise old man who had been through it all before and taught the two stupid young men what real gold prospecting was all about. He was a likable character and Huston did a great job.
Apparently, according to my research on Wikipedia, the film followed the original book very closely, so I have to give them credit for that. Also, I learned that this was one of the first Hollywood films to be shot on location outside the U.S.
But I also found something else that lends a little credence to my earlier statement, saying that this was a bit of a weak film. A Wikipedia quote says that “The film is often described as a story about the corrupting influence of greed. Film critic Roger Ebert enlarged upon this idea, saying that ‘The movie has never really been about gold but about character.’ However, the ability of the film to comment on human nature generally has been questioned, in view of the fact that Dobbs’ character is so evidently flawed from the beginning.” That is exactly what I thought!
And then there was the ending. Humphry Bogart was a pretty big name at the time, and he had top billing. But his was the only character in the film to die. I was surprised that Hollywood would kill off their big star, but as the man who tried to murder his friend and steal all the gold, he had to get his just punishment before the end of the movie. It was the badgeless banditos that did it. Then, just to prove how dumb they were, they dumped all the gold dust into the wind of a dust storm, believing it to be nothing more than bags of sand. Oh well. Easy come, easy go. Such are the whims of fortune.