Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)



Director: John Huston

Honors:
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Film- New York Critics Film Circle

After several years of interruption due to World War II, John Huston returns to Hollywood to bring audiences his follow up to successful debut picture, The Maltese Falcon, reuniting with star Humphrey Bogart and featuring his father in an award winning supporting role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.  Somewhat of a mini passion project between director and star, the film would become an unforeseen worry for Warner Bros., initially struggling to find an audience before becoming one uppermost praised movies of the year and an all-time classic of American cinema.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a neo-western picture about how greed, paranoia, and distrust bring troubles to an unlikely trio mining for gold deep in the wilderness of Mexico. Set in 1920s, our story follows Fred Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) and Bob Curtin (Tim Holt), two American drifters down on their luck in a small Mexican who conceive a plan to gather all they have and partner with a wily, grizzled prospector named Howard (Walter Huston) to discover gold in the vast wilderness to turn their fortunes around. The three venture to a vastly unpopulated region where they discover their hopeful fortune in the desert soil, battling the hot elements, a confrontation with a curious passerby named Cody (Bruce Bennett), attacks from unruly bandits, and the growing suspicion for each other.

Upon completing their mining and on route home with their gold dust distributed between the three of them, Howard, the eldest and least covetous of the three, ventures to aid an native American village in need of his medical wisdom entrusting his portion in with Dobbs and Curtin until they reunite. This opportunity leads a paranoid Dobbs to attempt to slay Curtin and make off with all three portions of the gold. Believing Curtin is dead from a gunshot, Dobbs shortly after he is confronted by the bandits he had previously clashed when they were mining. With the bandits too being very greedy and opportunistic they brutally murdered Dobbs taking all of his possessions, but dumping the gold dust, mistaking it for worthless sand, leaving it to be lost in the wind. After surviving his attack from Dobbs, Curtin reunites with Howard and the two discover the demise of their former partner and the loss of all their hard work. After pondering the events the two part ways, Howard to continue living with the natives who have embraced him and Curtin set towards the States where he looks to make amends for the slain Cody by taking care of his family.

This picture is just what movies are made for. The film is a rather simple tale of three men seeking gold when the worst in them and others bring down everything they had worked for. This rather low key production is filled with great acting accompanied with equally worthy writing exquisitely shot, presenting us a motion picture that is full of drama, moments of humor, and a story that pulls the audience in with every building scene.

In only his second proper feature film, writer/director John Huston was well on his way to proving he was one of the finest filmmakers in the business. Coming off 1941’s The Maltese Falcon, bursting onto the cinematic scene with a film that sets standards in film noir, here Huston delivers a drama that boarders on being a western, a genre that he would be best now for in the coming decades. Based on the novel by B. Traven, Huston had plans to produce the story into a picture before WWII with ideas of a cast including George Raft, Edward G. Robinson, and John Garfield.

Humphrey Bogart caught wind of John Huston’s idea to adapt the novel he pursued Huston to cast him in the picture, talking up his passion for the production it would be. With Dobbs clearly being the most troubled character of the the leading trio, Bogarts delivers his strongest performance to date in a role that travels down a dark road towards demise. His performance would inspire many future filmmakers and actors  in the future as he portrays a character consumed with issues buried with his mind.

Tim Holt’s character of Curtin serves as the straight man of the bunch, making his performance perhaps the least memorable, but by far not the least important. Holt, lent out to Warner Bros by RKO, was most commonly known for his work in western, but this performance delivered such greater depth to his acting that RKO began to rethink their strategy in his future use of him. Sadly RKO would fall back into their old rhythm with Holt, typecasting him in western after western.

For the role of Howard John Huston would cast his own father, Walter, the much traveled veteran actor. Walter takes on more supporting role despite his long career playing characters that carried pictures. The casting would pay off handsomely with an award winning performance that is the greatest roles in western genre history. The character of Howard is delivered in a wily yet kind way that at times upstages Humphrey Bogart, a trait Bogart would not mind from Walter Huston in this picture.

In a smaller supporting role is featured Bruce Bennett as Cody, the man that becomes curious of the trio’s doings, eventually working deal that would make him a forth partner to help earn money to take care on his wife and child before falling in a gunfight with the bandits while protecting the mine. In a previous life Bennett was Olympian turned actor Harold Brix. A champion shot putter, the handsome and fit Brix moved to Hollywood and for a period he portrayed Tarzan and was featured in various B-pictures before changing his name to restructure his career in the movie industry. As Cody, Bennett is charming, dangerous, and likable all within a short time on screen, becoming the first victim of the lust of gold in the story.

The picture would receive the uncommon permission from Warner Bros. to film on location in Mexico/ The studio believed the picture was a small-ish western and filming in Mexico would be an inexpensive alternative from shooting on their backlot. Many of the extras in the picture were hired native Mexicans of the surrounding area they were shooting hired at a relatively low daily wage, but good pay for the extras. The villainous character of the film “Gold Hat” who delivers the iconic and often misquoted “… stinking badges” line was portrayed by Mexican actor Alfonso Bedoya.  His portrayal delivered a mix of dangerous naïveté and vicious cruelty that made the character more menacing than the common western stereotype of a sombrero wearing bandito on horseback firing a pistol in the air.

John Huston was meticulous with his production utilizing several takes to get his shots just right. As the picture began to run over schedule producers at Warner Bros became worried and confused as to why this simple western, even with one of its biggest stars in Bogart in the cast, was not cheap and fast. Even Bogart was disturbed with the length of the shoot, pestering the director until Huston snapped back, putting his friend in his place. The result would eventually pay off handsomely.

When the film opened January 1948 audiences appeared disinterested in the picture, bringing in only meager box office revenue. However, critics would praise the picture, earning the film four Academy Award nominations. Despite losing Best Picture to Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre took home three awards, two going to John Huston for Best Director and Best Screenplay while Walter Huston won for Best Supporting Actor, marking the only time family members won awards at the same ceremony.

With time The Treasure of the Sierra Madre has easily become one of the most enjoyed motion pictures in American history. Honored on various all-time best movie lists and being cited for inspiring many filmmakers through the years, the picture has left a great impact on the cinematic world. An unassuming picture, the film is a delight with every viewing, leaving us all with a motion picture for the ages.

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