The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (film)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Huston
Screenplay by	John Huston
Based on	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven
Produced by	Henry Blanke
Starring	Humphrey Bogart Walter Huston Tim Holt Bruce Bennett
Cinematography	Ted D. McCord
Edited by	Owen Marks
Music by	Max Steiner
Production company	Warner Bros.-First National
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	January 6, 1948 (1948-01-06)
Running time	126 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million[1][2]
Box office	$4.1 million[1]

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a 1948 American Western adventure drama film written and directed by John Huston. It is an adaptation of B. Traven's 1927 novel of the same name, set in the 1920s, and follows two downtrodden men (played by Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) who join forces with a grizzled old prospector (Walter Huston, the director's father), in searching for gold in Mexico.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was one of the first Hollywood productions to be shot on location outside the United States (in the state of Durango with street scenes in Tampico, Mexico), although many scenes were filmed back in the studio and elsewhere in the U.S. In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[3]

Plot[]

In 1925, in the Mexican town of Tampico, Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two broke American drifters, are recruited by labor contractor Pat McCormick as roughnecks to help construct oil rigs for $8 a day. When the project is completed and they return to Tampico, McCormick skips out without paying the men.

The two vagrants encounter an old man named Howard in a flophouse. The loquacious and penniless ex-miner talks to them about gold prospecting and the perils of striking it rich. Dobbs and Curtin run into McCormick at a cantina, and after a bar fight, collect their back wages. When Dobbs hits a small jackpot in the lottery, he, Curtin and Howard have enough money to buy the supplies they need to go prospecting in the interior.

Departing Tampico by train, the three help to repulse a bandit attack led by "Gold Hat". North of Durango, the trio head into the remote Sierra Madre mountains. Howard proves to be the hardiest and most knowledgeable of the three. After several days of arduous travel, Howard spots gold that the others had passed by.

The men toil under harsh conditions and amass a fortune in placer gold. But as the gold piles up, Dobbs becomes increasingly distrustful of the other two. The men agree to divide the gold dust immediately and hide their shares.

Curtin, while on a resupply trip to Durango, is spotted making purchases by a Texan named Cody. Cody secretly follows Curtin back to the encampment. When he confronts the three men, they lie about what they are doing there, but he is not fooled. He boldly proposes to join their outfit and share in any future takings. Howard, Curtin and Dobbs talk it over and vote to kill him. As they announce their verdict, pistols in hand, Gold Hat and his bandits arrive. They claim to be Federales. After a tense parley, a gunfight ensues, and Cody is killed. A genuine troop of Federales suddenly appears and pursues Gold Hat and his gang. The three prospectors examine Cody's personal effects. A letter from a loving wife reveals that he was trying to provide for his family.

Howard is called away to assist local villagers with a seriously ill little boy. When the boy recovers, the next day, the villagers insist that Howard return with them to be honored. Howard leaves his goods with Dobbs and Curtin and says he will meet them later. Dobbs and Curtin constantly argue, until one night Dobbs shoots Curtin and takes all the gold. However, Curtin is not dead; he manages to crawl away and hide during the night.

Finding Curtin gone, Dobbs flees, but is ambushed at a waterhole by Gold Hat and his men. They first toy with him, then kill him. The bandits mistake the bags of gold dust for sand and dump the treasure, taking only the burros and supplies. The gold is scattered by the strong wind. Meanwhile, Curtin is discovered by indios and taken to Howard's village, where he recovers.

Gold Hat's gang tries to sell the stolen burros in town, but a child recognizes the brands on them (and Dobbs' clothes, which the bandits are wearing) and reports them to the authorities. The bandits are captured and summarily executed by the Federales.

Howard and Curtin return to Durango in a dust storm and reclaim their pack animals, only to find the empty bags. At first shaken by the loss, first Howard, then Curtin, grasp the immense irony of their circumstances, and they burst into laughter. Howard decides to return to the village to accept an offer of a permanent home and a position of honor, while Curtin sells their recovered property to return to the United States, where he will seek out Cody's widow. As Curtin leaves, the camera pans down to a cactus as he rides past. Lying next to it is a bag of gold, still full.

Cast[]

Production notes[]

Pre-production[]

Director John Huston first read the novel by B. Traven in 1935 and had always thought the material would make a great movie with his father in the main role. Based on a 19th-century ballad by a German poet, Traven's book reminded Huston of his own adventures in the Mexican cavalry. After a smashing success with his directorial debut, The Maltese Falcon, Huston started to work on the project. The studio had George Raft, Edward G. Robinson, and John Garfield in mind for the three main roles, but then World War II intervened.

Vincent Sherman was all set to direct a version of the story during the World War II years until his script fell foul of the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code for being derogatory towards Mexicans.

Casting[]

By the time Huston came back from making several documentaries for the war effort, Humphrey Bogart had become Warner Brothers' biggest star. When Bogart first got wind of the fact that Huston might be making a film of the B. Traven novel, he immediately started badgering Huston for a part. Bogart was given the main role of Fred C. Dobbs. Prior to filming, Bogart encountered a critic while leaving a New York nightclub. "Wait till you see me in my next picture", he said, "I play the worst shit you ever saw".

Traven initially disagreed with Huston's decision to cast his father, Walter Huston, as Howard. He had preferred Lewis Stone but eventually came to agree with Huston. Walter Huston also questioned his son's choice.^{[citation needed]} He still saw himself as a leading man and was not keen on being cast in a supporting role. His son was able to convince him to accept. John Huston rated his father's performance as the finest piece of acting in any of his films.^{[citation needed]} On seeing the depth of Walter Huston's performance, Humphrey Bogart famously said, "One Huston is bad enough, but two are murder".

Huston originally wanted to cast Ronald Reagan as James Cody. Jack L. Warner instead insisted on casting Reagan for another film. Bruce Bennett was eventually cast in the role. A few notable uncredited actors appear in the film. In an opening cameo, director John Huston is pestered for money by Bogart's character, directed by Bogart. Actor Robert Blake also appears as a young boy selling lottery tickets.^[4]

A photograph included in the documentary accompanying the DVD release shows Ann Sheridan in streetwalker costume, with Bogart and Huston on the set.^[5] Many film-history sources credit Sheridan for a part. Co-star Tim Holt's father, Jack Holt, a star of silent and early sound Westerns and action films, makes a one-line appearance at the beginning of the film as one of the men down on their luck.^{[citation needed]}

Filming[]

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was 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), although many scenes were filmed back in the studio and elsewhere in the US. Filming took five and a half months.

The first scene in the film with Bogart and Holt was the first to be shot. The opening scenes, filmed in longshot on the Plaza de la Libertad in Tampico, show contemporary (i.e. of the 1940s) cars and buses, even though the story opens in 1925, as evidenced by the lottery number's poster.

Just as Huston was starting to shoot scenes in Tampico, Mexico, the production was shut down inexplicably by the local government. The cast and crew were at a complete loss to understand why, since the residents and government of Tampico had been so generous in days past. It turns out that a local newspaper printed a false story that accused the filmmakers of making a production that was unflattering to Mexico.

Huston soon found out why the newspaper skewered him and his production. When you wanted to do anything in Tampico, it was customary to slide a little money toward the editor of the newspaper, something the crew failed to do. Fortunately, two of Huston's associates, Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias, went to bat for the director with the President of Mexico. The libelous accusations were dropped, and a few weeks later, the editor of the newspaper was caught in flagrante and shot dead by a jealous husband.

Most of the Mexican extras were paid 10 pesos a day which was the equivalent of $2.00, a considerable amount for an impoverished region at the time.

There were scenes in which Walter Huston had to speak fluent Spanish, a language he did not know off camera. John Huston hired a Mexican to record the lines and then the elder Huston memorized them so well that many assumed he knew the language like a native. As with most of the Mexican actors selected from the local population, Alfonso Bedoya's heavily accented pronunciation of English proved to be a bit of a problem. Example: "horseback" came out as "whore's back". Bogart only knew two Spanish words, "Dos Equis", a Mexican beer.

The fight scene in the cantina took five days to shoot. During the shooting of the entire film, John Huston pulled pranks on Bennett, Bedoya (along with Bogart), and Bogart. While most of the film was shot in Mexico, Jack L. Warner had the unit return to Hollywood when the budget started to exceed three million dollars.

Though the daily rushes impressed Warner Bros., Jack L. Warner nearly went berserk with the weekly expenditures. After viewing one scene, Warner threw up his hands and shouted to Producer Henry Blanke, "Yeah, they're looking for gold all right – mine!" During another screening of rushes, Warner watched Dobbs stumble along in the desert for water. Warner jumped up in the middle of the scene and shouted to a gaggle of executives, "If that s.o.b. doesn't find water soon I'll go broke!".

Warner had reason to be upset. John Huston and Blanke led him to believe that the film would be an easy picture to make and that they would be in and out of Mexico in a matter of weeks. Warner was notorious for not actually reading scripts and he assumed the film was a B-movie Western. As the full extent of Huston's plans became apparent, Warner became quite angry. He was especially unhappy with the way the film ended, arguing that audiences wouldn't accept it. Warner's expectation was validated in that the initial box office take was unimpressive. Yet the film was a huge critical success and in its many re-releases, it more than earned back its original investment of $3 million.

As production dragged on, Bogart, who was an avid yachtsman, was starting to get increasingly anxious about missing the Honolulu Race in which he usually took part. Despite assurances from the studio that his work on the picture would be finished by then, he started to repeatedly annoy Huston about whether he would be done in time. Eventually, Huston had enough and grabbed Bogart by the nose and twisted hard. Bogart never again asked him to confirm when shooting was expected to be over.

The wind storm in the final scene was created by using jet engines borrowed from the Mexican Air Force.

Edited scene[]

Huston's original filmed depiction^{[citation needed]} of Dobbs' death was more graphic – as it was in the book – than the one that eventually made it onto the screen. When Gold Hat strikes Dobbs with his machete, Dobbs is decapitated. Huston shot Dobbs' (fake) head rolling into the waterhole (a quick shot of Gold Hat's accomplices reacting to Dobbs' rolling head remains in the film, and in the very next shot one can see the water rippling where it rolled in). The 1948 censors would not allow that, so Huston camouflaged the cut shot with a repeat shot of Gold Hat striking Dobbs. Warner Bros' publicity department released a statement that Humphrey Bogart was "disappointed the scene couldn't be shown in all its graphic glory."^{[citation needed]} Bogart's reaction was: "What's wrong with showing a guy getting his head cut off?"^{[citation needed]}

John Huston's screenplay[]

John Huston's adaptation of Traven's novel was altered to meet Hays Code regulations, which severely limited profanity in film.^[6] The original line from the novel was:

"Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don't need badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre!"

The dialogue as written for the film is:

Gold Hat: "We are Federales ... you know, the mounted police."

Dobbs: "If you're the police, where are your badges?"

Gold Hat: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"

Gold Hat's response as written by Huston – and delivered by Bedoya – has become famous, and is often misquoted as "We don't need no stinking badges!" In 2005, the quotation was chosen as No. 36 on the American Film Institute list, AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.

Themes[]

The film is often described as a story about the corrupting influence of greed.^[7] Film critic Roger Ebert expanded upon this idea, saying that "The movie has never really been about gold but about character."^[8] In addition, reviewers have noted the importance not just of greed and gold, but also of nature and its desolateness as an influence on the actions of the men.^[9] However, the ability of the film to comment on human nature generally has been questioned, in view of the fact that the Dobbs character is so evidently flawed from the beginning.^[9]

Reception[]

According to Variety the film earned $2.3 million in the US in 1948.^[10] According to Warner Bros records the film earned $2,746,000 domestically and $1,349,000 foreign.^[1]

At the 21st Academy Awards, The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre received four nominations, and won three awards for Best Supporting Actor for Walter Huston, and Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay for John Huston, the only Oscars he would claim. There has been controversy since the ceremony in 1949 because of the Academy’s choice in not nominating Humphrey Bogart for the Academy Award for Best Actor, a choice that has since been condemned by modern critics and Academy members. Bogart’s performance has been named the best of his career. Acclaimed British actor Daniel Day-Lewis said that his second Oscar-winning performance as vicious oil baron Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood was heavily inspired by Bogart’s portrayal of Fred C. Dobbs.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film is one of the few that have an approval rating of 100%, based on 50 reviews, and an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Remade but never duplicated, this darkly humorous morality tale represents John Huston at his finest."^[11] The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre is now considered to be among the best films of all time, with some critics naming it to be Huston’s magnum opus.

Awards and honors[]

Year	Award ceremony	Category	Nominee	Result
1950	BAFTA	Best Film from Any Source	Henry Blanke	Nominated
1949	Academy Awards	Best Picture	Henry Blanke	Nominated
		Best Director	John Huston	Won
		Best Supporting Actor	Walter Huston	Won
		Best Adapted Screenplay	John Huston	Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Picture		Won
		Best Director	John Huston	Won
		Best Supporting Actor	Walter Huston	Won

In 1990, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was among the first 100 films to be selected.^[3]

Critic Leonard Maltin listed The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as one of the "100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century."^[12] The Director's Guild of America called it the 57th best-directed movie of all-time.^[13]

Director Stanley Kubrick listed The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as his 4th favorite film of all time in a 1963 edition of Cinema magazine.^[14] Director Sam Raimi ranked it as his favorite film of all time in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes and director Paul Thomas Anderson watched it at night before bed while writing his film There Will Be Blood.^[15] Director Spike Lee listed it as one of the "87 Films Every Aspiring Director Should See."^[16]

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has also cited the film as one of his personal favorites and has said that Fred C. Dobbs was a key influence in creating the character of Walter White. A key scene from the film was emulated in "Buyout", the sixth episode of the series' fifth season.^{[citation needed]}

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies – No. 30
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills – No. 67
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" – No. 36
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 38

In popular culture[]

The Stone Roses song "Fools Gold" was inspired by the film. Songwriter Ian Brown said, "Three geezers who are skint and they put their money together to get equipment to go looking for gold. ... Then they all betray each other... That's what the song is about."^[17]

Blazing Saddles references the film with the (misquoted) line "We don't need no stinkin' badges".

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Baxter, John (1997). Stanley Kubrick: A Biography. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-638445-8.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (film).

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (film)

• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at IMDb 
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at AllMovie
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at the TCM Movie Database
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at the American Film Institute Catalog
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at Box Office Mojo
• Literature on The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre on Lux Radio Theater: April 18, 1949