O Tesouro da Sierra Madre

Film noir takes a Mexican holiday in this gritty adventure from John Huston. Pessimistic and full of irony, yet with a sense of adventure and a moralist edge to it, this is typical Huston material.

Huston insisted on shooting on location in Mexico, which riled up studio executives no end, but it paid off in the quality of the picture. Treasure of the Sierra Madre would have really suffered in the canned air of a studio. By using the real thing, he perfectly achieves the stark and dusty atmosphere of the poverty riddled Mexican city in the earliest scenes. The sense of scale and grandeur of the mountains in the main part of the film is also very important in achieving the right effect.

Huston's background was in fine art, and it's at this point in his career as a director that it really starts to show. The use of lighting is painterly in a way that is almost impossible to achieve in black and white – particularly in the scene in the peasant village which looks almost biblical. Huston also has this unique style of framing, whereby he uses figures in the foreground and background to give the effect of a close-up and a mid-shot simultaneously. It's a look that is totally at odds with anything else produced in Hollywood at that time.

Actor wise, Treasure of the Sierra Madre turns the clock back to the 1930s, putting the director's father Walter Huston in a starring role, and casting Humphrey Bogart as a seedy villain. The cast is rounded off by the too-little-seen Tim Holt. All three of them are spot on. The spry old prospector is a role Huston senior seems to have been waiting to play all his life. Bogart is also great playing the sort of character he made his name with a decade earlier. Also worth a mention is Mexican actor Alfonso Bedoya who gives what is for this era an incredibly naturalistic performance as the bandit leader.

Huston's forte was in his cinematography, his shot composition and the rhythm of his films, not so much in his handling of action or actors, which is why his pictures tend to be a bit hit and miss. This one is a hit though, thanks to the strength of its story and the quality of the cast, not to mention Huston's persistence for authenticity. Not my absolute favourite of his work, but certainly one of the best.

Tampico sets the scene for the start of speculation, Fred C. Dobbs is out of cash and his luck is in cessation, but an encounter in flophouse, and big dreams emerge and arouse, as a plan is born with Howard, and a fellow who's called Curtin. Into hills laden with gold, our companions then embark, finding seams that come alive with golden riches to impart, building up substantial fortune, thinking soon they will be tycoons, but there's one who's trust is waning and has sores that start to smart. The journey back becomes a challenge to them all, as one by one the group is scattered, battered, stalled, will their work be well rewarded, will endeavours all be thwarted, either way, you will be engaged, and quite possibly enthralled.

Bogarts best performance.

Some movies have certain scenes in them that hold the viewers interest more than others. However every single scene in this film holds the viewers interest. There is never a dull or lagging moment. Three down and outers who at one time in their lives were maybe up and comers strike out in search of a fortune or at least enough to live better than they have been.

While Humphrey Bogart gives a superb performance it is Walter Huston who turns in the greatest performance as the old prospector Howard. The scene in the Indian village where he helps to restore a comatose child is one of the most touching in all of film history and is done virtually without any dialog. Mexican character actor Alfonso Bedoya of course steals all the scenes he appears in and delivers his classic "Stinking Badges" line. (what person would dress up as a Bandito for a costume party and not want to look exactly like Bedoya's Gold Hat character?) This film probably should have been a little higher on AFI's top 100. A must see!

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

This is a weirdly contemporary film. I mean, it's certainly set in the past, and it's made in the heyday of Hollywood genius top to bottom which is long gone. But because it's about this old time and about raw black and white issues (often), the film and the filming are really appropriate. The whole thing just fits, and beautifully.

And I mean beautiful. As rugged as it all is--the landscape as well as the beards, all very real--the movie is lyrically filmed. The story is told with visual clarity. And the script, speaking of story, is sophisticated and believable. In all, under the direction of legend John Huston, this is a spot on terrific movie.

Of course, there are two actors who are just amazing in their roles (and a third, Tim Holt, who is just fine, if not stellar). I mean of course Walter Huston, who nearly steals the show in every scene. He's a character, but not a caricature. His wisdom--real wisdom, based on smart observation over decades of experience--is sterling. Great stuff, well put. And of course he's the father of the director, which is a fun, and slightly Freudian twist. He gives one of the great performances of the decade.

Humphrey Bogart is not far behind, actually. If you like him in Maltese Falcon or Casablanca, you'll be surprised at first by the scruffy, raw character played here. But it's clear-headed, brilliantly delivered Bogart all the way, and a joy to watch him really act. See it for him, too.

Then there is the story itself, which is as important now as ever. That is, what matters in life? And what is the price to pay to get it? It's all rather bold and emotional even though it's delivered by some rough guys out of money prospecting in the wilderness of Mexico.

Are there downsides here? I suppose. You certainly can wonder about the way the Mexicans--good ones and banditos both--are portrayed. I think it's not bad, tinged with clichés, of course, but in Spanish without translation or stilted half-English, so it's the real thing. And no subtitles. Nicely done for an early Hollywood affair. Huston, the son, the director, if you don't know, is famous for doing things raw and right and slightly off the charts. He is making a commercial film, to be sure, but it has many small aspects that are just not pandering to anyone. This makes it work.

I'm sure to some this is a masterpiece. I'm giving that some thought. See it.

Having had his day as an idolized star and romantic leading man, it was now time for Bogart to get down to the serious business of acting… For eighteen years it had usually been Bogart playing Bogart in various shadings… Now that Bogart was gone and in his place was an older and far less romantic figure, one who found new challenges and was able to meet most of them successfully… This new phase of his continued growth began with a story of three men in search of gold…

Although "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is indisputably one of Bogart's best films, it was co-star Walter Huston who won an Academy Award as did the movie's director and scenarist, John Huston…

Based on a novel by the mysterious B. Traven, the film told a riveting tale which explored the degenerative effects of encroaching greed, distrust, and hatred on three prospectors who team up to search for gold in Mexico…

Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs was an amazingly complex creation whose slow disintegration into paranoia was brilliant1y managed on camera… He is a born loser with no potential for change in sight… Suspicious, unfeeling, savage, and easily corruptible, he seems clearly destined for a tragic fate almost from our first meeting with him…

Tim Holt was also excellent as Bob Curtin, a man who, like Bogart, is tempted but whose conscience will not permit him to exercise his baser desires. (He could have let Bogart die in a cave-in, but saved him instead.) Young, impressionable, and unprepared, he has never seen the likes of a Fred C. Dobbs and he finds himself overwhelmed and uncertain as to how he will cope with Dobbs's rage and greed…

However, it is the director's father, Walter Huston, who literally stole the picture from both Bogart and Holt as he played Howard, a wise old toothless codger who knew all along what would happen and took it all in stride, kicking up his heels and having a marvelous time… Life can't surprise him any more… He's already had successes and failures enough for one lifetime… Like a faithful dog, he's along for the thrill of the hunt, and should there be another pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, well, that's just a bonus…

It is mainly the interaction of these three men from their first meeting and uneasy partnership through their final confrontation that made "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" one of Warner Brothers' triumphs of the forties