The Treasure
of the Sierra Madre (1948)
In Best Director-winning John Huston's tale of avarice
among gold prospectors in 1920s Mexico (based upon B. Traven's novel):
- in Tampico, drifter Fred C. Dobbs' (Humphrey Bogart)
thrice-asked request to a white-suited American (an early cameo
by director John Huston): "Hey mister, could you stake a fellow
American to a meal?"
- scruffy, experienced, eccentric, toothless old gold
prospector Howard's (Walter Huston, the director's father) recounting
of tales of gold-seeking to greedy gold seeker Dobbs at a flophouse: "Yeah,
I know what gold does to men's souls...That's gold, that's what it
makes us. Never knew a prospector yet that died rich. Make one fortune,
he's sure to blow it in tryin' to find another. I'm no exception
to the rule. Aw sure, I'm a gnawed old bone now, but say, don't you
guys think the spirit's gone. I'm all set to shoulder a pickax and
a shovel anytime anybody's willin' to share expenses. I'd rather
go by myself. Going it alone's the best way. But you got to have
a stomach for loneliness. Some guys go nutty with it. On the other
hand, goin' with a partner or two is dangerous. Murderers always
lurkin' about. Partners accusin' each other of all sorts of crimes.
Aw, as long as there's no find, the noble brotherhood will last.
But when the piles of gold begin to grow, that's when the trouble
starts"
- the scene of gleeful Howard's dancing of a jig upon
the discovery of gold and his exclamation: "Up there!"
- the scene of Mexican bandits confronting the gold-seekers
when Dobbs asked where their Federales badges were - and Gold Hat's
(Alfonso Bedoya) answer: "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We
don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"
- the appearance of another unwanted American gold prospector
from Texas, Cody (Bruce Bennett), who after one night with the group
told them bluntly what their options with him were: "As I see
it, you guys have got to do one of three things: kill me, run me
off, or take me in with you as a partner. Let's consider the first.
Another guy may come along tomorrow. Maybe a dozen other guys. If
you start bumping people off, just how far are you prepared to go
with it? Ask yourselves that. Also, don't forget, the one actually
to do the bumping off would forever be in the power of the other
two. The only safe way would be for all three of you to drag out
your cannons and bang away at the same instant like a firing squad...As
for choice number two, if you run me off, I might very well inform
on you...Twenty-five percent of the value of your find is the reward
I'd get paid and that would be tempting, mighty tempting...Let's
see what number three has to offer. If you take me in with you as
a partner, you don't stand to lose anything. I will not ask to share
in what you've made so far, only in the profits to come. Well, what
do you say?"
- the demise of the crazed, deranged and paranoid Dobbs
- his confrontation with Curtin leading to his partner's wounding,
and his demented and insane babbling the next morning about whether
to bury the guilty evidence or not when he found that Curtin's body
was missing: "Curtin! Curtin! Curtin! Where are you? Curtin!
I gotta get ahold of myself! Mustn't lose my head. There's one thing
certain, he ain't here. I got it. The tiger. Yeah, yeah that's it.
The tiger must have dragged him off to his lair, that's what. Yeah,
pretty soon, not even the bones will be left to tell the story. (He
let go a delighted, but deranged laugh) Done as if by order"
- the sequence leading up to the death of the gaunt-faced
Dobbs when surrounded by bandits as he stumbled and staggered along
half-conscious in the sweltering desert, seeing ahead of him before
his burro train some sanctuary ruins; when he knelt next to drink
from a pool of muddy, fetid water, a reflection of another face was
shown in the pool - it was the image of death itself - the smiling
bandit Gold Hat with his tattered, ragged sombrero; joined by two
other predatory bandits, Gold Hat asked for a cigarette and matches;
Dobbs cleverly attempted to answer Gold Hat's questions, appearing
unworried and unafraid, although he knew he was defenseless without
his partners; as they prepared for the kill, Dobbs was surrounded
and looked up and down - one of the bandits lifted Dobbs' pants leg
to examine his boots; Gold Hat wasn't convinced that Dobbs' partners
were near:
"That's funny. A man all by himself in bandit country with a string
of burros and his friends behind him on horseback"; Dobbs' revolver
clicked empty three or four times; the Mexicans laughed at Dobbs for
his impotence and then one of the bandits hit him in the head with
a stone, and Gold Hat savagely finished him off with a few strokes
of a machete blade; the impoverished bandits stripped Dobbs for his
boots and clothing, animal skins, and burros
- in the conclusion, crazy Howard's ironic, last bitter
but boisterous laugh with youthful Bob Curtin (Tim Holt) as he recognized
the cosmic humor and irony in how the gold dust from Dobbs' saddle
bags had been blown back into the desert sand; while roaring with
triumphant, mocking, restorative laughter, he exclaimed: "Oh
laugh, Curtin, old boy. It's a great joke played on us by the Lord,
or fate, or nature, whatever you prefer. But whoever or whatever
played it certainly had a sense of humor! Ha! The gold has gone back
to where we found it!... This is worth ten months of suffering and
labor - this joke is!"
- the last image in the film - the camera panned to
the ground and showed a closeup of a small, forked cactus - the film's
epilogue; caught on one of its forks was one of the torn, empty gold
bags - recalling the tragic fate of Dobbs in his mad quest