Review of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) by Donald W — 17 Dec 2013
This is one of the classic Humphrey Bogart movies. It's about three gold prospectors that turn on each other after they've dug up a fortune in gold in the Mexican mountains. It's set in 1925 after the Mexican Revolution.
In the remote areas of Mexico bands of rebels turn bandits still roam and terrorize the population. The new Revolutionary government of Mexico is sending out the new Federal Police force to round up the bandits and execute them without trial when caught.
This underlying corruption of the Mexican Government has extended to today, bandits have turned into drug smugglers and the Mexican Police take bribes to allow the drug smuggling and Mexican National government has to use the Army to fight the drug smugglers.
In 1925 Mexicans and Americans could cross the border freely. Humphrey Bogart plays an American who gets trapped in Mexico without any money to get home. They don't explain how he got there but there was a recession in the U.
S.A after the First World War. There may have been many single men who went to Mexico to seek their fortune but fell on hard times once they got there. The first time I heard of this movie was when Robert Blake was promoting his TV show Beretta on the Johnny Carson show.
They show the clip of him with Humphrey Bogart. He played the little Mexican boy selling raffle tickets. The movie inspired a Saturday Night Live skit too, Mexican bees with no badges.
This review of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) was written by Donald W on 17 Dec 2013.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre has generally received very positive reviews.
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