Review of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) by Kenneth L — 05 Nov 2011

This is one of those big Hollywood classics you can't even argue with. I hadn't seen it in a long time, and had forgotten just how dark and ironic and cruelly funny it is. Like all the best movies of its era, it's very well done in every aspect of its execution.

The movie follows a couple of down-on-their-luck guys (Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) in Mexico in the 1920s who team up with a goofy old prospector (Walter Huston) to try to find gold. The movie is all about the tensions leading up to their quest for gold as well as the tensions resulting from their finding it. It's a classic story, and only makes a false step in a plot development involving the old prospector becoming a hero to a Mexican town, which seems both totally out of nowhere and vaguely racist. Still, though, it's a totally classic story.

Humphrey Bogart gives one of his most effective performances here (saying a lot), and certainly the darkest one that I've seen. Bogart was always playing the tough but secretly sentimental hero, but not here. Here he's not really a hero, just the character the movie happens to follow. He's greedy and paranoid, and the movie follows his descent as these problems grow worse. Bogart looks progressively more ragged over the course of the movie, to match his deteriorating mental state. This part, for me, proves Bogart had more range than some people might be willing to give him credit for. Walter Huston, who won an Oscar as the prospector, is great, giving his character a wry sense of humor and detachment. He's one of those great scene-stealing characters. Tim Holt is a good straight man for the other two characters.

Apparently, as I learned, this was the first big budget Hollywood feature to be shot entirely on location, not sets (only a couple of re-shoots were done on sets). The movie makes a lot out of its locations - the characters are almost never indoors, and we feel their isolation in the wilderness as they're out prospecting. John Huston won a best director Oscar for it, beating out Olivier for Hamlet. It's that classic old Hollywood style of being visually interesting without being obtrusive. Overall, it's just a perfectly put-together movie.