Day 112: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Movie #72 – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - 126 min, cert PG.

Fred Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) is down on his luck in Mexico, so he teams up with a younger man, Bob Curtin (Tim Holt) and a grizzled old prospector named Howard (Walter Huston) and they head out into the mountains to dig for gold. As the gold starts to accumulate, Dobbs begins to trust the other men less and less. Paranoia takes him over and he convinces himself that the others are out to steal his share.

The highlight of this film for me was watching Bogart’s portrayal of Dobbs and his descent into paranoia and madness. Before embarking on this epic project, my experience of movies from the black & white era was extremely limited. I’ve probably seen more in the last four months than in the previous twenty years. So my only exposure to Bogart has been in Casablanca and it was hard to tell from that why he is held in such high regard. Well, now I know. He really throws himself into this thoroughly despicable character and captures him perfectly.

The plot is very dark, but then it’s about one man’s breakdown and anything else is purely incidental. I quite liked the ending. It seemed to sum the film up very well.

It’s also got one of those famous lines that I’ve often heard quoted, but have never known its source. A Mexican bandit says ‘Badges? We don’t need to steenking badges!’ Well, he doesn’t actually say that exactly, but that’s how it’s usually misquoted. The last one of these lines that I came across was the very last line of Sunset Boulevard, where Gloria Swanson says ‘Alright Mr De Mille, I’m ready for my close-up now.’

Score – 8/10.

Next up is The Prestige about which I know absolutely nothing. I don’t know who’s in it, what it’s about or anything. It must have completely passed me by when it was released in 2006.