The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Short description
In Tampico, Mexico, two down-on-their-luck Americans, Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, scrape together a living on odd jobs until they meet an old prospector named Howard. He tells them about gold in the Sierra Madre mountains, and the three pool their money to outfit an expedition. The journey into the wild terrain is punishing, and the men face bandits and other dangers along the way. Their real trouble, though, comes from within: once gold is found, suspicion and greed begin to pull the partners apart. The film is based on B. Traven's novel of the same name.
John Huston directed and wrote the screenplay, with Henry Blanke producing for Warner Bros. Pictures. It was the second of the twenty-two films Huston directed, following The Maltese Falcon and preceding Key Largo. Humphrey Bogart plays Dobbs, Walter Huston plays Howard, and Tim Holt plays Curtin, with Bruce Bennett, Barton MacLane and Alfonso Bedoya among the credited cast of thirty-two. The production had a budget of about four million dollars and took in roughly the same amount at the worldwide box office.
The film rates 8.2 out of 10 on IMDb from around 141,000 votes and 7.9 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 1,400 votes. A film critics' rating of 9.5 out of 10, based on 54 reviews, places it noticeably higher than those audience scores. Running 126 minutes, it combines adventure, drama and western elements.
What's left behind the scenes
- Director and screenwriter John Huston (1906-1987) was attracted to the author of the novel serving as the literary source, the eponymous novel (1927) by B. Traven (1890-1969), who lived in seclusion in Mexico. Traven had no objections to either the director who would film his novel or the screenplay – apparently, he gave his approval in writing – and sent his close friend Hal Croves to the set, who became a technical advisor and translator and received $150 a week for it. It is believed that Traven himself performed under the pseudonym “Croves,” although Traven always denied this. Huston himself did not want to bother with these questions, but his then-wife, Evelyn Keyes (1916-2008), was convinced that Croves was the same mysterious writer, Traven. She claimed that he constantly gave himself away, saying “I” in certain situations when he should have said “he,” and his speech contained too many phrases similar to those in Traven’s letters to Huston. At present, it is known for certain that “B. Traven” is a pseudonym, although the writer’s true identity has never been established.
- Humphrey Bogart began losing his hair in 1947, partly due to hormones he was taking to have children with his wife, Lauren Bacall (1924-2014) – although in this case, the early baldness was likely due to alcohol abuse and a lack of vitamin B in his body. By the time he arrived in Mexico, he was already completely bald. The actor wore a wig during filming.
- Initially, producer Henry Blank (1901-1981) even liked the fact that Walter Huston (1883-1950), who played Howard, was drawing attention away from Humphrey Bogart, but as filming progressed, doubts began to creep in, and John Huston began to hint to his father that he should behave more modestly in front of the camera.
- At one point during filming, the gambling yachtsman Humphrey Bogart began to worry that he would miss the yacht races from Catalina to Hawaii, in which he participated every year. Studio management repeatedly assured him that work on the film would be completed by the start of the races, but the actor soon began to pester John Huston with the question of when filming would end. This ultimately annoyed the director, and after another such question, he grabbed Bogart by the nose and twisted his hand. Bogart didn't ask him that question again.
- John Huston chose to adapt the novel "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" because he hoped the role of the elderly gold prospector would bring his father, Walter Huston, the long-awaited "Oscar".
- The film was shown in Soviet cinemas under the title "My Treasure."
- As a high-ranking American whom Dobbs begs for coins, the director himself appears on screen.
- The film's budget exceeded $5 million, making it the most expensive film from Warner Bros. until 1948, and the fact that filming took place in Mexico added to the studio executives' concerns. Initially, the studio heads insisted that the character played by Humphrey Bogart should remain alive altogether, then they began to insist that he survive almost to the very end of the film. Director John Huston did things his own way. The film received critical acclaim, but box office receipts immediately after its release were not particularly satisfactory.
- One of the first Hollywood films shot "on location" outside the United States – in the Mexican state of Durango and the city of Tampico. To emphasize the local flavor, the director left the dialogue of the local residents in Spanish without subtitles.
- Steven Spielberg later said that he drew inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones primarily from the image of Dobbs in this film, played by Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957).
- In some scenes, Walter Huston had to speak Spanish, but he did not know the language. John Huston specifically hired a Mexican, who recorded all of Walter Huston Sr.'s lines, and Huston simply memorized them by ear, doing so well that many later told him he spoke Spanish like a native speaker.
- Initially, John Huston filmed Dobbs's death, played by Humphrey Bogart, more graphically (as in the book) than the version that ultimately remained in the film. When the character played by Alfonso Bedoya (1904-1957) strikes Dobbs with a machete, he completely decapitates him, after which the head (a prop, of course) rolls and falls into the water. It was 1948, and censorship wouldn't allow such details to be shown, so the film only shows the machete strike.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
