The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Dobbs' descent into madness

It's a story with a moral, and it's laid on pretty thick. Dobbs (Bogart) and his cohort start out as underdogs, cheated by an oilman, begging for change.

Old Joe Blow (Huston), an ancient gold prospector, excites them with tales of fortunes to be made, but also cautions them of the effect of sudden riches.

They decide that anything is better than nothing and head out into the middle of nowhere to look for gold, and end up finding it, nearly killing a man over it, then fighting bandits, bandits who don't need no stinking badges.

Gradually Dobbs falls prey to exactly the disease he was warned about, becoming more and more suspicious, ending in a murderous rage.

This is really a great film especially due to the central performance of Bogart, but also lots of wonderful scenes along the way where we glimpse the characters' lives.

I liked this film so much that I bought the book as well by B. Traven. The film is pretty similar to the book, although it's rather wordy and a little tedious. I tried some other books by B. Traven such as "The Death Ship", but they weren't as good. It would be interesting to find out how much of this was inspired from true stories.

Back to main page