"Up there . . .Up there!" is THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE!
Written: Jun 07 '00 (Updated Feb 17 '06)
Product Rating:
Pros: The Greatest of All Treasure Hunt Movies.
Cons: A few abrupt cuts. I agree with my colleagues: See it in black and white.
The Bottom Line: The characters, the performances, the direction, the story and some of the dialogue of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE have become part of our general semantics.
macresarf1's Full Review: Treasure of the Sierra Madre
In 1930, B. Traven, mysterious author of Mexican revolutionary novels, boasted he danced with the well-known Mexican actress Lupita Tovar in Guadalajara. He never forgot her, and seventeen years later, when Lupita Tovar was married to Paul Kohner, John Huston's agent and friend, she may have been a factor in the making of the finest epic search movie of them all: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948).
It was Lupita Tovar Kohner who arranged several (aborted) meetings between Traven and Writer/Director Huston, which eventually led to the appearance of a literary agent named Hal Croves, actually one of Traven's many aliases.
Born in the late 1880's, in Germany, perhaps of partial Norwegian stock, Traven adopted the name Ret Marut in 1905, when he launched a career as a playwright, director, journalist and printer. After World War I, by then known as Traven, and involved in criminal revolutionary activity, he fled Germany to Mexico, armed with a guidebook by the famous stage director, Antoine Artaud. There he became Traven Torsvan, B. Traven and/or Hal Croves. He evidently went so far as to take (or fake) the identity of an American named Traven Torsvan Croves, born south of Chicago in 1890. (It once could be done, through the Mob -- I know a man who did it.)
An admirer of Joseph Conrad and Theodore Dreiser, B. Traven wrote, between 1925 and 1940, nearly a dozen novels and many short stories on social realist themes. Threatened by the rise of Nazism, he sought to conceal his real identity as his work achieved cult status. He appears to have taught himself English, partly to further his disguises, and the later novels, a la a Conradian model, were written both in German and in English. After 1940, until his death in 1969, his conventional literary production slacked off. He became interested in writing for the Mexican film industry, from his home near Acapulco, and having his books turned into movies there. Traven granted Huston permission through his agent "Hal Croves" to make THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE.
Hence, in February 1947, John Huston took a film crew to Tampico, the big oil port on the east coast, where the novel begins.
In the year 1925, Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) meets a fellow impoverished American, Bob Curtin (Tim Holt), in a park. They take work as riggers with a contractor named McCormick, and when he cheats them out of their pay, they beat it out of him, which leads to their meeting an old gold prospector Howard (Walter Huston). Thanks to *a fateful lottery ticket, Dobbs is able to buy himself and his friend into a scheme to find treasure in the mountains.
Optimistic, the trio entrain for Durango in the Sierra Madre Occidentales of Northwestern Mexico, from where they hike to the mining site, meet another American, Cody (Bruce Bennett), and play out an incomparable tale of greed, heroism and irony.
Actually, most of the film was shot to the south in the mountains around the village of Jungapeo, near San Jose Purua, in the state of Michoacan, closer to Traven and Acapulco.
Huston had been interested in the novel for a number of reasons. One of them was that, after serving a stint in the Mexican Cavalry in the late 1920's, on a six day journey from Acapulco to Mexico City, his mule train was attacked in the night by banditos. They demanded goods and ammunition but were refused. The next day four men remained behind the train and captured one of the bandits, who was turned over to rural police and shot at the town of Chipancingo. Huston staged the film's famous bandit attack after that experience, in much the same area.
The lead bandits represent the reality of class structure among the miserable of the earth. Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya) is god, and he is aided by his assistants El Presidente (Arturo Soto Rangel) and El Jefe (Manuel Donde), until the minions of the greater gods, The Federales, mete out quick and certain Justice to them.
Traven was a Romantic Christian and a Shelleyite, who believed in love, brotherhood, the purity of the Indian culture, and in our being ourselves, so the death of the selfish Dobbs, selfless Curtin's resolve to help Cody's widow, and Walter's decision to live out his life among the Indians illustrate these principles.
Huston's script follows the novel rather closely except for the excision of a long historical digression detailing how the Church and the Conquistiadors cheated and slaughtered the Indians in a quest for gold and silver.
Traven's real reputation is now based on a series of six novels, translation into English only recently completed, set far to the south among the Mahogany wood cutters of Chiapas State, site of recent revolutionary activities by Sub-Commandante Marcos and his band.
The theme of the film is aided immeasurably by Max Steiner's musical score. Steiner composed for so many movies in his 35 year career that he often Mickey Moused his work and reused suitable pieces in movie after movie. Here, almost the entire score is fresh, original, and applied surely. The memorable heroic theme, used in both major and minor keys, is based on an early day Hunger March.
[I remember the many times I have hummed that theme with my compadres: Norman the Archer and C-47.]
Interestingly, in 1970, John Huston starred as Howard in a film version of one of the Traven Chiapas novels: The Bridge in the Jungle. He was even persuaded to do a version of his father's little dance. The story was adapted and directed by Pancho Kohner, son of Paul and Lupita Tovar Kohner, mentioned at the outset of this review. The film is atmospheric, but it was considered a boutique enterprise, and never released except at film festivals. I am indebted to my friend, scholar Bill Hildebrand, for my copy.
John Huston and his father Walter won Academy Awards for THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, as Best Director and Best Supporting Actor respectively. It is the only case in Academy History where a father and son won for the same film.
John Huston also appears uncredited playing an American tourist in THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE -- as does Jack Holt (Tim's father), as a bum listening to Howard in a Tampico flophouse. Ann Sheridan, a reigning star of the time (NORA PRENTISS, 1947) is seen briefly as a streetwalker.
I traveled by car once from Chihuahua south to Durango, and several times from Durango to Mazatlan. I know of no more savage and magical country. (By bus, the driver sometimes announces: "Senors y Senores, if banditos attack us in the passes, I shall lock the doors. You will be perfectly safe.") I'll always remember with admiration the steely courage of my old friend C-47 making the five hour drive down "The Devil's Spine" from volcano ringed Durango to the beautiful beaches of Mazatlan.
Magnificent!
--------------
*UPDATE -- February 27, 2003 -- Epinionator Stephen Murray reminds me that movies sometimes embody for their participants ironies of their own. It was transitioning "Little Rascal" Bobby Blake, 14 years-old at the time, who sold that "fateful lottery ticket" to Dobbs/Bogart and shared in the winnings. The role led Blake to mature into a kind of Fred C. Dobbs/Humphrey Bogart in such films as IN COLD BLOOD (1967) and TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE (1969). Blake was arrested in 2001 for the murder of his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley Blake. This week, as he at last went prliminary hearing, he assuaged his pride before a National TV audience in an interview with Barbra Walters.
Note (2/17/06): He was subsequently found innocent of the criminal act, but then, stood trial in domestic court, charged by Ms. Bakley Blake's relatives on behalf of his child. A considerable judgment was lodged against his finances as a result.
-------------------------
For an irony involving Blake, related to the above note, you might care to read my review of the Jazz CD: WHITE HEAT FILM NOIR --
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.