People who say “The love of money is the root of all evil” don’t quite get it. For context, watch Fred C. Dobbs tear up his losing lottery ticket in the opening scene of John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). The scene portrays what it is like to be without money and, to a larger degree, without luck, which is another way of saying hope. Zero. Zilch. Nada. The term used by Dobbs and those like him is “busted.”
The scene continues: Dobbs is forced to panhandle a stranger, whose negative reply includes callously throwing away a burning cigarette. Dobbs looks after it, his eyes briefly filled with hope, before a young Mexican boy quickly snatches it up. The look on Dobbs’ face is not about the love of money. It is the fear of having no money. How it feels when your luck/hope/money runs out.
Fred C. Dobbs, as most all movie fans know, is played by Humphrey Bogart. The fact that we know his middle initial says everything. When the character refers to himself in the third person, which he does a lot, he is “Fred C. Dobbs” and he is a person, not a nobody, regardless how the world perceives him. It is this conflict that ultimately drives Dobbsie – as his fellows invariably call him — insane. There is a happy ending of sorts in the movie, but not for Fred C. Dobbs, who is decapitated.
The setting is Tampico, Mexico toward the end of the 1920’s. The atmosphere is one of boom or bust as oilfield camps and drilling rigs promise the new wealth: black gold. For men like Dobbs, the reality is back-breaking work and long hours, only to be swindled at the end by corrupt speculators. This happens to Dobbs and his new companion, Curtin, who are forced to track down the man who owes them money and to physically confront and fight him for their due.
In a Mexican bar, Bogart and Curtin, played by Tim Holt, confront their employer, played by Barton McClain. It is two against one, but McClain seems to be the stronger, as if poverty itself has rendered the other two men weak. It is a brutal depiction of how fights really occur, clumsy and unexpected rather than choreographed like ‘in the movies’. The pair alternate being knocked down by McClain, until their twin attacks finally begin to take a toll. “I’m licked,” he says, his face bloody and swollen, as he hands over his bankroll. Bogart takes only the amount of money owed, about $300 each, and they leave McClain on the barroom floor. Working together to lift themselves from their situation may be an answer.
What follows next is the part of the movie most familiar to movie fans. The pair meet an old prospector, played by John Huston’s father Walter Huston, and he is the inspiration for their dreams of finding real gold in the mountains of the Sierra Madres. Then a miracle occurs: Dobbs wins the lottery and 200 pesos. This amount plus Howard’s savings and the payoff from McClain give the men just enough money – the root of all evil – to try their gold hunting scheme.
Masterful vignettes follow: Howard “loping” like a goat ahead of his two younger partners as they travel through the desert and mountains; Dobbsie and Curtin bedazzled by fool’s gold pyrite; Howard dancing a literal jig when the trio find the spot, saying, ‘You two are so dumb you don’t see the riches you’re treading on’; the agreement to divide up the gold shares, which requires finding a place to hide it nightly; the subsequent standoff with Dobbs and a Gila Monster under a rock; the arrival of a stranger, Cody (Bruce Bennett), a Texan with a family, who also senses gold; the threat of Mexican bandits – ‘Badges? We don’t need no stink’in badges’; the death of Cody; and Howard’s elevation to a village healer and shaman.
There is also Dobbs’ decent into madness. Throughout the movie, Dobbs is prickly. About midway through, when the gold dust begins to accumulate, he is paranoid. When the gold is finally packed, one burro per man, Dobbs’ mental state is as windblown as a frayed leaf. The temporary exit of Howard – whose moral character holds the movie together – leads to Dobbsie’s final descent. He imagines his partner Curtin is planning murder, so he shoots him — twice. Bogart’s psychological issues are on full display as he talks to himself, hesitating over the burial of his former partner. “I wonder if his eyes are still open?” He fails to check and Curtin, who is wounded, manages to crawl away.
Dobbs’ ending is extremely sad. He and the three burros are almost to civilization, when they again encounter the surviving bandits, including Gold Hat, the leader. Bogart‘s Dobbs is simultaneously belligerent and petrified. The bandits ply his goodwill – like the young street boys of Tampico — while eyeing his new boots. In the end, Gold Hat yields a machete and decapitates Dobbs. They steal the burros and the packs, which they then try to sell at the nearby village. The sacks of gold – which the bandits think are only ballasts of sand – are abandoned to blow away in the desert wind. The bandits’ thievery is discovered, and they are summarily executed.
The movie ends with laughter as Howard and Curtin, reunited and safe, discover the remains of their lost gold: empty sacks. As to what’s so funny, we can only guess.Earlier in the film, Howard advises, ‘Gold changes a man’s soul.’ Dobbsie disagrees: ‘Gold don’t carry any curse with it. It all depends on whether or not the guy who finds it is a right guy.’
Director John Huston (1906-1987) first read the novel on which the film is based in 1935. The novel was published in German in 1927, written by B Traven, The ‘B’ might stand for Bruno. A lot is both known and not known about B Traven.
Huston spent two years in Mexico in the late 1920’s, moving back to California in 1931. He had success as a screenwriter and was ultimately given a chance at directing by Jack Warner at Warner Bros. Studios. His choice was The Maltese Falcon (1941). He directed two more films, one involving Humphrey Bogart, Across the Pacific (1942), before joining the U.S. Army Signal Corps. from 1942-46. Almost on the day the war started, his film The Maltese Falcon had been released. During the war, he knew that his first movie after would be The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. In 1948, John Huston won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Direction for the film, while father Walter won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of “Howard,” the old prospector