HUMPHREY BOGART STEALS 'THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE'

Title: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Year: 1948 Rating: ****

By the time TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE came out, Humphrey Bogart was already a big star, having began (over a decade earlier) as unknown dressed-up dandies to successfully portraying cutthroat villains soon morphed into likeable scoundrels... and then outright heroes...

So for MADRE it was back to the heavy... yet his Fred C. Dobbs is initially more lightweight and affable, homeless and bumming throughout the crowded purgatory of 1920's Mexico with a new friend in perfect sidekick Tim Holt, both meeting an old yet energetic, experienced, tale-spinning and much-deserved Oscar-winning Walter Huston, director John Huston's father and the reason Bogart agreed playing another dark, sinister role: so that the veteran actor could intensely perform against such formidable, uncompromising tyranny...

Humphrey Bogart in THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE

Mostly caused by the film's titular antagonist of gold... well-after Huston warned his partners they'd probably turn vicious... while the earlier scenes are the most involving, from various town troubles to a gun-blasting train ride to the rural hiking trip to their primary rural/woodsy goldmine that makes TREASURE a latter Western that's ultimately more an outright cautionary tale against greed and envy...

Wherein Bogart's both the bad guy and central lead in his last genuinely classic vehicle despite being twenty-minutes too long, melodramatically over-scored (beyond Max Steiner's memorable main theme) and with some dated overacting... but only from random side-characters before it's down to the rudimentary trio (until claim-jumper Bruce Bennett makes a suspenseful short-lived foursome): in a twisty physical and mental mind-game adventure...

Poster art for THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE

With Bogart doing most of the cunning, unpredictable dirty work, stubbornly railing against Walter Huston's endearing and exciting age-old wisdom and Tim Holt's flawlessly youthful dependability...

A kind of throwback to THE ROARING TWENTIES with Bogart as the cutthroat wild card clashing in a deck stacked desperately against (while poised intensely around) his edgy, now legendary and timeless persona.

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with lottery-ticket-collecting local Robert Blake

Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Robert Blake

Walter Huston with Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Tim Holt in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Tim Holt in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madr

John Huston director cameo in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Japanese Poster for The Treasure of the Sierra Madr

Walter Huston and Tim Holt with Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Barton MacClane in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Jacqueline Dalya

Walter Huston and Tim Holt in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Stinking Badges Bandito Alfonso Bedoya from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Polite Claim Jumper Bruce Bennett in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Credits for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Credits for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Credits for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Tim Holt and Walter Huston