John Huston's 1948 treasure-hunt classic stars Humphrey Bogart, as Fred C. Dobbs, a down-and-out wage-worker in Mexico who stakes his meager earnings on a gold-prospecting expedition to the Sierra mountains.
He's soon joined by a grizzled old prospector, named Howard ( Walter Huston, the director's father) and a young, no-nonsense partner, Curtin (Tim Holt), and when they strike a rich vein of gold, the movie becomes an observant study of human behavior.
At its heart the film is really just a superior morality play and one of the best movie treatments of the corrosiveness of greed. For instance, the film easily contrasts the characters: Huston's character, has been through it all before. Curtin is the more naive of the bunch and Dobbs' grows increasingly paranoid and violent over the length of the film: the way you see his burgeoning madness unravel-are the moments that make this film so great.
The film also has one hell of an ironic ending.
The performances are another thing that really make this film a real classic. Bogart was playing against type, he was not playing his usual romanticized character and he delivers quite possibly the best performance of his entire career.
But, it is Walter Huston, who literally steals the entire film, he is a weathered man, who's seen how gold can turn men into monsters. That laugh of his is a laugh for the ages. And that gig he does when they discover the gold. Brilliant.
Another great performance comes from Alphonso Bedoya, as the Mexican bandit leader, with his line of "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" Another cool thing about the film, was some of the cameos throughout the film. Robert Blake as a boy selling lottery tickets, Ann Sheridan as a prostitute, and non-other than John Huston himself as the ' man in white', the rich man who Dobbs' keeps pestering for money.
He's soon joined by a grizzled old prospector, named Howard ( Walter Huston, the director's father) and a young, no-nonsense partner, Curtin (Tim Holt), and when they strike a rich vein of gold, the movie becomes an observant study of human behavior.
At its heart the film is really just a superior morality play and one of the best movie treatments of the corrosiveness of greed. For instance, the film easily contrasts the characters: Huston's character, has been through it all before. Curtin is the more naive of the bunch and Dobbs' grows increasingly paranoid and violent over the length of the film: the way you see his burgeoning madness unravel-are the moments that make this film so great.
The film also has one hell of an ironic ending.
The performances are another thing that really make this film a real classic. Bogart was playing against type, he was not playing his usual romanticized character and he delivers quite possibly the best performance of his entire career.
But, it is Walter Huston, who literally steals the entire film, he is a weathered man, who's seen how gold can turn men into monsters. That laugh of his is a laugh for the ages. And that gig he does when they discover the gold. Brilliant.
Another great performance comes from Alphonso Bedoya, as the Mexican bandit leader, with his line of "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" Another cool thing about the film, was some of the cameos throughout the film. Robert Blake as a boy selling lottery tickets, Ann Sheridan as a prostitute, and non-other than John Huston himself as the ' man in white', the rich man who Dobbs' keeps pestering for money.