With apologies, this is easily the shortest review I’ve written. It’s just that I don’t have much to say about this one.
I saw The Treasure of the Sierra Madre last weekend. I was mostly unimpressed by the experience. I’m not sure if I was just in the wrong mood, but I felt like it was just standard 1940s movie fare. Pretty heavy handed on the moral lesson, a bit over-the-top on the performances, overbearing music, the whole nine.
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It’s not that Humphrey Bogart or Tim Holt (above, for example) gave a bad performance, it’s just that it was so obvious how it was going to turn out. I guess there’s only so much you can do with “Hey, I’m a swell guy.” “Gold’ll change you!” “Hey, I’m a bad guy now because of gold.” “Told you.”
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I never knew where the “stinking badges” line came from, so it was fun to have it sneak up on me. That was the best part of the film for me. Well, that and Walter Huston’s little jig.
His Oscar-winning little jig.
All in all, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre only ended up rating mediocre for me. Better luck next time, John Huston.
