The treasure of the Sierra Madre

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Movie
German title The treasure of the Sierra Madre
Original title The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1948
length 121 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Huston
script John Huston
production Henry Blanke for
Warner Brothers
music Max Steiner
camera Ted McCord
cut Owen Marks
occupation
synchronization

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a 1948 American film directed by John Huston based on the novel by B. Traven . The main roles are played by Humphrey Bogart , Tim Holt and John Huston's father Walter Huston .

action

Mexico in 1925: The American Fred C. Dobbs was stranded in Tampico on Mexico's east coast; there is one of the largest oil ports in the world here. Dobbs survives by begging rich compatriots. On a park bench, he meets a younger compatriot who is similar: Bob Curtin.

The contractor Pat McCormick offers Dobbs to temporarily employ him in the construction of a derrick . Dobbs agrees immediately; Curtin becomes his work colleague. After two weeks, McCormick meets with his two workers in a bar in Tampico to pay them their wages. The two wait, the entrepreneur does not appear, Dobbs and Curtin are financially at an end. In the dormitory of a cheap hostel, they hear how old gold digger Howard raves about a Mexican vein of gold and at the same time depicts the destructive consequences of greed for gold . The next day, Dobbs and Curtin happened to run into their contractor. He doesn't want to pay, there is a fight. The entrepreneur is defeated and the two cheated workers use what is due to them from their client's wallet.

Now the question is how best to invest your money, and the memory of Howard's tale makes you want to give gold prospecting a try. They invite the prospector to participate. He's old, but he's a professional and he's the only one who speaks Spanish. Howard is delighted; however, he has to make it clear to the two beginners that they do not have enough money for the equipment. You not only need pack donkeys, tools and provisions, but also weapons, because the area in which the gold vein lies is ruled by bandits . In this situation Dobbs comes to the rescue; In a lottery he wins the missing pesos and so the three of them set off by train to the Mexican west. Your goal is the mountain range of the Sierra Madre , inhabited by Indians ; the railway is supposed to bring them to Victoria de Durango , the capital of the state of Durango .

The train is attacked by bandits. The prospectors recognize a notorious leader among the attackers; because of the color of his sombrero, he is called the "gold hat". There are soldiers on the train; they manage to put the bandits to flight.

In Durango, Dobbs, Curtin and Howard stock up on pack donkeys and supplies and begin the ascent into the Sierra Madre. They move from the jungle to an area with sparse vegetation. Old Howard is always ahead, the two younger ones are soon exhausted. The moment Dobbs surrenders and wants to turn back, Howard explains to him. They have just achieved their goal, they are into gold - ignoramuses like his two companions confuse gold dust with ordinary sand.

The three dig a tunnel , build a wash trough and start panning for gold. Howard was right, the vein is rich. The three of them are illegal for gold digging; they have not acquired a prospectus because they fear they will be evicted by the major mining companies if they apply.

After a few weeks of successful hard work, greed and distrust stir, especially in Dobbs. He ensures that the daily yield is divided between the three prospectors every evening. They hide their supplies from each other, dominated by the fear of being watched by others.

Curtin tells what he wants to do with the gold, namely buy land and grow fruit; the good life for him consists in a peach harvest.

Dobbs is buried in the tunnel and - after a moment's hesitation - is saved by Curtin. Despite this help, Dobbs' distrust gradually turns into paranoid . He believes Curtin and Howard have nothing else on their minds than to locate his gold stash and kill him.

While shopping for supplies in a village, Curtin meets a Texan from Dallas named James Cody. Curtin poses as a big game hunter, but the Texan won't be fooled. He tracks down the prospectors' camp and demands that they let him participate in the work and in the future yield, otherwise he will report them to the authorities. The three consult and, at Dobbs' urging, decide to murder Cody. They are about to put their plan into action when Cody points out that a group of bandits led by "Goldhut" is on them. The three of them need every man to defend themselves, so they drop the murder plan. The bandits are concerned with the weapons of the gold diggers, they know nothing about the gold. There is a shootout in which Cody is shot by the bandits. Federales appear, members of the Mounted and Armed Federal Police; the bandits flee, the gold diggers escape the police's attention.

Under Cody's belongings, the three of them find a letter in which his wistful wife tries to make it clear to her husband, who is addicted to gold, what true happiness consists of: in the beauty of the orchards.

The three decide to end the gold prospecting. Curtin and Howard want to give Cody's widow a quarter of the proceeds, as they would have been killed by the bandits without the Texan's help; Dobbs refuses to participate in this project.

On the way back through the Sierra Madre, Indians get in their way. They mistake Howard for a medicine man and ask him to accompany them to their village; the son of the village chief is in a coma. Howard follows them and manages to bring the boy back to consciousness. The village chief wants to show his gratitude to Howard and asks him to stay in the village for a few more days; Howard agrees. He asks Dobbs and Curtin to go without him and to take his pack mules and his gold with them; in a few days he plans to come and meet them in Durango.

Dobbs and Curtin are now the two of them and for the first time they have control of all of the gold. Dobbs is certain that Curtin is trying to steal from him. He threatens Curtin with a gun, but he manages to disarm Dobbs. As a precaution, he removes the ammunition from Dobbs' revolver. Dobbs waits for Curtin to fall asleep, then takes his gun, shoots him and moves on. Curtin, who he thinks is dead, is only shot. He is found by Indians and brought to Howard in the village. Howard and the wounded Curtin set out on horseback to catch Dobbs and get the gold back into their possession. A group of Indians accompanies Howard to protect him.

Dobbs travels alone with an entourage of pack donkeys through the Sierra Madre, the heat almost kills him. Shortly before Durango, the bandit leader "Goldhut" surprises him at a waterhole near a church ruin, who is accompanied by two men. The bandits don't know anything about the gold this time either, they want Dobbs' weapon, his boots and his donkey. Dobbs is easy prey; he is exhausted, has no support and no ammunition in his weapon. The bandits hit him on the skull with a stone, then cut off his head with a machete (the image of the severed head was removed by the film censors). The bandits mistake the gold dust for sand; they carelessly pour it onto the ground.

When the bandits try to sell the donkeys and equipment in Durango, residents of the city realize that it is the property of the Americans. They capture the bandits and alert the federales . These make short work of them; the long sought “golden hat” and his two companions are executed.

The moment the execution is carried out, Howard and Curtin arrive in town. They learn that Dobbs was murdered by the bandits, but that his property has been secured. They search the donkeys and find that the crucial thing is missing: the bags with the gold. A boy tells them that he overheard the bandits talking about "bags of sand". He leads them to the church ruins in front of the city. A strong north wind has scattered the gold dust, Howard and Curtin can only find the empty bags. The old gold digger has to laugh. Fate, he says, played a trick on us because the gold has returned to where we found it. Howard decides to accept the role of medicine man offered to him by the Indians and to stay with them. He will leave the money he'll get for selling the equipment to Curtin. He should use it to visit Cody's widow in Dallas, where the fruit harvest is just beginning.

Production background

The film was shot for the most part on its original locations in Mexico , which was a special feature - outdoor shots were considered common in the western genre, but not in the southern neighboring country, especially since American-Mexican political relations were strained at all times. (There was a certain relaxation in the fifties, which was also reflected in the western stronghold of Durango , where numerous Hollywood productions were made.) The only large-scale production by the Californians in Aztec-Ländle so far was Viva Villa! from 1934. John Huston contradicted the fact that around 1926 he had served for two years on a whim and through the mediation of his riding instructor in the Mexican cavalry, where he learned the Spanish language and developed a general love for the country. Apart from that, with the shoot around the insignificant town of San José Purua and in the Sierra Madre Occidental he evaded the direct control of the Warner Bros. bosses, had more freedom, but on the other hand had to deal with the difficult conditions of the poor infrastructure. This and his meticulous way of working led to the schedule being exceeded by 29 days (the recordings were from March to mid-July 1947), which particularly annoyed Humphrey Bogart because he had planned to race his yacht "Santana" in Honolulu which started on July 4th. Huston reportedly ended his star's constant nagging with a painful twister. Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall, who was traveling with him, fought against the sometimes poor cuisine ; Huston's then wife Evelyn Keyes was also there.

Rumors have grown up about whether the mysterious author B. Traven , whose true identity has not been clarified, was temporarily present as a consultant on location. In 1946, Huston arranged to meet B. Traven at the Hotel Bamer in Mexico's capital to discuss the details of the film. Instead of the writer, an unknown man appeared who introduced himself as Hal Croves, translator from Acapulco and San Antonio , and showed the alleged authority of B. Traven in which the writer empowered him to make all decisions on his behalf. Croves was a technical advisor on location for the film during its 1947 production in Mexico. The mysterious behavior of the writer and his alleged agent meant that when the film was made, a large part of the team was convinced that Hal Croves was actually B. Traven himself in disguise. Huston stated in his autobiography that he did not believe in it and that Croves deliberately wanted to create the confusion around him. To date, it is not clear whether Hal Croves was actually B. Traven.

The director of the film studio, Jack Warner , who liked to interfere in the scripts of the films, actually wanted Bogart to survive at the end of the film (this was intended to increase the acceptance of the film by the audience). However, Huston was able to get Bogart to die in accordance with the novel at the end of the film. Huston originally wanted to show the suggested figure of the Bogart figure more explicitly, but the Hays Code did not allow that.

The film includes interesting cameos . Right at the beginning of the film, director John Huston can be seen as an American dressed in white who gives the begging Humphrey Bogart a peso several times. After Humphrey Bogart had spent one of these pesos on a visit to the hairdresser, he ran into a prostitute on the street. He goes after her and she disappears into an hour hotel. The prostitute is said to have been portrayed by Hollywood star Ann Sheridan , although her involvement is considered unsafe. She may have shot the scene as a joke, but was later replaced by another actress. In addition to Walter Huston, the father of John Huston, the father of Tim Holt also appears in one scene: Jack Holt , a former silent film star, talks to Walter Huston about prospecting for gold in the cheap dump where Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt for the first time Time to be confronted with the idea of ​​gold prospecting.

Movie quotes

  • "The next time you make a rich find, call me before you splash water! Water is precious. Sometimes even more precious than gold." (Walter Huston as Howard )
  • "This guy just stole our water. Next time it'll put a few holes in it so it can drain again." (Humphrey Bogart as Freddy Dobbs )
  • "Badges? Stinking badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges" (Alfonso Bedoya as Gold Hat )

synchronization

The German dubbing was created in 1949 in the Munich dubbing department of the Motion Picture Export Association of America (MPEA). Peter Elsholtz was responsible for the script and dubbing .

role actor Voice actor
Fred C. Dobbs Humphrey Bogart Carl Raddatz
Howard Walter Huston Konrad Wagner
Bob Curtin Tim Holt Ernst Wilhelm Borchert
James Cody Bruce Bennett Axel Monjé
Pat McCormick Barton MacLane Walter Suessenguth

reception

Awards

The film was nominated in four categories at the Academy Awards in 1949 . Walter Huston received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor . John Huston received two Oscars in the categories of best director and best script . In the category of Best Film , the film lost to Hamlet of Laurence Olivier .

The film also won three Golden Globe Awards in 1949 for Best Picture (Drama), Walter Huston for Best Supporting Actor (Drama) and John Huston for Best Screenplay. The film received two awards from the National Board of Review's major film critics association . Walter Huston received the award for best actor and John Huston the award for best screenplay. The film won the NYFCC Awards for Best Picture of the Year and John Huston was named Best Director. The film was nominated for Best Picture at the British Film Academy Awards . John Huston also received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Western Screenplay .

In 1990 the film was entered into the National Film Registry . In the rankings of the American Film Institute , published at the beginning of the millennium, the film found several places. In the list of the greatest American films of all time (No. 30 in 1998, No. 38 in 2007), in the list of the most important American thrillers of all time (No. 67) as well as in the list of the most important American movie quotes (No. 36 for the sentence des Banditen Goldhut: Badges? Stinking badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges ) he is also mentioned.

Reviews

The treasure of the Sierra Madre is still regarded by critics as an undisputed classic film. All 45 reviews of the film are positive on the American review portal Rotten Tomatoes . The critical consensus is: "Imitated but never achieved, this darkly humorous mortality story represents John Huston at its height."

The film service writes that it is an "exciting adventure film" and "a classic of the adventure genre". As an example, he shows the failure of efforts to secure material possession. The Protestant film observer also praised in his criticism from 1950: “A captivating adventure film based on the novel by B. Traven about gold diggers in the Mexican mountains. The director, actor and camera turned the dramatic events into a remarkable film that is not without educational value. "

Influence on films and directors

In Sam Peckinpah's 1974 film Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia , one of the bounty hunters calls himself "Fred C. Dobbs". Another allusion is cutting off a head with a machete. But the plot of the two films also has numerous similarities. The main character in both films is an American who lives in a Mexican city, is not particularly bright and is in financial difficulties. Other common plot elements: The hunt for the money leads the hero across Mexico; his greed for money destroys his social relationships; he develops increasingly delusional traits; he is pursued by Mexican bandits and finally killed; the money is lost. The contrasting film in both films depicts the life of the Mexican village population and conjugal happiness.

Stanley Kubrick named The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in a 1963 list for Cinema magazine as one of his ten favorite films. More recently, Vince Gilligan , creator of the television series Breaking Bad , has called the film an influence on himself. In the Breaking Bad episode buyout is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre also cited.

DVD release

  • The treasure of the Sierra Madre . Turner Entertainment and Warner Brothers Entertainment 2003. Duration 121 min., B / w, sound format: DD / 1.0 mono, picture format: 1.37: 1 (4: 3). Languages: German, English, Spanish;

Subtitles: German, English, Spanish, etc. v. a .; Subtitles for the hearing impaired: German, English. Extras: Audio commentary by Eric Lex on the filming and the background of the film; Documentary Discovering Treasure: The Story of the Treasure of the Sierra Madre (49 min). Trailer.

Soundtrack

  • Max Steiner : The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Max Steiner's Classic Film Score. (The Complete Motion Picture Soundtrack) . Marco Polo / HNH, Franklin 2000, sound carrier no. 8.225149 - Digital recording of the full score by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by William T. Stromberg
  • Max Steiner: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Original motion picture soundtrack . Membrane / Mousiki Akti, Hamburg and Athens 2004, sound carrier no. 221859-207 - digitally restored original recording (mono) of the film music under the direction of the composer

literature

  • Karlheinz Oplustil: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre / The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in classic films - descriptions and comments / Ed. By Thomas Koebner . 5th edition, Reclam junior, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-030033-6 ; Volume 2: 1946-1962, pp. 79-81
  • B. Traven : The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Novel . Unabridged edition. Ullstein, Berlin 1997, 286 pages, ISBN 3-548-24169-7

Web links

Commons : The Treasure of the Sierra Madre  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ann Sheridan & The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Thomas Bräutigam: Lexicon of film and television synchronization. More than 2000 films and series with their German voice actors etc. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-289-X , p. 316
  3. ^ The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 9/1950
  6. ^ Stanley Kubrick's Favorite Films - Movie List. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  7. ^ The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - IMDb. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .