The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a 1948 American Western film written and directed by John Huston. It is an adaptation of B. Traven's 1927 novel of the same name, set in 1925, and follows two downtrodden men (played by Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) who join forces with a grizzled old prospector (Walter Huston, the director's father), in searching for gold in Mexico. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was one of the early Hollywood productions to be shot on location outside the United States (in the state of Durango with street scenes in Tampico, Mexico), but many scenes were filmed back in the studio and elsewhere in the U.S. In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot In 1925, in the Mexican town of Tampico, labor contractor Pat McCormick recruits Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two broke American drifters, as roughnecks to help construct oil derricks for $8 per day. When the project is completed and the men return to Tampico, McCormick skips out without paying them. The two vagrants encounter an old man named Howard in a flophouse. A loquacious ex-miner, he talks to them about gold prospecting and the perils of striking it rich. Dobbs and Curtin run into McCormick at a cantina, and collect their back wages after a bar fight. When Dobbs hits a small jackpot in the lottery, he, Curtin and Howard have enough money to buy supplies to go prospecting in the interior.