The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) 126 Minutes

Coolbaugh set a Movienight record with this classic Selection, edging out

Wiener’s ‘The Third Man’ by one year for the title of Oldest Movienight

Selection to date.

Though Tooda deduced the title before the film began, no one seemed to

mind once this entrancing story began to unfold.

Jaja went MIA again this week, but the Back Yard was still full as Netti

and Pat Towne once again joined the Crew outside. Surprisingly, this

was the first time Netti and Nubs had seen this magnificent film.

Coolbaugh didn’t “forget the orange soda,” and when Tecates appeared

on the Stucco, Coolbaugh pulled the same cerveza out of the fridge. The film’s Mexico setting aptly foreshadowed the Crew’s upcoming trip to Baja.

Our fourth film in glorious Black and White, ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ marked the first Movienight appearance of the incomparable Walter Huston. His son John returned after his debut in ‘Chinatown,’ this time directing as well. Three years after the release of this film, John fathered our third Huston Movienight alum, Anjelica (‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’).

Debuting here with two wonderful performances are Tim Holt and Alfonso Bedoya. Cinema legend Humphrey Bogart also makes his first Movienight appearance in this Oscar winning film. In the end, Bogie wasn’t nominated, but John Huston won two Oscars (Screenplay and Directing) and his father Walter took home the Best Supporting Actor award.

“Ah, as long as there's no find, the noble brotherhood will last but when the piles of gold begin to grow... that's when the trouble starts.”

Written and Directed by: John Huston

BBD Comments:

I am not really going to review the film here, but rather belly ache about two points that I have stuck in my craw. ‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ is a film that I have always known, but seldom have given my full attention. I have seen pieces of the ‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ since I was a kid. It was broadcast in a seemingly constant rotation with ‘The Magnificent Seven’ on WSBK-TV 38 every weekend. But this was the first time I really sat and watched the film all the way through with no commercial interruptions. It is a mesmerizing film, and I am so happy to have seen it on the Stucco. Huston’s story moves so swiftly and is so economically spun, I feel some shame for all the times I have half-watched it or changed the channel in the past. It is one of my favorite picks to date, and served to highlight two concerns I have had for a while about Back Yard etiquette. Now I’m not suggesting any new By-Laws here, I just want to say my piece and leave it at that.

I will say, the level of talking that has become the norm in the Back Yard is beginning to concern me. It dishonors the films we show, and I find the diminishment in focus to be, at least personally, very irritating. I am not pointing fingers at any one, but people need to shut the fuck up. I recognize that there is a degree of talking that some audience members demand as their right, and I have learned to live with it, but editorial Mystery Science Theater 3000 type comments greatly reduce the impact of any given moment in any given film. I am a purist as you all know, so I know some of you will disagree with me on this point. Fair enough. I know as well that I have been a chatty cathy myself during some Selections, so I don’t mean to suggest that I am beyond reproach. I simply mean to put it out there. I for one would love just a little more respect for the films we sit in front of. I will, and have, done my best to accept that people want to chat during the film, I just hope that we can tone that chatter down to the bare minimum.

Now before I step off my soap box, there is one other presentational point I would like to make. I always forget to bring this up each Thursday and always regret it the following week. I would like to let the credits roll. We have become quicker and quicker at turning off the film at the end of the evening and it is a terrible precedent. More and more we have become accustomed to television and film credits being squished into the corner of the television screen to make room for promos of what is coming up next. As someone whose name has been squished and flashed by I have a particular empathy for this disrespectful development. At Movienight, we have the opportunity to let the names be projected, even if no one watches them. I don’t mean to suggest that there should be no talking over the closing credits, hell we can even turn on the lights and start cleaning up. I just think that we should allow them to run. Coolbaugh framed this idea perfectly comparing our movies to mountains and rolling the credits to closing up her wounds. As Howard says it in ‘Sierra Madre’: “We've wounded this mountain. It's our duty to close her wounds. It's the least we can do to show our gratitude for all the wealth she's given us.” The time saved by abruptly shutting the picture and sound off is minimal, and if no one objects I ask moving forward that we let the credits roll out and the music fade away in its own time. The great artists who entertain us each week deserve that modicum of respect.

Now it seems every time I make any suggestion about etiquette or such, I get serious blow back about squeezing Movienight too hard and how it needs to be laid back and all that. Wiener and Nubs will remember when I was hosting various screenings in my various homes that I was an unbearable nudge about silence. I had a true zero tolerance policy, and I am sure it was a pain in the ass. I bring up this point to demonstrate how compromising I have been and will continue to be about the level of talk in the Back Yard. I just hope we can find a happy medium, and allow for the fact that films will choose to have moments of silence so that there is actual silence, as opposed to an opportunity for getting a word in edgewise.

‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ is a film I finally saw for the masterpiece it is because I finally gave it my full attention Wednesday. The rewards of that focus will last me for some time. Thank you Coolbaugh for the wonderful film.

Netti Comments:

I collaborate with fewer and fewer people. It’s not by choice of reason, but by erosion that the circle of people with whom I work has shrunk. As a younger artist I was excited to be part of a group of actors; a company. I was trained to be of this mindset at the Piven Theater Workshop in Evanston, Illinois; self-creating ensemble work in the Marxist tradition. Where Comedy Sports and Second City ends and Dario Fo, the Compass Players, and Del Close begins. However, as I have aged my ability to establish an esprit de corps has diminished. I no longer seek the energy (although I may still need it) of the group. In the grossest sense my ego is no longer tolerant of compromise or rather I no longer hold compromise as a value in and of itself. It is the threat of the lowest common denominator, a phrase I like to use very much, that has pushed me away from compromise as a binding force in creation to a solubilizing agent. So with less collaboration, and thereby less input from other minds, I experience the hardening and reduction of my own creative tendencies. The benefits are veins of monolithic purity. The deficits are clumsy blocks of indulgent puerility.

As Fred C. Dobbs continued to call out his own name in defiance against all comers, I couldn't help but identify with him. All The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and all of the Acclaim of the LA Weekly aligned for me. I talk to myself whereas before I was more apt to seek a conversation. The echo chamber is dangerous and ultimately stultifying. I see myself donning my laurels occasionally in conversation. I'm not a braggart, but I see myself noting which ideas were mine. In order to mine the gold and bring it back, like it or not you need partners to carry it through. So hold on tight to your ideas. Know their power. But if you cling too tight over the group you'll be chopped up with a machete for your boots and your precious ideas will be blown away by the Santa Ana winds bringing a good belly laugh because it’s all so damn absurd and hey, a fruit farm with a good-looking woman ain't so bad. Great pick.

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