The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a 1948 film about two American down-and-outers in 1920s Mexico who hook up with an old-timer to prospect for gold.

Year:
1948
1,529 Views
Storming to a New High in High Adventure!
The more he yearns for a woman's arms... the fiercer he lusts for the treasure that cursed them all!
The nearer they get to their treasure, the farther they get from the law.
They sold their souls for...

Howard:
Gold in Mexico? Why sure there is. Not ten days from here by rail and pack train, there's a mountain waiting for the right guy to come along, discover a treasure, and then tickle her until she lets him have it. The question is, are you the right guy?...Aw, real bonanzas are few and far between that take a lot of finding. Say, answer me this one, will ya? Why's gold worth some twenty bucks an ounce?

Man:
I don't know. 'Cause it's scarce.

Howard:
A thousand men, say, go searching for gold. After six months, one of 'em is lucky - one out of the thousand. His find represents not only his own labor but that of nine hundred and ninety-nine others to boot. That's uh, six thousand months or five hundred years scrabbling over mountains, going hungry and thirsty. An ounce of gold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that went into the finding and the getting of it.

Man:
Never thought of it just like that...

Howard:
Well, there's no other explanation, mister. Gold itself ain't good for nothin' except makin' jewelry with and gold teeth. Aw, gold's a devilish sort of a thing anyway. You start out to tell yourself you'll be satisfied with twenty-five thousand handsome smackers worth of it, 'so help me Lord and cross my heart.' Fine resolution. After months of sweatin' yourself dizzy and growing short on provisions and findin' nothin', you finally come down to fifteen thousand and then ten, finally you say, 'Lord, let me just find five thousand dollars worth and never ask for anything more the rest of my life.'...Here in this joint, it seems like a lot, but I tell you, if you was to make a real strike, you couldn't be dragged away. Not even the threat of miserable death'd keep you from trying to add ten thousand more. Ten you want to get twenty-five. Twenty-five you want to get fifty. Fifty, a hundred. Like roulette. One more turn, you know, always one more.

Dobbs:
It wouldn't be that way with me. I swear it wouldn't. I'd take only what I set out to get, even if there was still a half a million dollars worth lying around waitin' to be picked up.

Howard:
I've dug in Alaska and in Canada and Colorado. I was with the crowd in British Honduras where I made my fare back home and almost enough over to cure me of the fever I'd caught. I've dug in California and Australia, all over the world practically. Yeah, I know what gold does to men's souls.

Man:
You talk as though you struck it rich sometime or other, Pop. How about it? Then what are you doin' in here, a down-and-outer?

Howard:
That's gold, that's what it makes of us. Never knew a prospector yet that died rich. Make one fortune, you're sure to blow it in trying to find another. I'm no exception to the rule. Aw sure, I'm an odd old bone now, but say, don't you guys think the spirit's gone. I'm all set to shoulder a pickax and a shovel any time anybody's willing to share expenses. I'd rather go by myself. Going it alone's the best way. But you got to have a stomach for loneliness. Some guys go nutty with it. On the other hand, going with a partner or two is dangerous. Murder's always lurkin' about. Partners accusin' each other of all sorts of crimes. Aw, 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.

Curtin:
Me, now, I wouldn't mind a little of that kind of trouble.

Dobbs:
I think I'll go to sleep and dream about piles of gold gettin' bigger and bigger and bigger...

Howard:
I reckon I'll settle down in some quiet place. Get me a little business...a hardware or grocery store, and spend the better part of my time readin' comic strips and adventure stories. Ha. One thing's for sure. I'm not gonna go prospectin' again and waste my time and money trying to find another gold mine.

Curtin:
I figure on buying some land and growing fruit - peaches maybe...One summer when I was a kid, I worked as a picker in a peach harvest in the San Joaquin Valley. Boy, it sure was something. Hundreds of people, old and young, whole families workin' together. At night, after a day's work, we used to build big bonfires and sit around and sing to guitar music, till morning sometimes. You'd go to sleep and wake up and sing, and go to sleep again. Everybody had a wonderful time. Ever since then, I've had a hankering to be a fruit grower. Must be grand watching your own trees put on leaves, come into blossom and bear...watching the fruit get big and ripe on the boughs, ready for pickin'...

Dobbs:
Well, first off, I'm goin' to a Turkish bath and I'm gonna sweat and soak till I get all the grime and dirt out of my system. Then I'm goin' to a haberdasher's and I'm gonna get myself a brand new set of duds...a dozen of everything. Then, I'm goin' to a swell cafe - order everything on the bill of fare, and if it ain't just right, or maybe even if it is, I'm gonna bawl the waiter out and make him take the whole thing back...

Curtin:
The next thing on the program would be dames.

Dobbs:
Yeah.

Howard:
If I were you boys, I wouldn't talk or even think about women. It ain't good for your health.

Dobbs:
I was just thinkin' what a bonehead play that old jackass made when he put all his goods in our keeping...Figured to let us do his sweatin' for him, did he? We'll show him...Oh man, can't you see? It's all ours. We don't go back to Durango at all, savvy? Not at all...Don't be such a sap. Where did you ever grow up? All right, to make it clear to a dumbhead like you - we take all his goods and go straight up north and leave the old jackass flat.

Curtin:
You aren't serious are you? You don't really mean what you're saying?

Dobbs:
Fred C. Dobbs don't say nothin' he don't mean.

Curtin:
As long as I'm here and can do anything about it, you won't touch a single grain of the old man's goods.

Dobbs:
I know exactly what you mean. You want to take it all for yourself and cut me out.

Curtin:
No, Dobbs. I'm on the level with the old man. Just as I'd be on the level with you if you weren't here.

Dobbs:
Get off your soapbox, will you? You only sound foolish out here in this wilderness. I know you for what you are. For a long time, I've had my suspicions about you and now I know I've been right.

Curtin:
What suspicions are you talking about?

Dobbs:
Oh, you're not puttin' anything over on me. I see right through you. For a long time, you've had it in your mind to bump me off at the first good opportunity and bury me out here in the bush like a dog. So's you could take not only the old man's goods but mine in the bargain. And when you get to Durango safely, you'll have a big laugh, won't ya, thinkin' how dumb the old man and I were?

[Dobbs draws his gun on Curtin]

Dobbs:
Was I right or was I? You and your Sunday school talk about protectin' people's goods. You. Come on, stand up and take it like a man.

[Curtin fights Dobbs, disarming him]

Curtin:
[drawing his own gun] The cards are dealt the other way now, Dobbs.

Curtin:
Well Howard, what next, I wonder?

Howard:
Well, I'm all fixed as far as I'm concerned as a medicine man. I'll have three meals a day, five if I want 'em, and a roof over my head, and a drink every now and then to warm me up. I'll be worshipped and fed and treated like a high priest for telling people things they want to hear. Good medicine men are born, not made. Come and see me some time, my boy. Even you will take off your hat when you see how respected I am. Why only the day before yesterday, they wanted to make me their Legislature - their whole Legislature. I don't know what that means but it must be the highest honor they can bestow. Yeah, I'm all fixed for the rest of my natural life. How about yourself? What do you aim to do?

Curtin:
I haven't got any idea.

Howard:
Oh, you're young yet. You've got plenty of time to make three or four fortunes for yourself.

Curtin:
You know, the worst ain't so bad when it finally happens. Not half as bad as you figure it will be before it's happened. I'm no worse off than I was in Tampico. All I'm out is a couple hundred bucks when you come right down to it. Not very much compared to what Dobbsie lost.

Howard:
Any special place you're bent on goin'?

Curtin:
Naw, all the places are the same to me.

Howard:
Tell you what. You can keep my share of what the burros and the hides'll bring if you use the money to buy a ticket to Dallas. See Cody's widow. Better than writin'. And besides, it's July and the fruit harvest. How about it?

Curtin:
It's a deal.


Share your thoughts on The Treasure of the Sierra Madre's quotes with the community:

0 Comments

    Quote of the Day Today's Quote | Archive

    Would you like us to send you a FREE inspiring quote delivered to your inbox daily?

    Please enter your email address:

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this movie page to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Dec. 2024. <https://www.quotes.net/movies/the_treasure_of_the_sierra_madre_quotes_14003>.

    Know another quote from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?

    Don't let people miss on a great quote from the "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" movie - add it here!

    Quiz

    Are you a quotes master?

    »
    Which Avenger said this, “That guy is playing galaga, didn’t think we’d notice but I did.”?
    A Tony Stark/ Iron Man
    B Nick Fury
    C Bruce Banner/ The Hulk
    D Clint Barton/ Hawkeye