Synopsis
Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled prospector named Howard and decide to join with him in search of gold in the wilds of central Mexico. Through enormous difficulties, they eventually succeed in finding gold, but bandits, the elements, and most especially greed threaten to turn their success into disaster.
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Cast
- Humphrey BogartFred C. Dobbs
- Walter HustonHoward
- Tim HoltBob Curtin
- Bruce BennettJames Cody
- Barton MacLanePat McCormick
- Alfonso BedoyaGold Hat
- Arturo Soto RangelEl Presidente
- Manuel DondéEl Jefe
- José TorvayPablo
- Margarito LunaPancho
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie has never really been about gold but about character, and Bogart fearlessly makes Fred C. Dobbs into a pathetic, frightened, selfish man -- so sick we would be tempted to pity him, if he were not so undeserving of pity. - 100
Empire
Like "The Searchers", this is so brilliant that the only real effect of the other versions is to make you want to watch the original again. - 100
The New York Times
Mr. Huston has shaped a searching drama of the collision of civilization's vicious greeds with the instinct for self-preservation in an environment where all the barriers are down. And, by charting the moods of his prospectors after they have hit a vein of gold, he has done a superb illumination of basic characteristics in men. One might almost reckon that he has filmed an intentional comment here upon the irony of avarice in individuals and in nations today...But don't let this note of intelligence distract your attention from the fact that Mr. Huston is putting it over in a most vivid and exciting action display. - 100
Variety
A distinguished work that will take its place in the repertory of Hollywood's great and enduring achievements. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Arguably John Huston's greatest film, this powerful study of masculinity under pressure retains its power. - 100
Time
One of the best things Hollywood has done since it learned to talk; and the movie can take a place, without blushing, among the best ever made. - 100
Chicago Reader
John Huston was rarely in better form than he was directing this 1948 study of gold fever and worse obsessions among an unlikely trio of prospectors... Bogart is outstanding as the pathetic bully Fred C. Dobbs. - 100
The New Yorker
One of the strongest of all American movies...The picture is emotionally memorable, though - it has a powerful cumulative effect; when it's over you know you've seen something.
