In the age of DVD, Netflix and Turner Classic Movies, there’s never an excuse to be bored. Each month, Eric Barker offers up a cinematic treat, the best of the best from 110 years of moviemaking, the films that you should know, and love, and collect, and why…

 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

2h., 6m. / original studio: Warner Brothers

directed by John Huston; screenplay by John Huston, from novel by B. Traven; director of photography, Ted McCord; edited by Owen Marks; music by Max Steiner

with: Humphrey Bogart (Dobbs), Walter Huston (Howard), Tim Holt (Curtin), Bruce Bennett (Cody), Barton MacLane (Pat McCormick), Alfonso Bedoya (Gold Hat)

“You know, the worst ain’t so bad when it finally happens. Not half as bad as you figure it’ll be before it’s happened.” — Tim Holt as Curtin

One of the true wonders of Classic Hollywood and one of the best movies ever made, John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a singularity in the annals of American moviemaking, a big budget, major studio film so far off the beaten track, it would frighten away any self respecting film executive even yet. (more…)