The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

"[Repeated line] Can you stake a fellow American to a meal?"

"If I was a native, I'd get me a can of shoe polish and I'd be in business. They'd never let a gringo. You can sit on a bench til you're three-quarters starved. You can beg from another gringo. You can even commit burglary. But try shining shoes in the street or peddling lemonade out of a bucket and your hash is settled. You'd never get another job from an American."

"[to Curtin] Why not try gold diggin' for a change? Well, it ain't any riskier than waitin' around here for a break. And this is the country where the nuggets of gold are just cryin' for ya to take 'em out of the ground and make 'em shine in coins and on the fingers and necks of swell dames. Our money would last longer while we lived out in the open. The longer it lasts, the greater our chance of diggin' something up would be!"

"[about his winning ticket] I'm rich, printed number! That's the kind of sugar Papa likes. Oh, two hundred pesos! Welcome, sweet little smackeroos."

"[to Curtin] This is an all-or-nothing proposition, ain't it? If we make a find, we'll be lightin' our cigars with hundred dollar bills. If we don't, the difference between what you put up and what I put up ain't enough to keep me from being right back where I was this afternoon, polishing a bench with the seat of my pants. Put 'er there, pard."

"That bandit with the Gold Hat that rode alongside the train - I had my sights on him nice as you please, but the train gave a jolt and I missed him. Sure wish I'd got him."

"I sure had some cockeyed ideas about prospectin' for gold. It was all in the finding I thought. I thought all you had to do was find it, pick it up, put it in sacks, and carry 'em off to the nearest bank."

"Well sure! You're old...I'm young. I need dough and plenty of it."

"You can't catch me sleepin'...Don't you ever believe that. I'm not that dumb. The day you try to put anything over on me will be a costly one for both of you...Any more lip out of you and I'll haul off and let ya have it. If ya know what's good for ya, ya won't monkey around with Fred C. Dobbs."

"[about Cody] Fred C. Dobbs ain't a guy likes bein' taken advantage of - do the mug in, I say!"

"[after Cody is killed by the bandits] One less gun."

"Here's a sight if there ever was one. Federales, look at 'em. I could kiss every one of 'em...Oh, go get 'em. Sic 'em Tiger! Chew 'em up and don't spit 'em out - swallow 'em. Oh am I happy. To tell you the truth, I was already eatin' dirt."

"[to Howard] I'll let you remember this the next time you try to do a good deed!"

"[to Curtin, about Howard] Ain't it always his burros that won't march in line...What was in your head when you offered to carry his goods for him that he couldn't manage by himself. He knew what he was doin' when he turned 'em over to us. Mighty cute of him, wasn't it?"

"[about Curtin] Maybe I didn't kill him. Maybe he just staggered and fell down without being hit."

"Conscience. What a thing. If you believe you've got a conscience, it'll pester you to death. But if you don't believe you've got one, what can it do to ya? Makes me sick all this talking and fussing about nonsense."

"[about Curtin] Maybe I'd better leave him like he is. Ain't very likely anybody will find him. In a week's time, the buzzards and the ants will have done away with him anyway. [A tiger's cry startles him.] I don't know what's getting into me. Was that really a tiger? No. What if his eyes are open, looking at me? Best thing to do is to get to the railroad in a hurry. It's better not to have buried him. I did right, yeah! What I should have done, maybe, bury his clothes and leave him to the ants and the buzzards...Buzzards! If somebody saw them circling, they'd know something was dead. Buzzards ain't spotted him yet. Lucky for me. [He runs back, but cannot find Curtin's body.] Curtin! Curtin! Curtin! Where are you? Curtin! I gotta get ahold of myself! Mustn't lose my head. There's one thing certain, he ain't here. I got it. The tiger. Yeah, yeah that's it. The tiger must have dragged him off to his lair, that's what. Yeah, pretty soon, not even the bones will be left to tell the story. Done as if by order!"

"Of course I'll go. Any time, any day. I was only waiting for one or two guys to ask me. Out for gold? Always at your service."

"Meat's one thing and bandit's another. Bandit country is where we'll be going. We ought to have six hundred bucks between us."

"We gotta go where there's no trails at all - where you can be positive that no surveyor or anybody who knows anything about prospectin' has ever been there before."

"Now here's where we're bound for - hereabouts. It don't show properly whether it's mountain, swamp, or desert. That shows the makers of the map themselves don't know for sure. Now once on the ground, all we got to do is open our eyes and look around. Yeah, and blow our noses too. Believe it or not, I knew a feller once who could smell gold just like a jackass can smell water."

"[translating for a shopkeeper] We're going into the country that's very wild and dangerous. Have to cut our way through jungles and climb mountains so high that rise above the clouds. With tigers so big and strong they can climb trees with burros in their mouths...Good! Glad to hear such tall tales 'cause that means mighty few outsiders have ever set foot there."

"[about Dobbs and Curtin's "find"] This stuff wouldn't pay you dinner for a carload. Next time you fellas strike it rich, holler for me, will ya, before you start splashing water around. Water's precious. Sometimes it can be more precious than gold."

"[To Dobbs and Curtin, who are collapsed on the ground, too tired to eat] Hey you fellas, how about some beans? Ya want some beans? Goin' through some mighty rough country tomorrow - you better have some beans!"

"Well, how does it feel, you fellers, to be men of property?"

"It's come around to me again, but I won't take my turn if you guys'll stop worryin' about your goods and go to bed. We've got work to do tomorrow."

"[about the Indian chief, whose son he saved] He's insisting we return with him to his village and be his guests...He says if he doesn't pay off his debt, all the saints in heaven will be angry. [Dobbs laughs] This is no laughing matter. I'm afraid he's determined to take us with him, even if it means force."

"[to Curtin] Mr. Dobbs has made off with our goods and is on his way north. Well, I reckon we can't blame him too much...He's not a real killer as killer's go. I think he's as honest as the next fella - or almost. The big mistake was leaving you two fellas out there in the depths of the wilderness with more'n a hundred thousand between ya. That's a mighty big temptation, partner, believe me...Maybe if I'd've been young and been out there with either one of you, I might have been tempted too."

"[about their gold dust being scattered by the wind] Oh laugh, Curtin, old boy. It's a great joke played on us by the Lord, or fate, or nature, whatever you prefer. But whoever or whatever played it certainly had a sense of humor! Ha! The gold has gone back to where we found it!... This is worth ten months of suffering and labor - this joke is!"

"That's the gold. That's what it makes of us."

"OK, I'm a liar. There isn't a Gila monster under there. Let's see you stick your hand in and get your goods out...Reach in and get your goods. If you don't we'll think you're yella, won't we, Howard? They never let go, do they Howard, once they grab onto you? You cut 'em in two and the head'll still hang on until sundown, I hear. By that time, the victim doesn't usually care 'cause he's dead anyway. Isn't that right, Howard?...What's the matter, Dobbsie? Why don't you stick your hand right in and get your treasure? It couldn't be because you're scared to, could it, after the way you've been shooting your mouth off. Show us you ain't yella, Dobbsie. I'd hate to think that my partner had a yellow streak up his back."

"It seems between 'em they had a diamond ring, pearl earrings, and quite a lot of money, and a railway ticket with the date of the Agua Caliente train robbery on it. They've been here several days, drinking and shooting off their cannons so that the villagers are afraid to stick their noses out of their huts."

"You know, the Federales don't operate in our American way. They aren't fingerprint experts, that is, but they can follow any trail, and against them, no hideout's any use. They know all the tricks of the bandits. Yep, you can bet your sweet soul they'll trace down every last one of that group that attacked the train. It'll take time - months maybe - but they'll do it."

"[to Curtin] Not many Americans get around this way. You're the first one I've bumped into for a long time."

"[to Curtin] I've a hunch there's loads of the real goods up in those mountains...I can look at a hillside miles away and tell you whether it carries an ounce or a shipload...If you haven't found anything up there yet, I'll come along with ya and put your nose in it. There's indications in this valley, lots of indications. By tracing the rocks, I find they come from that ridge up there, washed down by the tropical rain..."

"[to Curtin] I meant what I said about going along with you. Those are my two burros. I'm all packed up and ready to start if you'll let me go with you back to your camp."

"I mean to stay right here. The brush and the mountains are free, aren't they?...Whatever you say or don't say, tomorrow I start to dig for gold here."

"Oh, I know very well you guys could bump me off any minute you wish, but that's a risk worth running, considering the stakes. Let's lay all our cards on the table. As I see it, you guys have got to do one of three things: kill me, run me off, or take me in with you as a partner. Let's consider the first. Another guy may come along tomorrow or maybe a dozen other guys. You start bumping people off, just how far are you prepared to go with it? Ask yourselves that. Also, don't forget, the one actually to do the bumping off would forever be in the power of the other two. The only safe way would be for all three of you to drag out your cannons and bang away at the same instant like a firing squad...As for choice number two, if you run me off, I might very well inform on you...Twenty-five percent of the value of your find is the reward I'd get paid and that would be tempting, mighty tempting...Let's see what number three has to offer. If you take me in with you as a partner, you don't stand to lose anything. I will not ask to share in what you've made so far, only in the profits to come. Well, what do you say?"

"[as Dobbs and Curtin come to shoot him] Better take a look down that hill first...They're not soldiers, they're bandits and they're not after gold, but after guns and ammunition. Someone in the village must have told them about the American hunter up here."

"Train conductor: Big boulder on the track so train stop. Bandits get big surprise because soldiers on the train waiting for them - not many passengers got killed."

"Gold Hat: [to Dobbs] Hey, do I know you from some place? Maybe I know you?...Are you alone?...I know who you are! You're the guy in the hole - the one who wouldn't give us the rifle - hah, hah, hah, hah."

"Gold Hat: [About to be executed] Permiso, teniente, me agarre mi sombrero? (Permission, Lieutenant, to grab my hat?)"

"Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!"

"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..."

"Humphrey Bogart - Fred C. Dobbs"

"Walter Huston - Howard"

"Tim Holt - Bob Curtin"