The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) / Jack Daniel's Twice Barreled American Single Malt

0:00 In 1948, director John Houston and star Humphrey Bogart gave the world a madding descent into the dangers of greed and isolation. In 2026, we try a whiskey that has us asking if it's actually made from liquid gold. The film is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The whiskey is Jack Daniels twice barrelled American single malt and we'll review them. Both This is the Film and Whiskey podcast. Welcome to the Film and Whiskey podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book.

0:57 I'm Brad Gee. And Brad Gee, this week we are talking about one of my absolute favorites, 1948's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. This is like, when I think about like, man movies. This is just like a dude's movie, man. It's down and dirty. It's gritty, everyone's covered in just dirt and dust. There's murder and gold and greed and avarice, all the things men love. Brad. Yeah, I mean this. It really does. I love that you called it like dirty and like grimy 'cause like I feel like growing up watching movies with my dad, you just had like, you had like John Wayne westerns like Mcclintock that are like kind of bright and wild and colorful.

1:45 But then you had your ones that were like long and slow and dry and dusty and you just felt that sense of, you felt the, the weariness of the wild, Wild West. And this is one of those movies. You can feel the heat and the sweat coming off of these guys and just like the the fallow nature of the ground, like all through this movie. And you know, Brad, before we even dive into talking about the movie in earnest, this this is a Warner Brothers picture from 1948. And I don't know if you've quite picked up yet on like the differences in the the style of studios from golden Hollywood, but like MGM was kind of the king of the golden age of Hollywood.

2:30 And RKO was also a big studio that now no longer exists. But when you watch an MGM movie, they were known for spectacle and scale and huge, massive sets. And you know, they were the the musical factory as well. Warner Brothers really made their name in the 1930s on these kind of like, down and dirty, gritty gangster movies like Scarface and White Heat with James Cagney. And you'd go to see a Warner Brothers picture and there was just something a little bit seedier about it, not even necessarily like film noir, but kind of the precursor to that. And all through the 1940s, you know, obviously Warner Brothers becomes a more and more successful studio.

3:12 The budgets get bigger, but there's still something about, like, when I'm watching an old movie and The MGM logo comes up, I kind of know what I'm getting into. And then when the Warner Brothers logo comes up, I'm like, Oh yeah, dude, like this is about to get filthy. And I love it, man. That would would Stagecoach be a Warner Brothers production because I. Feel like MGM. OK. I was wondering because it feels like there's pieces of MGM in that, but also pieces of a little bit of down and dirty that you might see. In Warner Brothers, it's really, it's hard to remember sometimes because like in the late 80s or early 90's, the billionaire Ted Turner bought the the catalog of movies that came out of The MGM studios and they all ended up being distributed on video by Warner Brothers.

4:00 Like that's how Turner classic movie started as he owned all these movies. And so you'll buy like a Blu-ray of an old Warner's movie or an old MGM movie, and it'll have like a Warner Brothers logo at the front of it. So I can never remember who came from who, but yeah. Yeah, yeah. It is amazing to think like the full history of cinema, of like the animosity you had between these studios. And eventually they all ended up buying each other anyways. Yeah, yeah. Well, now we have, we have the same thing happening with the purchase of Paramount and Netflix might buy Warner Brothers. And you know, five years from now AI and Sora will just be creating movies for us. And I'll just jump off a bridge and that'll be the end of it, Brad, you know, So there we go. Thanks for attending Bob's Hopefulness Corner today, Brad. We've got a movie to talk about called The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

4:50 But in order to get into talking about that movie, we have to get into our first segment of the day, which we call Brad Explains. Brads going to give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds sticking on the clock. So let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call Brad Explains. Brad Explains is the part of the show where Brad breaks down the plot of the movie that he has just seen, often for the first time. Now folks, if you're joining us for the first time today, welcome into film and whiskey. You've picked a doozy of a film to start with, but every movie we're reviewing this season, season #10 is a throwback to the films we reviewed in our very first season back in 2019. We've been doing this for seven years now, and we figured it was time for a bit of a refresh on those early episodes. It's been fun to revisit these movies Brad, cause some of them are in my rotation of just movies I throw on when I'm bored on the weekend.

5:42 You have spreadsheet. Of your rotational movies. Yeah, it's most recent viewing relaxation and it's color-coded and it's ordered perfectly. Brett No, but I was going to say some of them I haven't watched again in in seven years. And despite this movie being like a a true favorite of mine, I don't think I've seen it since we watched it in 2019. I'm assuming the same is true for you. Yeah, I I have not returned to the treasure, although it's it has lived on fondly in my memory. So I I was happy to come back to it. This is one of those movies that like, if you look at the American Film Institute Top 100, it's on both lists. It's a really highly regarded movie that I feel like just drives no conversation even like in obviously in the public now it's 80 years old, but like, you know, even on like film Twitter or whatever, I never hear people going back to treasure the Sierra Madre. And so it kind of lives in that same headspace for me as the best Years of our Lives, which is another movie that everyone who's seen it is like 10 out of 10 movie masterpiece. But for some reason there seems to be a lack of awareness of it. And so I'm kind of wondering, before we watched it in 2019, had you seen it at all or did you have any familiarity with it?

6:56 No, I, I don't know if I'd even heard of it. It was completely out of my awareness. I also didn't even know there was such a thing as film Twitter. So, you know, I, I don't know if I'm a good judge. How can you be a movie critic and not be on film? Twitter, Brad. Am IA movie critic Bob is is that what I? Am Roger Ebert checked out of this life? He was like, I refuse to do this, I'm not kidding on Twitter. Peace out guys. I mean what, he passed away in 2012 or 13? Yeah, pretty much so. Like right after Twitter came out. Treasure of the Sierra Madre is an interesting movie because there's a lot of references made to it, like especially in in kids media of the 90s.

7:42 Like Animaniacs was referencing this movie all the time. And like I had a buddy that quoted we don't need no stinking badges to me a few weeks ago. And I know he's never heard of this movie. So like somewhere along the way he heard that line. Did not know it came from this movie. It's a great line, Bob. Like, you know how there's like the ear worm like songs? That for whatever. Reason we don't need no stinking badges is an ear worm of a line. It it just sits in sits in your head. I have to say, for people who are not familiar with this movie, if they happen to be listening to this episode, we have given them absolutely no context for what we're talking about today. So it all falls on you, my friend.

8:22 You get 60 seconds to breakdown the plot of this movie with full spoilers. Now, folks, our our typical policy here on film and whiskey is that if the movie is 80 years old, you've had plenty of time to catch up with it. So, you know, if you if you're worried about it getting spoiled for you, I highly suggest that you hit pause here. Go watch the movie and then join us after Brad explains. Brad one minute on the clock and go. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a film that follows 2 main characters played by Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt. They are Dobbs and Curtin 2 hobos in Is it Durango at the. Tampico. It's Tampico, Yeah.

9:03 Yeah, they're, they're kind of hobos, just live in on the streets in Mexico. They get a job. The man doesn't pay them. They beat him up, take the money that he owed them, and run into an old prospector named Howard. They pay to get the equipment and they go out to stake a claim and mine gold for about a year it seems like. And throughout the film you see Dobbs slowly descend into madness over the gold and his greed, while Curtin and Howard continue to seem to ascend towards kindness and goodness despite the money that they are hoping to make off this gold.

9:45 At the end of the film, Dobbs receives his just reward by being killed by bandits, and Howard and Curtin are freed from any any Vadnais that could have happened because the gold is lost in the sands of the desert. The treasure is here, Madre. And let's be honest, dude, Curtin is going off to Texas to get him some. He's going to go plow a dead guy's wife, which is how any successful business venture ends, right? Let's be honest. He says it so like courteously though, because I, I think I'll go pay her a visit and and let her let her know what, what deeds have been done down here in Mexico. It's like, yeah, dude, you're going to go do some deeds up there on the Peach farm, too. All right, man, Let's talk about the treasure of the Sierra Madre.

10:31 In a world where Peach emojis have a different complete meaning. My guy is Peach farming in more ways than one. Brad. OK, I want to start by talking about Humphrey Bogart, a guy that's been on this podcast a few times. I although I. Can't We interviewed a few times. He's been on the podcast. Yeah, not a very good conversationalist anymore, Brad, but we tried. We reviewed Casablanca twice now. We reviewed this movie twice now. I don't I, I guess we did the The African Queen as well. I'd really love to eventually get around to doing the Maltese Falcon, which is probably it's, it's his biggest early break. And then a movie called The Cane Mutiny, which comes out in 1954, which I think may be his best performance. But we've done 3 Bogart Movies Now. The thing about Bogart is like he is in that classic Hollywood vein of a movie star with a very particular style of acting and persona.

11:30 Like very similar to James Cagney, who I don't know if we've ever even done a Jimmy Cagney movie on this podcast, but like Edward G Robinson, like there's a guy and he's Edward G Robinson in every movie. And that is not to say that he's not an incredible actor. And I think the same thing applies with Bogart. Like Bogart is really good at finding shades to play within that Bogart persona. He is never as big and seen chewing in Casablanca as he is in this movie. He really hams it up in this movie. And The thing is though, I don't think the movie works without him going full insane. Break from reality, hamming it up Bogart. And I really do think this is one of his very best performances. And it, it starts in such a good place. I, I think one of the key elements of the whole movie for me is that he starts off so rational and honest about himself and like where he's at in life. And the, the scene, for me, that really makes his entire character work.

12:33 And the arc of his character, the not really an arc towards anything good is when he and Curtain beat up the guy who owes them money and he pulls out the $300 that they're owed and throws the rest on his face. And it's like this key moment of I only want what's owed to me. I'm not going to take any extra. And so when you have that at the start of the film and the descent into like, I like these guys are trying to kill me for my money and I want to kill them for their money. It it is such a great gripped for his character and Bogart, like you said, his performance highlights the the depths to which he has descended just incredibly well.

13:21 I mean, I think this movie is rare among films of this era because the first person you see in this movie is Bogart. You follow his character throughout the movie, and yet by the the end of the film where he's kind of having his break from reality, he gets separated from Tim Holtz and Walter Houston's character is separated from the two of them. And so Bogart kind of becomes a supporting character by the very end of the film. But if you're just looking at like, who's our protagonist in this movie, it's Humphrey Bogart. And you watch him descend into an antagonist, it's really uncommon. And I think that like, so the early scenes of the movie are him bumming around Tampico. They do a great job of setting up why he can't just go back to America and why he also can't earn money. They have a great little side conversation when he meets Tim Holt.

14:10 And they're just kind of bemoaning the fact that if you try to shine shoes, no American will respect you enough to pay you and the locals around here will shun you for taking their job. So you're stuck until you can get a respectable job. You just have to wait around with no money to go anywhere, no food to buy anything. They'll respect you enough to give you a, a couple, you know, gold coins to buy yourself something to eat, but that's it. So it's like the stakes are set up. This guy just wants what's coming to him. He and Tim Holt work this really crappy hard labor job and they get shafted by this guy. Couple days go by, they hunt the guy down, they beat him up. And at the beginning of the movie, you're kind of like, OK, where is this going?

14:54 Like, what are the the elements of the plot leading to here? But you're right, Brad, like they they function both to get them to the goldmine. Like they have to find money somehow. So we're gonna have Bogart buy this lottery ticket. And so there's a plot device there, but they also are there for, like, the contrast of who he becomes later in the movie. And to set up this idea that, like, the only way these guys get money is through luck. So the lottery, like, a thing that that doesn't belong to them in the first place. And through violence, which is like, I have to beat this guy up to get money. And that theme is going to carry all through the movie where, you know, there's bandits attacking them, they're shooting bandits. The theme of like violence and it's link to wealth I think is really well drawn in this movie. Yeah.

15:41 And even in that it's absolute luck that drives the bandits away from that. Like it just happens that the feder, the federales as they call them, show up and drive off these bandits. And so the idea that he is unable to make it in life without luck or violence is is really well said. Yeah, and I mean, the more I think about it, the more luck really is the central theme of this movie. Or just fate or chance, I guess even would be better because, you know, the lottery hits at the beginning of the movie. You've got the different instances of the bandits getting caught by the federales and somehow getting out. Like, you think they die at one point, and then they're not dead. They get captured again. And then you still see the bandits again at the very end of the movie.

16:26 They've somehow continued to elude capture, the gold being destroyed on a whim and then getting blown back into the mountains again. It's this, this very deep sense that like all of this is chance. There is. You are not in control of your destiny or your fate the way you think you are. And to think that you are is folly. And I think that's what makes it such a good guy movie. Not that women don't believe this, right? But like you think it's a movie about hard work and violence and sweat and grits, and at the end of the movie it's very much about things that are much, much deeper than that. And I think that's what brings the rewatch ability factor into this movie for me.

17:06 Yeah, to to me the the movie is about how luck brings out the true character of a man. That we aren't who we are because of what the fates decide to throw at us. We are who we are when based on our actions in light of what the fates throw at us. Like it honestly feels kind of like a Greek tragedy, like the like, can't you imagine the three sisters of fate, like weaving this story and Dobbs is cursing them by the end of the film. And Curtain and Howard are just sitting there like, you know what? I you know, for Howard, he's like, I've kind of made it because I had Boy Scout training and I saved this local villagers life.

17:53 And now I get to just kind of hang out the rest of my life and and run on that. And that's kind of cool. And I'm going to do good things for these people. And Curtin, I, for me, his key scene that I, I love, like I'm locked in is when Howard asks him what he wants to do with the money. And he's just like, you know, I have these memories from childhood of, of farming in the fields, these fruit trees. And I, I think I'd like to go start a fruit farm and like pay workers and like, it feels like a very pro capitalist. Like he's like, yeah, I'm going to become a, become a landowner and join the capitalist society and like hire people and it's going to be great.

18:36 And then Hobbes comes in and it's like, OK, well, Hobbs is unable to think outside of the very this very moment. And he can't plan for the future, and he can't think ahead. And all he can think about is, I want to get a shower and a shave. And then he goes, and I don't know what else I'd want to do. And then he looks at the fire and Howard goes, well, no, he was thinking about women right now. Yeah, well, no, he's cause Dobbs comes in and he's like, he's talking about all the things he would do. And then he goes Tim Holtz, like, well, what, what's next, Dobbsy? And he goes, well, what would be? Yeah. And you just see them both like it's and again, like we're talking about an era of Hollywood where they had the sensors in place. So like, you can't just be like, I'm going to hire a hooker. I really need to get laid.

19:22 And it's, it's just communicated through silence and it is kind of funny, but it's also like this really deep kind of sad longing that you see especially on Tim Holtz's face. And I think that it's one of those instances where less is more. Like they don't have to say it 'cause they can't say it. And it, it ends up communicating more about these guys and how long they've been out in the wilderness by not saying anything. No, it's a it's a brilliant moment, man. Yeah, and and like I said, the key thing for me is what it reveals about curtains character and Dobbsy's character and how circumstances might make, you know, compatriots of any 2 human beings, but the same circumstances will reveal who they really are at at their core.

20:10 And I think that's that's the heart of this movie, is that there are some men who. When push comes to shove, they're not good people. And there's some men when push comes to shove, they're, they're good. They, they strive towards goodness. I, it, it makes me think about when I was a Hospice chaplain, I had a guy on my, who I, I cared for that had been a prison guard at a local prison. And I just, I'll never forget him telling me he's like, you know, some of those men in there, like you'd look him in the eye and you're just like, man, I really hope they get a second chance in life. I hope they get out of here and find a, a Good Wife and get a job and have kids and like, they just seem like, you know, they were in a troubled circumstance. He's like, there's other guys, you look in their eyes and you're like, man, I hope they never see the light of day and that like that.

21:05 For whatever reason, that story popped into my head as I was watching this. As you know, Hobbs's Dobbs is talking about what he wants to do and Curtains talking about what he wants to do. It just just made me think of that. Yeah, I think this is actually a really good jumping off point to bring up Walter Houston. So John Houston is the director of this. Walter Houston is his is his dad. Walter Houston doesn't actually talk like that in most of his movies. So it's, it's really funny to see him in this movie because this, you know, we talked about it in our first episode. This is very obviously the character mold for Stinky Pete, the prospector in Toy Story 2. Like, very obviously, which is great 'cause it's a cool throwback to this classic Hollywood thing.

21:48 Also a great. Character. Oh yeah, man. And Walter Houston's fantastic in this movie because he's talking a mile a minute. He has that like the look and smile of a guy that's lost all his teeth. That is like you can't quite understand what he's saying half the time, but he just go with it anyway. And the only note that I'll give, though, on Walter Houston for an Academy award-winning performance, we should add, is that sometimes they give him pretty crucial plot information. And I'm like, I don't, I don't understand what I had to watch a lot of his dialogue with the captions on 'cause he says it so fast on purpose. It's definitely a choice. I don't know if it's a choice that works 100% of the time. I mean, how much plot do you really need to know Bob? They're they're going after gold. Do you, do you need a did you need an extra 10 minutes of like back story on Howard and his growing up life? I did.

22:44 I did. Yeah. I wanted I wanted to watch his first couple times out prospecting for gold and how he failed miserably. Yeah, I do. I do think for me the the moments of his performance that works the best. I guess the best comparison I can make is like the in the middle of Jaws when they all go below deck and Quint tells the story of the USS Indianapolis. The moments in this movie where they're like around a fire or in a tent and you just hear Howard reminiscing and like giving them warnings about how this is going to go bad and they don't go overboard with detail from his life. It's just this ominous.

23:26 Sort of like I've seen things. I know how this is going to end. You guys are not prepared for that. And I think that Walter Houston plays those moments beautifully. And I think that John Houston and the cinematographer do such a good job with lighting and shadow in this movie that it just, it makes those scenes hit so much harder for me. Yeah, he he is the perfect archetype of the world weary advice giving grandfather. Like, I can't think of any other character in any movie that plays that mentor role with so much like, congeniality and like seriousness that he knows the depths of darkness that can enter a human soul when they're isolated and there's so much money at stake.

24:18 And yeah, he just, he does an excellent job at it. And his performance, while it's over the top it, his ridiculousness almost highlights those moments of quiet earnestness and honesty. He has so much depth as an actor to be able to do both of those things really, really well. Because somebody you said earlier the nobody's perfect at the end of. Something like a hot Joey Brown. Oh, you said somebody else's name. That's what I was thinking of. Like Joey Brown is an actor who is always Joey Brown. Like, he could, he could play the ridiculous, crazy Howard. I don't know if he could play the earnest, serious Howard. And I think that's where Walter Houston really shines. Absolutely.

25:14 Now, I do, you know, I already said this, but obviously John Houston is Walter Houston's son. So he's started making a name for himself at this point in Hollywood as a director. And we've done a couple John Houston Movies Now on the podcast. We did this and we did The African Queen and I think that, you know, it's not quite enough to really get a sense of what kind of themes he liked to dive into as a director. But he he always did make these sort of masculine, muscular, gritty movies that were were more about kind of the ideals of courage and bravery and the nature of violence and what that does to a man's soul. Very Clint Eastwood E, if I'm being honest, like a proto Eastwood like post Unforgiven. Wondering now, Brad, you know, you did not like the African Queen that much or you thought it was just OK. Do you see any sort of themes or parallels or what have you picked up now from watching a couple different John Houston movies?

26:09 I mean I I. Think in addition to what you just said, he loves nature and how nature draws out the true character of a person and like hones them and sharpens them. So that seems like it's a theme across his films and it it seems like he has a strong sense of we all kind of start off at an equal place when we're strangers, but the longer we spend with people in difficult circumstances, the more we really know who they are. And I, I don't know if that's true across all of his films, but it seems like that's the case with is it Catherine O'Hara and and Bogey.

26:50 It's it's Katharine. Hepburn, Hepburn, thank you. I was thinking Marine. Yeah, Catherine O'Hara is the the. Mom from home alone. There he is, Yeah. Basically slightly different, Slightly different. People you know? Yeah, No. John Houston did. An adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage in the early 1950s, which is I remember when I was a kid, even my dad was like, I love that book when I was a little boy. And I knew that that was one of those movies that the studio kind of took it away from him and cut it down drastically. And so the final version that got put in theaters of The Red Badge of Courage is 64 minutes long or something, and it's streaming on. We've talked, we've talked about The 90. Minute we've talked about the 90 minute dude movie, so I watched it the.

27:36 Other day because it was an hour long and I was like I can check a movie off my list in an hour and it's freaking fantastic. His his battle choreography is amazing, but he casts Audie Murphy in the lead role. And Audie Murphy is a guy who became an actor after World War 2, where he won the Medal of Honor. And then he made a bunch of war movies. But it's a movie about cowardice in battle, starring a guy who America knew as the bravest guy in the war. And it's just such a cool commentary on the nature of courage in battle. I was gonna bring it up for my let's make it a double. I don't know if I'll go that direction, but I bring it up here to say this is a constant theme throughout Houston's movies. And the other thing I noticed this time through is that he really leaned into like the father son dynamic a lot because Tim Holtz, the third actor in this trio that we haven't talked about yet, is kind of a neppo baby in Hollywood. And his dad, Jack Holt, was a pretty famous silent movie actor, and he actually appears in this movie in the flop house. His his character name is Flop House Bum. And he's the guy that's like first asking Walter Houston, like.

28:44 So tell us again, old timer, about you prospecting. That's Tim Holtz, dad. And so you've got the Houstons and the Holtz both making this movie about, you know, the things men do and the stories we tell each other and the regrets we have. It's just such an interesting dynamic. I don't really know how to parse it, but you can tell that Houston's concerned with it in this movie. Yeah. I, I don't, I don't know where to go. Listen, we don't have to go into it. I just. It's just one of those things where it's like, you notice it. You're like, I don't know what he's trying to do with that, but it had to be intentional right there. There's something going on. There for sure. I don't feel like you accidentally. Hire your dad, you know. No, I mean. He just shows up on set.

29:26 You're like, wait a minute. What are you doing here? It's a spider man. Yeah. Wait a second. Well, on that note, let's talk about. Tim Holt a little bit. I do think that he is the weakest actor of the three. And it's one of those things where like he has this kind of baby face though, and it's like a a very sincere looking, honest, good guy face. And all through the movie, every time you see Tim Holt maybe start to get tempted by the idea of the gold, the music will turn ominous for a second, and then it'll kick back into our theme of like, and he'll run back in the mine and rescue Humphrey Bogart.

30:08 You need a guy like that to be playing against the the villainy and kind of cartoonish looking nature of Humphrey Bogart. Yeah, you, you. Absolutely. Do I by the end of it, I don't know if this is like fair or not. He has like a little bit of an Amish beard going on until like growing up near Amish country, you're like, yeah, this is obviously the good guy. He's he's got the Amish beard. Like he's going to work really hard. He's going to be very kind, have good high moral principles. It's going to be great. I actually really enjoy Holt in this movie. I think that he's a perfect counterbalance to the inanity of Walter Houston and the dourness of Humphrey Bogart.

30:51 Like to me, they they form this perfect like Trinity of emotions that like they kind of all balance each other out. Like he's good but still kind of serious. And Walter Houston is good and chaotic. And then, you know, Dobbs is simultaneously good and he's simultaneously evil and chaotic and yet also like kind of like principled at the same time. It is a great group of characters and I think that's what makes this movie so compelling, is that you have three very distinct characters carrying this movie throughout, and the relationships between the three of them is fascinating. I think 1. Of the things that could get lost in a conversation about this movie is how fun this movie is. Even when it's serious, it's still so entertaining that it's like, I don't feel like I'm being lectured at. I don't feel like this got boring. It moves really quickly.

31:43 It it packs a punch to it. The violence in this movie is shocking sometimes, but everything that leads up to that is this kind of triumphant. You know, I'm I'm humming the theme to the movie because it has that sort of like the great escape hummability to it. And just like the great escape, like you remember the fun parts of that movie. And then when it gets serious at the end, you're like, Oh, I forgot that this many people die. And but that's kind of the secret reason that you come back to the movie because it it Trojan horses in those deeper themes. I think this is right in line with that. And that's why I keep referring to it as like a dad movie 'cause it has everything you want for the first hour and 15 minutes in terms of like, this is entertaining as hell. These guys are doing it.

32:26 Look at that slew us carrying water down that they're getting the sweet, sweet gold from. It's just awesome, 'cause you're like cheering for them. And then of course Humphrey Bogart has to go and mess it all up and start murdering people. They also do a great job of. Like bringing you along with Bogart and Holtz as they have absolutely no idea what they're doing. And it's almost like John Houston is like pointing the finger at the camera being like, you guys don't even have any idea what prospecting for gold back in the 1800s would have looked like. Like you have absolutely no clue. Let let me have my dad tell you, give you a Ted Talk on what finding gold actually looks like and you get those two quick little. Scenes where they first think they found a vein of gold running through some rocks and you watch Humphrey Bogart dump a like a day's worth of water all over these rocks just being like, look at all this gold.

33:22 Walter Houston's like, Nah, dude, that's, that's fool's gold. You, you just wasted all our water. And then you get the great next scene where they're so tired and angry that Humphrey Bogart's like, I'm going to crack a rock over your head, old man. And he starts doing the jig and laughing at them and saying you're Dumber than the dumbest Jackass. And it's, it's so good, 'cause he's like, we're just walking on gold and you guys have no idea, 'cause you don't know what it looks like. And it's, it's such a perfect entry point for the audience that, like, we don't understand what this looks like either. And we probably still won't even after you explain it to us. And that's our signal that guys like Bogart are in over their head here. Yeah. And dude.

34:03 That jig that he does is absolute perfection, Yeah. I like. I well, I'm amazed it hasn't been turned into a Fortnite dance at this point because it's incredible. We might as well. We should just start like we should post that clip on our TikTok and just put different songs behind it of him dancing to that everyday. Walter Houston Daily and every Time we Touch. I get the feeling that would be a great. Cotton Eye Joe mashup, if I'm, if I would be to be honest with you. All right, dude, I think we're in a good spot. Let's hit pause here. Let's go drink some Jack Daniels and then we'll come back and finish out our conversation on treasurer of the Sierra Madre. What do you say, dude? Tell me that they didn't drink Jack.

34:44 Daniels, Fred C. Dobbs is a Jack. Daniels kind of guy. Let's get to him, man. All right, today we've. Got kind of a special treat in the whiskey realm, Brad. We're drinking a special release from Jack Daniels, and not only is it a special limited release, it's a special limited release from almost four years ago. This is a 2022 limited edition Jack Daniels, but it's pretty significant because it's one of the first times that Jack publicly released their American single malt. And this was a creation of Brown Foreman master distiller Chris Morris, who we've had on the show many Times Now.

35:27 Great guy. I'm really excited to dive into this man because this marked a, a kind of a new foray into single malt for the Jack Daniels brand. And now you can get the Jack Daniels single malt like their regular baseline offering of it in stores all across the country for about $45.00. Now what we're drinking today I had to look up some details about because it was special release and it's, you know, a couple years old now. It's 100% melted barley. Obviously it did go through the Lincoln County process of charcoal filtration that they do at Jack Daniels. It was aged for a little bit over 4 years and then dumped into freshly emptied Sherry casks and aged for a little bit longer in the Sherry butts as well. So it looks like they were rested for about two years on Sherry before they were bottled in 2002. So we've got a really strongly, all right, 2022, sorry. So this is 2020 plus year old whiskey. They were resting in the Sherry.

36:28 Finish for 20 years, right? I'm sure that would be delicious. Anyway, I was going to say this is a very long rested kind of finished whiskey. I'm really excited to dive into it. We have a small sample bottle of it here. Brad, it looks like this comes in at What's the proof point on this one? O 5.7 our favorite radio station. In the Cleveland. Area here the oldies station. So there you go. It goes with our our movie for the day being an oldie. Big shout out Magic One O 5. .7 Do you remember when magic one O 5.7 after LeBron left and we were playing the Thunder or sorry the heat was playing the Thunder in the playoffs and they like renamed the whole station or.

37:19 No. Was it the magic? I don't know, there's a certain point where they renamed the entire station for like a week just to spite LeBron for leaving. It was the best thing in the world. I love that. All right, let's get back into the whiskey here, man. Look at the color on this thing. This is incredibly dark whiskey. I'm very excited. You have not or you have tried it? I have not yet. So I'm going to let you go ahead and give your nosing notes while I dive in here. Brad, dude, the nose. Is beautiful. Like there is cocoa, there's plum, there's brown sugar. It has all these really nice dark like stone fruit kind of notes with like that kind of cocoa, hot chocolatey kind of consistency.

38:05 I I really like the nose a lot. I give it an 8.5. Yeah, I I think I'm going to be right there. With you, Brad, it does have that kind of craft whiskey note on it that American single malt just tends to get for some reason. But it's way at the back. And I, I like that a lot because up front you get a big bomb of kind of like brown sugar molasses vibes for me. And then you start getting into some of those like powdered hot cocoa mix with like milk powder and cocoa and sugar. It's really decadent, which I wasn't expecting. I like this a lot. I'm going to give it an 8.5. Yeah, the palette. Bro I I took a sip of this and was just like blown away immediately.

38:47 It is dark chocolate. It's that that cocoa powder. It's got almost like a burnt brown sugar vibe going on. It's it's like a little bit deeper than Nora. Just a traditional brown sugar. There's some cherry notes. It gets a little tobacco in near the end. I freaking love this dude. I think this is a 9.5. For me this is 1. Of the more bourbon Y tasting single malts I've ever had. Like it reminds me of so many bourbons that you and I have sampled on a 95° day in Bardstown, KY outside at that festival. And it takes on some character of like, I don't want to say a young bourbon, but like maybe a craft bourbon like it because it has some of those, those more herbal vegetable notes in it.

39:32 But I know that this is a single malt. So it's it's kind of the best of both worlds and I think kind of crucially, it doesn't drink at one O 5 proof like this is insanely crushable, almost tipping thin, which, you know, like it's not astringent in any way. But I do wish there was just a bit more punch on the palate. But I am going to give this a nine out of 10 on the palate. Brad Yeah. Finish. Wise, I'll give my score right off the bat. This is a nine out of 10 on the finish. The tobacco is there oak it to me it gets a little more like baking spice at the end, a little bit of clove, a little bit of nutmeg has like this really nice, almost Christmassy vibe going on. And you know, maybe that's just because I made French. Toast this morning and put a little. Nutmeg on there for the girls, but I I think this is a really delicious finish that like I said, 9 out of 10 for me. Yeah, I definitely picked up.

40:28 Nutmeg, not so much clove for me, but you're right in that it gets into that kind of Christmassy vibe towards the back end. It reminds me a little bit of Midwinter Night's DRAM. Like it obviously doesn't have those rye notes to it, but it has that sort of like cherry, like dark cherry finish to go with it as well. Really, really good. I wish it was just a little bit more long lasting. Like the the predominant notes on the finish are tobacco and leather with some nice dark stone fruit on it. I'm going to come down just slightly and give it an 8 out of 10 on the finish. And then that takes us to overall balance where, you know, it did kind of tip down for me just slightly throughout the experience. But overall this like, you know, if we had tried this in 2022, this is a whiskey of the year content. I mean, this is like just damn good, dude. I'm going to give it a nine out of 10 on the balance. Yeah, I'm at 9.5.

41:20 I think all the flavors work well together to make a really rich, decadent experience that I don't feel like we get very often from an American Single malt. Like this has a depth and a power to it that I really, really love. I think that time in the Sherry barrel really did this thing good. So I yeah, I'm at 9.5 on balance now. Value is difficult. This had an MSRP of $70 I think if you could get. A bottle of this for. $70 that's a 10 out of 10 value. Absolutely. Nowadays, if you wanted to get this specific bottle, it's like 2 to $500.00. So like you're in the luxury territory range now. I even think at luxury range this is like a 7 1/2 value if for a luxury bottle.

42:11 I think this is really, really good. I'll come down a little bit from my 10 out of 10. If it was 70, I'll give it a nine out of 10 on value. I think that they priced it at the right spot, way below what they should have charged, to be honest. And it makes sense that it costs as much as it does now. So I I think it's a nine out of 10 on value. Yeah, I mean, we're talking. About a one off release here and I definitely lied about the MSRP of the regular single malt, which it looks like MSRP on this is $100 and that's just for their regular baseline single malt. So you know. Like if. You're going to spring for it. I would say try to find this bottle 'cause this is darn good, man.

42:51 And if you know, if you're chasing down a limited edition kind of vintage pour, if this is on a bar back somewhere and you see it, this is 100% like it's going to be 3540 bucks for a Porvit. It's worth it, man. So just on that alone, I'm going to give it an 8.5 out of 10 on value. And that takes me to a very impressive 43 out of 50 overall. Brad, where are you coming out on this one? I'm sitting at a 45. .50 My gosh. I've hit the, I've hit the 90. 90 Mark. Wow, that is rarefied. Air here on film with whiskey, and that takes us to an 88.5 out of 100 or a 44.25 on average. So just below that sort of top echelon of exceptional whiskey. This is still darn good.

43:41 If it wasn't $250, I think it would have cleared that pretty easily. Yeah. Yeah, 100% man, this. Is a rich, decadent, beautiful whiskey that I'm very glad we came around to even though it's been 4 years since it was released. The real question. Brad is how much gold or how much of your soul would you sell off to how many ounces bottle? How many ounces of my soul? Let's get back into talking about Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Brad, what do you say? Let's get to it. All right, everybody that was Jack Daniels twice barreled American single Bolts. What a great whiskey, man.

44:24 I do you ever wonder if like the main guys at Jack Daniels drink their good stuff and they're like, man, we can make this and yet for us to make our dime, we have to ship out that you know what, I'm not going to. Crap on Jack Daniels that way because I like regular Jack Daniels dude, but I will. Say that that holds true. For like Buffalo Trace and Fireball, Yeah, 100. Percent. Give the the cinnamon whiskey to the peasants, you know? Yeah, absolutely, man. Oh, man. Well, I, I hate to steer us back into serious matters here, but I am staring down the barrel of like a maybe 500 season here in our next game and I need to make up some ground.

45:07 So what do you say we get into our game? 2 facts and a falsehood. Let's get to it, man. Brad. Is going to. Try to stump your ball to our right and what is wrong. 2 Facts and a falsehood. 2 Facts and a falsehood is the part of the show where Brad presents me with three items as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete lie. Now, Brad, I told you this movie was like a big favorite of mine when I was a teenager and nerding out about classic movies. And so I remember I learned a lot of trivia about this movie, OK? And some of it stuck. So I'm hoping that the things I remember that are fun facts are all three of your facts and falsehoods. And I can parse this out easily.

45:51 But who knows man? Let's let's find out. I'll take a chance. Like Bogart, all I can think of is ABBA. Take a chance, son. That's. Another Walter Houston dancing. That's a perfect Walter Houston song. Facts number one While on location, John Houston took a little Mexican boy named Pablo under his wing. The child ran errands for Houston and generally acted like the crew mascot. When it came time for Houston to close up shop in Mexico, he chose to adopt Pablo and brought him back to the United States to live with him and his second wife, actress Evelyn Keyes. Fact number two Production on the film was nearly shut down when Mexican officials threatened to revoke the product production's permit, citing concerns that the story portrayed Mexico as inhospitable to foreigners. Fact #3 A doctor was assigned to the unit in Mexico, and one night he had to attend to John Houston, who had an adverse reaction to marijuana, Having smoked it for the first time with his father, he never touched the stuff again. I'm so mad because I.

46:58 Don't know any of these, I don't. Like not a single one. Man, I love that you set yourself up for. That too. You're like, you know, I don't want to, you know, shy my own boots or anything, but I know a thing or two about this film. Can I share a couple fun? Facts. You can't have to get them out there. I don't know what else. I'll do. It so the the book that this movie is based off of, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, was written by an author under a pseudonym BB period Traven. No one knew anything about B Traven. Nobody knew who he was or what he looked like. And when, you know, the studio bought the rights to the movie, it was never done in person. And eventually they needed a a script supervisor on set.

47:41 And so Beet Raven sent a guy that was on set and and said that he spoke for Beet Raven. All through the production of this movie, nobody knew who this guy was. And speculations always been that it was Beet Raven, but he just never introduced himself that way. And no one like to this day, no one really knows who Beet Raven was. I just think I love it and insane detail that this random guy showed up on set and they're like sure Beet Raven. Sent me fun fact #2. When Humphrey Bogart is killed at the end of this movie by the Banditos I. Did not the first time I watched this I was like he they like talk about him being dead and I'm like I don't remember them killing him.

48:23 I feel like they like punch him once and he falls down and that's about it. The reason is because he gets the. Machete out and you watch him hack Bogart off screen 2 times and the second time you'll notice that they're kind of on an embankment and the bandit kind of goes like this. And then they cut to them dragging Bogart's dead body out of frame because they filmed a head rolling down into that puddle and floating and you can actually still see the water kind of unsettled because the sensors were like absolutely the F naughty. You're not going to show a head rolling down, but yeah, they. Cut. They cut. Bogart's head off in this movie and that would make the Moody.

49:04 Movie at least 32% better. Yeah, dude. 100% Anyway, back to your stupid facts that weren't as fun as either one of those. I'm gonna. Say #1. Is false just because it sounds sensationalist. We're talking about Hollywood and America in the 1940s. You probably could just bring a Mexican kid back and say this is my kid now, but I'm gonna. Hope. That number one is false, Brad number one. Is absolutely a true fact and it's one of the main reasons that he and Evelyn Keyes divorced like a few months after he moved back because he didn't tell he did not tell her that he was bringing back that's insane He.

49:50 Just brought a kid. Back from. Mexico like this is our son now, Yeah, said he didn't tell her. She was like, wow, man, I'm out. Which like, I don't know if that's says something worse about him or about about her. I think I'm Team Evelyn in. This scenario, man. All right. What was the falsehood fact? #2 that the production was nearly shut down because of Mexican officials and a poor production or poor representation of Mexico. That was our falsehood. Got it? Which means that Walter and John were smoking marijuana one night together.

50:30 Listen, I that one sounded. The most plausible of all of them. To me it's like, all right, cool, like. Very clearly Walter was smoking weed this whole production. That dude, that dude was on something. Throughout the course of this movie. All right, Brad, we've we've covered quite a few bases already when it comes to Treasure of the Sierra Madre. This is a movie that was nominated for a few Oscars, including best picture. It it kind of surprisingly did not bring up a best actor nomination for Humphrey Bogart. And I think at the time of the movie's release, it was pretty widely believed that he was like the front runner for best actor. And then he doesn't even get nominated, which leads to a few years later when he does the African Queen. I mean, we talked about this on that episode. He wins the Oscar for The African Queen in 51, which is the same year as Marlon Brando's big breakout in A Streetcar Named Desire.

51:24 And then Brando feels robbed of an Oscar, so they give him an O3 years later in On the Waterfront. And it kind of starts this Oscars domino effect of like people winning for the movies that they may or may not should have won for. But it's because people prior to them didn't get nominated or didn't win that 51 Oscar that Bogart wins was definitely considered more of like a career achievement. And we've seen both movies. He's better in this movie. He should have won an Academy Award for this movie, if anything. Yeah, absolutely do. Do you know? Who won? I mean, he wasn't even nominated, but like, who won that year? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. That Laurence Olivier was on this tear of making Shakespeare adaptations and so he did like a Henry the Fifth and a Macbeth and they're all three hours long. And I think this is the year that one of those wins best picture and he gets best actor for it and best director like John Houston doesn't get best director for this either. So man, that's.

52:25 That's wild. I mean, I'm, I'm very glad that Walter wins his Oscar 'cause he he freaking deserves it. I feel like this movie has such a talent of production, like it's, it's clearly produced so well. I I would have expected at least one or two more. Yeah, 100%, man. And I think that that is like when I talk to people about this movie, which it's been 7 years since I talked to anybody about it, but like, I think the, the first thing is like, watch this movie. It's a great movie. And I think people just need to get over the hump of having never heard about it before. Yeah, there's, you know, there's such a collection of like everybody's heard of Citizen Kane and Casablanca and The Godfather. And it's like, I know I need to see those at some point in my life.

53:08 But that next group of movies that are that are best years of our lives or this where they star people that you'll recognize and they're just like fun Hollywood movies that are also 10 out of 10 type movies. I get more excited recommending movies like this I feel like because they they need someone. To be in their corner. 100% that's another one. Yeah, yeah, the IT feels. Like there's a lot of really great movies from this era that are being slowly lost to the mists of time. And it it kind of it makes me think about. I've also, I've often wondered like of all the music produced in the 1700s, we remember like Beethoven and like, you know, a few other big composers, like how many Beatles songs will be remembered in the 22 hundreds?

53:57 Like, you know what I mean? Like 2-3 hundred years from when they played, how many of them will be remembered? And the same thing with movies. Like we're 80 years past this movie. Nobody knows about it except for weirdos that do a podcast about movies. So what? Like what does it take for something to stick in the cultural consciousness for not just a decade or 50 years, but like it stands the test of time? I that's just, I don't know. That's a big rhetorical question that I'm always like curious about when I encounter media. Well, Brad, I think that this. Might team me up for a very perfect segue because one of the things that I think can encourage people to watch this movie is to pair it up with a movie that they may have heard of before.

54:41 And that gets us into our final segment of the day, which we call let's make it a double. We're near the end of the episodes of things listening to the film and whiskey show. Let's pair another film with this one. Even if it's struggling. It's the final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. Let's Make It a double is the part of the show where we pick the perfect movie to pair up at this one to make a double feature. Brad, I'm gonna go first because I had three movies in mind and I've mentioned two of them, so I'm I only have one left to talk about. I do think the Red Badge of Courage would be a sweet double pairing with this because you're like 3 hours and then you've seen 2 movies. I think the Kane Mutiny would be another great one. That's maybe Bogart's best performance, and it's about a ship captain in the US Navy who slowly goes insane and all of his guys have a mutiny against him, and then there's a big court battle at the end of it.

55:34 It's like a few good men on top of a mutiny movie. Freaking great movie. Yeah, I think I'm. Going to pair this up. With Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, I think that there is so much of There will be blood in this movie as a precursor to what you see kind of develop in There Will Be Blood Because There Will Be Blood is much more like Daniel Plainview is an archetype for America and capitalism and the war of ideals in America between greed and religion and how in a lot of ways in the 20th century, greed wins. And you know, it's very metaphorical. It's very archetypal, but you see the seeds of that being planted in this movie, and they're both just like they've got that gritty, grimy dirtiness to them. I think There Will Be Blood would be a perfect double feature.

56:23 Yeah, it's one that I was thinking. About as well as I was preparing for two for Let's Make It a Double. I think I'm going to go a different direction from There Will Be Blood. I'm going to stay in the older Western genre. I'm going to stay with a movie that has that long drawn out isolation of the West kind of vibe. I'm going to go with 1956. The Searchers. Yeah. I think that there is so much here specifically about humans being shaped by the conditions that they're in, by the the circumstances that that they're in and what it takes to survive in a harsh world.

57:05 I think that The Searchers is an absolutely excellent, relatively famous older film. That would be for a long, gritty, fascinating evening of of a film. Yeah. And and that's another movie. About how the harsh conditions bring out what's in the heart of man. And John Wayne in that movie is a horrible, horrible racist who is obsessed with vengeance and violence and death. And you get him, like, at his most disheveled. I think it might. It's probably John Wayne's best performance. That's just. Yeah. The Searchers would be another great one, man. Yeah, dude. I think what we're saying is the treasure of this year in Madre, the freaking all timer.

57:48 I had a blast rewatching this again. Brad, let's get into final scores here. I want to hear your take first before I give mine. I think it's. It's close to being a perfect movie. It's a little bit too long. I think the opening parts in Tampico take a little while. I, like you said, you find yourself wondering, you're like, where, where are we even going with this? And I, I think you could, you could tighten it up a little bit. This could be like an hour and 50 minute movie and it would move like gangbusters. I'm going to give it a 9.5. It's not a perfect movie, but it is an absolute blast. It's so much fun to come back to it and it is one that I want to like, share with other people.

58:29 Yeah, I'm in the same spot I'm going to. Give it a nine and a half. There was a moment that I believe you called it out the last time we talked. And for some reason I just never noticed it. But it's the most blatant thing ever when when Walter Houston is getting pampered by all the women and he like licks salt off of her hand and then he just breaks the 4th wall and looks directly at the camera and goes. And then they just go. Back to the scene. After that, like what? What? What just happens like? It's like a looney. Tunes character, I couldn't believe that and it was in the middle of like a very dramatic part of the movie that they just have this aside like Family Guy, so there's small. Moments like.

59:11 That where it's like John Houston, I think you're trying to do something fun here that was unnecessary, bro. And that'll Ding it just a little bit for me to a 9.5 Brad dude, I'm so. Glad that we came back to this. Like such a blast to watch. It's a great Sunday afternoon cable dad movie that kind of transcends that because of the characters and the story it tells. I, I love it man. I'm so glad we watched it again. Yeah, me too. Well, folks. If you've seen The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, we would love to hear from you, or if we've inspired you to watch it for the first time, you can let us know on any of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, or YouTube at Film Whiskey, or you can jump onto our Discord.

59:58 And join our daily conversation about movies, life, everything going on whiskey. You can find a link to our Discord server at the end of every single one of our show notes. Brad, I'm going to give a quick plug for. Our Patreon as well. We haven't talked about the Patreon in a while. If you sign up for our Patreon at any of our three tiers of support, you get a bunch of bonus perks. We do Patreon exclusive episodes every episode we release. We also do a video version just for our patrons. You can find us@patreon.com/film Whiskey and you can sign up for as little as $3 a month. Brad, we are going to be showing our lovely faces to our patrons here with this episode and with next week's episode. We'll be back next Tuesday as we get closer and closer to the end of season #10 here, Brad, we're almost there revisiting another. Of our season.

1:00:49 One masterpieces. It's the 1961 musical classic West Side Story. I can't freaking wait to talk about that one, man, but until then, I'm Bob Book, I'm Brad G and we'll. See you next time. Music.