Daily Dialogue — January 17, 2017

Dobbs: For a long time I’ve had my suspicions about you and now I know I’ve been right.
CURTIN: What suspicions?
DOBBS: Not putting anything over on me. I see right through you. For a long time you’ve wanted to bump me off at the first opportunity… and bury me out here in the bush like a dog… so you could take not only the old man’s goods but mine in the bargain. When you get to Durango safely you’ll have a big laugh… thinking how dumb the old man and I were. You make another move towards me and I’ll pull the trigger.

— The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948), screenplay by John Huston, novel by B. Traven

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Greed, suggested by Jenny McNabb.

Trivia: John Huston was fascinated by mysterious author B. Traven, who was a recluse living in Mexico. Traven approved of the director and his screenplay (by letter, obviously), and sent his intimate friend Hal Croves to the location to be a technical advisor and translator for $150 a week. The general consensus is that Croves was in fact Traven, though he always denied this. Huston was happy not to query him on the subject but his then-wife Evelyn Keyes was certain Croves was the mysterious author, believing that he was continually giving himself away, saying “I” when it should have been “he”, and using phrases that were exactly the same as those to be found in Traven’s letters to Huston. All very ironic, especially considering that Traven was offered $1000 a week to act as technical advisor on the film. It is known that “B. Traven” was a pen name, and Traven’s true identity remains a mystery to this day.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This movie has to be an homage, intentional or not, to the Eric von Stroheim 1925 silent film Greed. Compare scenes below:

The theme is the same: The lust for money is the root of all evil. Greed can only lead to paranoia and self-destruction.