The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was one of the first Hollywood films to be filmed on location outside the United States (in the state of Durango and street scenes in Tampico, Mexico), although many scenes were filmed back in the studio and elsewhere in the US. Filming took five and a half months to shoot.

Since it would presumably be within driving distance from Los Angeles, and the Sierra Madre Casino itself is located on a mountainous overlook looming above the villa, I'd wager that it's located somewhere in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, facing Death Valley, somewhere south-east of Fresno.
The Sierra Madre Casino offers blackjack, roulette, and slots. Only four of the slot machines are functional, however. Only four of the slot machines are functional, however. Blackjack tables can be found in a separate room across from the vending machine.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Author	B. Traven
Original title	Der Schatz der Sierra Madre
Country	Germany
Language	German
Genre	Adventure novel
Publisher	Büchergilde Gutenberg
Publication date	1927
1935
Pages	213

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (originally titled Der Schatz der Sierra Madre) is a 1927 adventure novel by German author B. Traven, whose identity remains unknown.^[1] In the book, two destitute American men in Mexico of the 1920s join an older American prospector in a search for gold. John Huston adapted the book as a 1948 film of the same name.

2Plot
- 2.1Summary
3Adaptations

Historical setting[edit]

The novel is set in the decade following the global upheavals of the First World War and social revolutions in Russia and Mexico. The United States has emerged as the dominant imperialist power globally. European and US corporations are aggressively seeking foreign markets, natural resources and cheap labor. Elements within the Catholic Church are struggling to retain their authority as liberal Mexican administrations institute social reforms, including an 8-hour day, literacy programs and health care. This is the context of the story.

Plot[edit]

The author employs a third person-omniscient in a dramatic-progressive structure, where Howard is the focal character. Three stories within a story provide historical and social significance for the outer narrative.

Summary[edit]

The story opens in the oil boomtown of Tampico, Mexico in the early 1920s. Dobbs, an expatriate who hails from “an industrial American city” is unemployed, penniless and reduced to bumming spare change from American tourists. Loitering on Tampico's main plaza, he collects a number of generous handouts from well-to-do men who wear white suits. To Dobbs’ dismay, he discovers that he has been accosting the same individual repeatedly. The irate tourist at last upbraids the panhandler, dismissing him with a half-peso tip.

At the Hotel Oso Negro (the Black Bear Hotel), a vermin-infested flophouse, Dobbs pays for a cot and a cold shower at 50 centavos per night. The hotel clientele comprises both employed and unemployed international workers, as well as a number of gamblers, thieves and tramps. The Oso Negro, nevertheless, is operated efficiently by its sharp-eyed front desk clerks. The guests themselves collectively provide a degree of good order and security.

In a café, a young Mexican lottery vendor exhorts Dobbs to purchase a ticket. Dobbs insults the boy, but finally consents to risk his last 20 centavos on the drawing.

Dobbs lands a gig unloading agricultural machinery at four pesos per day. Desperate for better wages, he joins a rigging crew as a roughneck, run by American contractor Pat McCormick. A shrewd bidder on lucrative drilling projects, McCormick has a reputation for fast-paced operations and high productivity. He postures as an anti-capitalist and comrade to revolutionaries so as to win the loyalty of his newly arrived European laborers, who are sympathetic to Bolshevism. Americans are wise to his phony appeals to worker solidarity and McCormick avoids hiring them. The pay is $8 a day, less $1.80 for meals. The crews work 18-hour shifts, seven days a week for the duration of the project and no overtime pay. Mexican labor is never hired due to their national eight-hour day provision. When the rigging job is completed, the crew is sent back to Tampico to await payment. McCormick advances a few employees 5% of their pay. Dobbs argues for and gets 30% of his earning in cash.

Weeks pass while Dobbs, along with Californian co-worker named Curtin seek the evasive contractor. The men spot McCormick in the central plaza, promenading with his meretricious mistress. When they confront him, he invites the resentful Dobbs and Curtin into a cantina for a drink. Plying the men with liquor, McCormick pleads that he has not yet been reimbursed by the oil company. Curtin curses his lie, while Dobbs thrusts him against the bar, demanding their wages. McCormick, himself a brawler, and capable of beating up the men one-on-one, mentally calculates his losses if he ends up in a hospital after a desperate bar fight against both determined workers. He pulls out the cash he owes Dobbs and Curtin and throws it on the bar top. Vowing to never hire them again, he strides out of the cantina.

When Dobbs returns to the Oso Negro, he encounters the greying Howard, an old-timer who has travelled the world in search of gold. The loquacious old man is holding forth with his bunkmates on the perils of striking it rich. Discovered in quantity, he avers, gold distorts a man's estimate of vice and virtue. Invariably he succumbs to greed, and no amount of gold will satisfy him. Overhearing this, Dobbs becomes agitated, swearing that he is immune to the sinister forces of gold, that he would be happy with a $20,000 fortune, no more. Howard quietly takes the measure of Dobbs with a long look, then returns to his sermon. He assures them that, though no longer in his prime, he is ready to share expenses on a gold-prospecting expedition. Dobbs and the others feel the powerful lure of the precious metal.

What Is The Sierra Madre Casino Based On

Story within a Story: The Legend of La Mina Agua Verde[edit]

Howard tells the story of La Mina Agua de Verde (the Green Water Mine), as told to him by a Harry Tilton, former mentor and fellow-prospector. Tilton was one of a 15-man expedition to the legendary mine, and the only one who survived to carry away a sizeable fortune. The historic diggings are said to be located on todays’ border between the American state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora.

Tilton’s narrative sets forth the early history of the mine and carries an indictment of the imperial powers and profit systems that exploited its unbelievably rich and apparently inexhaustible deposits of gold. The social history associated with the mine presents a litany of horrors, beginning with the Aztecs and proceeding to the forced labor of indigenous people by the Spanish conquerors. The complicity of the Catholic Church in maintaining order among the Indian workers is detailed, including their authorization of torture. A malediction is placed on the mine.

In 1762 local inhabitants launch a revolt, exterminating the Spanish officials presiding over the slave laborers. Spain’s military retaliates with a program of terror, burning villages and hanging women and children attempting to flee the oppression. A pattern of retaliatory killings escalates, until the Indian insurgents obliterate the mine and utte

What Is The Sierra Madre Casino Based On