Spitball Army

watched Jan 14, 2018
spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd:

9.8
[theater]

This – what I believe was my father’s favorite film – gained so much for me on this TCM big-screen presentation, after decades of seeing it only on TV sets. Even Alfonso Bedoya’s “Goldhat” character, which in today’s politically-correct climate could feel like an insensitive stereotype, comes across mostly as a feral, desperate gang leader with a mile-wide sarcastic streak, who’s main objective is to survive (just like Bogie’s Fred C. Dobbs). In his introduction to the film, Ben Mankiewicz told a hilarious tale of Walter Huston refusing to play his role of the old prospector without his uppers (a demand from his director son John), causing Bogart and John Huston to hold him to the ground and forcibly remove his false teeth – the result, of course, added dimension to the character, and possibly contributed to the elder Huston’s eventual Oscar win.