MCCORMICK'S QUICK TAKES ON CLASSIC GREED.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Warner Brothers, 1948). Director John Huston and his son Walter won three Oscars for this gritty Western tale of greed, suspicion, and betrayal--but it's Humphrey Bogaffs performance as the driven and increasingly paranoid Fred Dobbs that continues to glitter long after all the gold dust has settled.

In spite of warnings that "gold's a devilish sort of thing," Dobbs and his two down-on-their-luck expatriate partners set off into the Mexican wilderness to prospect for their fortunes. Finally stumbling onto a rich vein, the three compatriots soon discover greed's insatiable and corrosive appetites, and Dobbs begins a slow, irreversible descent into madness.

In this dark morality play the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is a viper's nest

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Columbia Pictures, 1936). In this early Frank Capra romance, the hopeful social critic who gave us Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, and it's a Wonderful Life casts Gary Cooper as the brave innocent (Longfellow Deeds) tilting at big-money windmills.

Having inherited $20 million from a distant cousin, the decidedly ungreedy Deeds is persuaded to come to New York and take over his relative's fortune. There he runs into a mob of greedy hangers-on and social climbers, and is seduced by a cynical reporter (Jean Arthur) posing as a fellow babe-in-the-woods.

When the idealistic young democrat ignores his avaricious handlers--sharing his wealth with thousands of down-and-out farmers--there's all sorts of hell to pay. Facing a competency hearing, Deeds must persuade a tough judge that it's not crazy to want to use his wealth in this way.

Great Expectations (Universal Pictures, 1946). David Lean's version of Pip's pilgrimage from rags to riches may well be the best movie ever made of a Charles Dickens novel. In this tale of the rise (and fall) of young Master Pip, a poor orphan boy unwillingly rescues a dangerous convict and is drawn into the web of the wealthy, deranged, and decidedly vengeful Miss Havisham.

When years later Pip's fortune suddenly improves as a mysterious benefactor pays for his education, the young gentleman finds himself in a world quite distant from his impoverished roots. The question is whether this "gentrification" has brought the former orphan true happiness or an awful trap.

Little Foxes (RKO Picture, 1941). In Lillian Hellman's play about a corrupt and avaricious turn-of-the-century Southern family, Bette Davis (Regina) is cast as the manipulative matriarch of a dysfunctional family like no other.

Scheming for funds to build a factory that will exploit local labor and ensure their failing fortunes, Regina and her sociopathic siblings double-cross the local banks, her husband (Horace), and one another with frightening regularity. In the end Davis and her brothers secure their fortune through intrigue, blackmail, and murder. But what eventually happens to Regina's daughter means that their victory is short-lived.