The Maltese Falcon (Old Time Radio) by Humphrey Bogart Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Maltese Falcon (Old Time Radio)
Book Review: The Maltese Falcon 1941 (Three-Disc Collector's Edition)
Summary: 5 Stars
A gallery of High-living lowlifes will stopp at nothing to get their sweaty hands on a jewel-encrusted falcon . Detective Sam Spade (Humprey Bogart 1899 - 1957 ) wants to find out why -and who would take the fall of his partner's murder . An all-star casting ( including Sydney Greenstreet 1879- 1954 , Peter Lorre 1904-1964, Elisha Cook ,Jr 1903-1995 , Mary Ashtor 1906- 1987) joins Bogart in this cracking mystery masterwork written for the screen (from Dashiell Hammett's (1894-1961) novel) and directed by John Houston (1906 - 1987). This nominee for 3 academy awards (1941) Captulted Bogart to stardome and lauched Huston's directional career all with a bird and bang ! . Warner Brothers has one of the greatest film catalogs of any studio; yet they don't appear to take their DVD issues very seriously. Who on earth would put "Goodfellas" on two sides of a disc? or not release the "Director's Cut" version of "Eyes Wide Shut" (imagine the added revenue if they had)? or almost never digitally enhance the audio or visual transfer or provide any significant extras? Compared to the deluxe packages that Universal, Criterion, are a peculiar desecration of a vaunted film legacy.
Case in point: "The Maltese Falcon". Arguably the greatest detective film ever made, Warners at least releases it with a decent video transfer. Unfortunately, the audio synchronizing is off during the last 15 minutes of the movie (by a second but it's still noticable) and I wasn't able to access all the people on the "Cast and Crew" menual though I enjoyed the "Trailers of Humphrey Bogart" section, it would have been nice if Warners spent the money to create a documentary history of the film the way they did on Universal's "Casablanca" release.
Much ink has been spilt praising "The Maltese Falcon" so I won't go into any panegyrics here. It's just a shame that Warners doesn't take this market seriously enough to put more care into the DVD releases of their finest films. High Quality Transfer . Recommended
Book Review: Like Vintage Wine
Summary: 5 Stars
A month's salary for a vintage wine is a bargain for many -- but one evening and it's gone. This is a vintage flick -- which can be enjoyed one special night a year for decades to come without losing its bouquet!
Perfect? No! A movie can't be. You must decide which set of weaknesses you accept in a most perfect film. At first I didn't like the combo J. Huston & Co. give us, but "they grow on you." Perhaps that -- which cannot be gauged at first -- is its' greatest strength.
Whatever! For those with a particular palate, this is vintage indeed.
Book Review: THIS'LL PUT YOU IN SOLID WITH YOUR BOSS
Summary: 5 Stars
POOR ELISHA COOK JR, HE NEVER KNEW WHAT HIT HIM. AFTER NEARLY FIFTY YEARS OF WATCHING THIS FILM IN THE MOVIES AND ON TV, I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT HIT ME. MANY OTHER FILMS TRIED TO COP ITS SOUL AND, GENERALLY, FAILED. IT'S INDIANA JONES BIOLOGICAL FATHER. BY THE WAY, WHO WAS ELISHA COOK SR.?Book Review: Always a pleasure
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent production. Package contains enhanced feature cut, the original and the first Falcon called Satin is a Lady. Nice complete package w/ exc ellent special features.Book Review: The third time's the charm
Summary: 5 Stars
The Maltese Falcon has earned a reputation of being one of the all-time great movies. Does it deserve this title? As shown in the three-disc special edition of the movie, yes.
Before I picked up this edition, I was familiar enough with the movie, having seen it a couple of times as well as reading the book. Before re-watching it, however, I skipped to Disc 2 and watched the two older versions. The original version of The Maltese Falcon came out in 1931. This movie is reasonably faithful to the book, but has the stiff acting of many early talkies which used a lot of silent movie stars (such as Bebe Daniels). It does, however, have the entertaining Dwight Frye (an early screen villain most well known as Renfield in Dracula), though he doesn't do that much here. The 1936 remake was Satan Met a Lady which added a comic twist to the story. Unfortunately, star Warren William plays his role more like Nick Charles (a rather tipsy gentleman) than Sam Spade. The story changes the Falcon to a Ram's Horn, but not even Bette Davis (who considered this one of her worst films) can save it. With two mediocre efforts, it was amazing that Warner Brothers would try it again just five years later.
They did, however, and the third time was the charm. Despite having just seen the same story twice within a couple of weeks and being familiar with the classic version, it remained immensely entertaining, not just a cut above the first two versions, but several cuts. What makes this version so good? Basically, everything came together almost perfectly.
One key thing was rookie director John Huston whose direction is so good that it helped create an entire style of movie-making, film noir. Whether The Maltese Falcon is truly noir itself (the standard definition usually begins the era with post-WWII films), it is at least proto-noir. Then there is the cast, notably Peter Lorre as the oily Joel Cairo is a scene stealer as is Sydney Greenstreet as The Fat Man. Mary Astor makes her character, Brigid O'Shaughnessy, one of filmdom's great femme fatales, a woman who is able to manipulate almost any man (and her one failing will be costly).
In the center of it all, however, is Humphrey Bogart in one of his first heroic roles as Sam Spade. Bogie is in almost every scene of the movie (the only exception is an early murder), so he is critical to the movie's success. Actually, Spade is more of an anti-hero than a hero: a man who is willing to use other people to achieve his own ends. If you are unfamiliar with the plot, I'll sum it up quickly (and it's pretty much the same in all movies): After Spade's partner is killed, Spade is drawn into a tangled web of murder and intrigue all centering on the Maltese Falcon, a valuable statue that everyone wants and no one has. Of course, there's more to it than that, but why spoil the fun?
The first disc in this set has the Bogart version along with a commentary track. There is also a "Warner Night at the Movies" feature that provides cartoons, a newsreel, movie trailers and a short subject (a rather interminable ballet that will mostly appeal to fans of dance). The third disc provides other bonus features, most notably a documentary about the movie. The Disc One material is enough to give the set five stars (the movie itself is actually enough); the rest is just gravy. If you want to see one of the true classics, this is a must-get.