Maltese Falcon

UPC: 883929118250

Studio: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Mild Violence]

Summary: After two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett's detective classic The Maltese Falcon, Warner Bros. finally got it right in 1941--or, rather, John Huston, a long-established screenwriter making his directorial debut, got it right, simply by adhering as closely as possible to the original. Taking over from a recalcitrant George Raft, Humphrey Bogart achieved true stardom as Sam Spade, a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye who can be as unscrupulous as the next guy but also adheres to his own personal code of honor. Into the offices of the Spade & Archer detective agency sweeps a Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor), who offers a large retainer to Sam and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) if they'll protect her from someone named Floyd Thursby. The detectives believe neither Miss Wonderly nor her story, but they believe her money. Since Archer saw her first, he takes the case -- and later that evening he is shot to death, as is the mysterious Thursby. Miss Wonderly's real name turns out to be Brigid O'Shaughnessey, and, as the story continues, Sam is also introduced to the effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and the fat, erudite Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet, in his film debut). It turns out that Brigid, Cairo and Gutman are all international scoundrels, all involved in the search for a foot-high, jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon. Though both Cairo and Gutman offer Spade small fortunes to find the "black bird," they are obviously willing to commit mayhem and murder towards that goal: Gutman, for example, drugs Spade and allows his "gunsel" Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.) to kick and beat the unconscious detective. This classic film noir detective yarn gets better with each viewing, which is more than can be said for the first two Maltese Falcons and the ill-advised 1975 "sequel" The Black Bird. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Mystery

Awards: U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Acting – National Board of Review Best Acting – National Board of Review Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Features: Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
Featurette The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird Breakdowns of 1941: Studio Blooper Reel
Makeup Tests
Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart
Warner Night at the Movies 1941 Short Subjects Gallery:
Newsreel
Musical Short The Gay Parisian
2 Classic Cartoons: Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt and Meet John Doughboy
Trailers of This Movie, 1941's Sergeant York and 1936's Previous Falcon Movie Adaptation, Satan Met a Lady

Audio-Only Bonus: 3 Radio Show Adaptations
2 Featuring the Movie's Original Stars, Plus Another Starring Edward G. Robinson

Maltese Falcon

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 10/05/2010

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DHMA null, DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 100 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,Spanish

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Lucia Bozzola

Adapting Dashiell Hammett's novel -- and staying as close to the original story as the Production Code allowed -- first-time director John Huston turned The Maltese Falcon into a movie often considered the first film noir. In his star-making performance as Sam Spade, Humphrey Bogart embodied the coolly ruthless private eye who recognizes the dark side of humanity, in all its greedy perversity, and who feels its temptations, especially when they are embodied by a woman. While Huston's mostly straightforward visual approach renders The Maltese Falcon an instance of early noir more in its hardboiled attitude than in the chiaroscuro style common to other films noirs, the collection of venal characters, colorfully played by Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Elisha Cook, Jr.; Mary Astor's femme fatale; and Bogart's morally relativistic Spade pointed the way to the mid-1940s flowering of noir in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944), Otto Preminger's Laura (1944), and Howard Hawks's The Big Sleep (1946). A critical as well as popular success, The Maltese Falcon was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay, establishing Huston as a formidable dual talent and Bogart as the archetypal detective antihero. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Creighton Hale  Actor 
Emory Parnell  Actor 
Robert E. Homans  Actor 
Walter Huston  Actor 
Hank Mann  Actor 
Jack Mower  Actor 
William Hopper  Actor 
Charles Drake  Actor 
Adolph Deutsch  Composer (Music Score) 
John Huston  Director 
John Huston  Screenwriter 
Humphrey Bogart  Actor 
Mary Astor  Actor 
Peter Lorre  Actor 
Sydney Greenstreet  Actor 
Ward Bond  Actor 
Barton MacLane  Actor 
Gladys George  Actor 
Lee Patrick  Actor 
Jerome Cowan  Actor 
Elisha Cook, Jr.  Actor 
James Burke  Actor 
Murray Alper  Actor 
John Hamilton  Actor 

Country: USA