Maltese Falcon

Buy This Item Maltese Falcon by MGM (Video & DVD)  Available from Amazon  $19.98  on 8-9-2008     Still the tightest, sharpest, and most cynical of Hollywood's official deathless classics, bracingly tough even by post-Tarantino standards. Humphrey Bogart is Dashiell Hammett's definitive private eye, Sam Spade, struggling to keep his hard-boiled cool as the double-crosses pile up around his ankles. The plot, which dances all around the stolen Middle Eastern statuette of the title, is too baroque to try to follow, and it doesn't make a bit of difference. The dialogue, much of it lifted straight from Hammett, is delivered with whip-crack speed and sneering ferocity, as Bogie faces off against Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, fends off the duplicitous advances of Mary Astor, and roughs up a cringing "gunsel" played by Elisha Cook Jr. It's an action movie of sorts, at least by implication: the characters always seem keyed up, right on the verge of erupting into violence. This is a turning-point picture in several respects: John Huston (<I>The African Queen</I>) made his directorial debut here in 1941, and Bogart, who had mostly played bad guys, was a last-minute substitution for George Raft, who must have been kicking himself for years afterward. This is the role that made Bogart a star and established his trend-setting (and still influential) antihero persona. <I>--David Chute</I> Reader Reviews Like a true classic should this movie seems to improve with each successive viewing. The acting is great and so is the directing leaving me unsurprised that it's ranked among the top quarter of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest American Films list. The only problem I have is with the quality of the DVD; the picture quality isn't very good and the sound quality although Dolby Digital is in Mono. Perhaps with the advent of Blu-Ray, a newer, better restored version will surface with good quality surround sound options perhaps DTS with THX for instance. Overall, this a a great movie but I'd recommend waiting for a better quality DVD version to come out. Hope it's soon!

Maltese Falcon Available from Amazon Price: $19.98 Updated on 8-9-2008.

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