The Maltese Falcon [1941] [DVD]

The Maltese Falcon is 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 Sidney 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 (The African Queen) 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. --David Chute END

1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 9
Italian
English\Italian
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Mono English Italian
Dolby Digital Mono
Original Theatrical Trailer
Humphrey Bogart Trailers
Arabic\Bulgarian\Dutch\English\French\German\Italian\Portuguese\Romanian\Spanish

Who murdered Miles Archer? No one knows. But what Archer's partner, Private Eye Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), does know is that Archer was killed while investigating the disappearance of a priceless statue...and now Spade has three mysterious clients who want him to find it - at any cost!
A film noir masterpiece that marked John Sturges directorial debut and redefined Bogart's screen persona, The Maltese Falcon is "an outstanding four-star detective drama" (Leonard Maltin). Co-starring Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, and nominated for three 1941 Academy Awards, this suspense-filled classic remains one of the most enthralling mystery-thrillers ever made.