Rating: 
Summary: Great film but...
Review: The TCM featurette "Becomming Attractions" is a 50 minute piece that's supposed to be AFTER the movie but is actually BEFORE it. How unfortunate that I have to fast forward through an hour of nonsense before actually viewing the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Film Noir's beginnings
Review: This film was required viewing years ago when I took a class on film noir. It was excellent then and through the years, I reflect back on it, so much so, that I just had to buy my own copy. Humphrey Bogart makes such a great icon. He creates this image of man afraid of nothing, willing to bow to no one and paying homage only to his own rather unique set of moral code. He will not even bow to love -- the great power in American. His character MUST do what is right, even when all around him have failed to hold their own standards. He is a cinematic inspiration.
Rating: 
Summary: When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it.
Review: 1941. A good year in cinema history in terms of memorable movies and performances, But when it came to film debuts, this was arguably the best year in movies. The first and probably most well known was Actor/Director Orson Welles (Which, I hope, no explanation is necessary). The other was Director John Huston for "The Maltese Falcon". While not as effecting or groundbreaking as "Citizen Kane", it's still nevertheless a tremendous first effort. A tight, well crafted, gripping mystery, this film is deserving of being considered one of the best movies ever made. Star Humphrey Bogart also had a very good year in 1941. After a decade of playing parts in gangster films like "The Petrified Forest" and "The Roaring Twenties", Bogart finally hit it big with his performances as ex-convict 'Mad Dog' Earl in "High Sierra" and as Private Detective Samuel Spade in this movie. Bogart is excellent in his role, tough and brutal. He established with this role (And his Philip Marlowe in "The Big Sleep" what the detectives of later film noirs would be like. Considering this one of his trademark performances, it's surprising he didn't get nominated for this or "High Sierra". In addition to Bogart's superb lead role, he is assisted by a colorful supporting cast. Mary Astor as a client who gets Sam involved with the falcon, Peter Lorre as Cairo, who is looking for the Falcon, Sydney Greenstreet (In his first talkie film) as "Fatman", who is also looking for the Maltese Falcon, and Elisha Cook, Jr. as Wilma, a thug of Fatman's. As everyone knows who's seen the movie, the film's most famous quote comes at the end
when Spade, carrying the falcon in his hands, calls it "The stuff that dreams are made of". But with all the virtues of this production, could he have been referring to the movie? The debate goes on... Some other great quotes from the movie: Sam Spade: We didn't believe your story, Mrs. O'Shaughnessy, we believed your 200 dollars. Wilmer Cook: Keep on riding me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver. Kasper Gutman: I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. Sam Spade: When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation...
Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter? Joel Cairo: You... you bungled it!
Rating:
Summary: classic Bogart
Review: Maltese Falcoln is a film-noire classic with Humphrey Bogart. He plays a cynical detective hired to find an old statue. He finds it, but why do people want it? Maltese Falcon really stands out as a cynamatic achievement.
Rating:
Summary: You killed Miles and your going over for it.
Review: My personal favorite of all of Bogies movies. Hard boiled detective Sam (Bogie) Spade unravels the mystery of the Maltese Falcon. Great cast includes, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and the great supporting actor Elisha Cook Jr. The DVD plays clear and crisp.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless classic
Review: Humphrey Bogart is the definitive Sam Spade in this adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett book. He is tough, savvy, quick-thinking and ruthless, while being surrounded by dangerous characters. He is approached by a young woman, played by Mary Astor, who says that her sister has been taken away by a man that she wants Spade to find. As the movie progresses, Spade discovers that she has created a tangled web of intrigue. She, a young-looking Peter Lorre, and a Sidney Greenstreet character are in search of the priceless Maltese Falcon statue and will pay any price to acquire it. Spade matches wits with them in a seemingly effortless way, but does pay an emotional price at the end. The dialogue is snappy and the plot moves rapidly in this classic, which has definitely stood the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: The Love of Money is the Root of All Evil
Review: This is the movie that made a star of Humphrey Bogart; he previously played bad-guy characters, as in "Petrified Forest". He is the hero of this Dashiell Hammett novel about private detectives who take a missing persons case. But it soon leads to murder, and the story tells how Sam Spade solves the case. The story is set in San Francisco, where Hammett lived for many years, and is the location for many of his other stories. The amoral adventuress is a stock character in many of his stories, but often higher in command. Here the 'Fat Man' is plainly in control, and the others work for him. This actor does a good job in showing this villain as a charming, suave, and sophisticated person (the better to mask his evil); only his obesity marks him out, like a "bloated plutocrat". Like other Hammett stories, it subtly tells of the techniques used by private detectives. Like ditching a tail by entering the front of an apartment house, then slipping out the back way. Or watching out for anyone watching him. Most of all, how he plays along with the people he meets in order to solve the crimes. He displays a quick wit when the police arrive unexpectedly while he has company. He needs all his wits to resolve the different stories he hears; and he triumphs in the end. "A crooked reputation is good for business, it brings in the high-priced clients." It has the usual surprise ending of a Hammett story. The elevator gates say where Brigid is going, the shadow on her face tells her end. One anachronism is the dollar figures: $100 then was about a month's pay for the average worker, if they had a job. This story is like a morality play on the vanity of searching for a lost treasure of easy money. This turns out to be an illusion caused by wishful thinking. This story may very popular as it is less political than "Red Harvest" or "The Glass Key", where you have to consider the actions of the municipal government.
Rating: 
Summary: great film, sloppy dvd
Review: Many know of how much fun this movie is to watch. What is inexcusable is that such a famous, well loved movie would be so sloppily placed on dvd. Among other problems, a scene is actually left out, I can only assume that the people transferring this movie to the dvd were not fans of the movie, had never seen it in the past, and had no idea they left out this scene. The deleted scene is the one whereby Lorre is given back his gun by Bogart, lorre then points it at Bogart yet again-and the dvd fades to black to prepare for the next scene. What is deleted is Bogart laughing at Lorre and saying "Go right ahead (laugh, laugh), You go right ahead" THEN fade to black. I saw this scene in the old RCA video disk (1982?), and I still have the disc, I know it exists. Inexcusable!
Rating:
Summary: Inexplicably entertaining
Review: I'm not sure why this movie is so beloved, however much I enjoyed it. Overall it has a very dismal view of humanity in general, a rather sexist view of the women, a sympathetically unsympathetic anti-hero, and a satisfying lack of a happy ending. In short, this movie is a contradiction -- and a darn fine one too. Humphrey Bogart IS Sam Spade, though he hardly physically resembles Dashiell Hammett's main character. The hard-boiled detective and his partner Archer receive a new client, a woman who calls herself Miss Wonderly, who claims that she wants them to find her lost sister. Soon after, Archer is shot, Miss Wonderly's "true" identity is revealed, and Spade finds himself being pursued by a very strange assortment of people. And Archer's death is not just the random killing of a detective, but is wrapped up in something much larger. All the people (except Spade and secretary Effie) are hot on the trail of the Maltese Falcon, a gold-and-jeweled statue of a hawk that was linked to Archer's death. Who killed Archer? Who has the Falcon? And who will take the fall? As I said before, this movie has a relentlessly dismal view of humanity. Everyone (with the exception of Effie) is either honestly loathesome, or has several shades of ulterior motive. Spade is very cold, kissing Archer's widow only hours after Archer's death. Bridget O'Shaughnessy (also known as Miss Wonderly) lies relentlessly and would kill if it got her ahead. Joel Cairo (what kind of a name is that?) is an amoral little worm. Guttman is just slimy. Effie, with her mildly cynical outlook and advice, is perhaps the most positive person in the film. Additionally, the film has something of a misogynistic veneer. Mrs. Archer is only seen whimpering into a hankie or Sam's shoulder. Bridget is loathesome in a pretty sort of way. Again, only Effie is a positive, strong portrayal of a woman (and, in fact, the only one that Spade seems to respect). Does this detract from the enjoyability of the movie? Not especially--the men are as dislikeable as the women, though often are portrayed as stronger. There's pretty much no profanity, no graphic violence, and the only hints of intimacy are so oblique that children (and many adults) won't see them. Perhaps the feeling of an action movie is upheld by the fact that Spade and various other characters always seemed about to erupt, and it was hard to tell when they would. Bogart somehow manages to make us enjoy watching a very unlovable character, and a lesser actor couldn't have pulled it off. Mary Astor plays a breathy-voiced, artificially vulnerable femme fatale, who droops all over saying "I don't know, I'm afraid"--then puts a cut down the front of Cairo's face. Psychopathic gunsel Wilmer is played by Elisha Cook Jr., and the blankly enraged look on his face is enough to give someone the shivers. Joel Cairo is a prissy little fop, played by Peter Lorre in the sort of psychopathic role he does so excellently. (Check out Arsenic And Old Lace, and Casablanca) Yet Cairo does retain a weird kind of repulsive charm, as does Kaspar Guttman (who is aptly named). Guttman, the "Fat Man," is Jabba the Hutt without the Hutt: He's charming, slimy, willing to sell his own grandmother (or Wilme) and retaining refined manners and tastes. This movie has some of the best writing in movie history, with lines like "When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it!", "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter," "I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon," and "we didn't believe your story [...] we believed your 200 dollars." Overall, this is a deeply flawed movie, and due to its twisty storylines and snappy "patter" it's well worth the watching. If you liked Bogie in Casablanca, you'll like him ten times more here. Note: Fans of this may also want to watch the Star Trek episode "The Big Goodbye," complete with its own Fat Man, Mewling Little Cairo-Type, Femme Fatale, Blustering Cops, and Picard's Spadelike alter ego.
Rating:
Summary: Great Video
Review: As I recall, this video did not only have this Bogart classic, but also starts out with the many film trailers of his earlier work such as Casablanca and other gangster & tough guy roles. Quite entertaining.
|
