Rating: 
Summary: A Must-Have!
Review: Sometimes with a movie everything turns out right. That was the case with this 1941 classic. John Huston's driectorial debut is a masterpiece of film noir, featuring a great performance by Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade. Actually, the entire cast is fantastic from top to bottom, with standout performances from Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. The story is a classic tale of greed, murder, and manipulation with some surprising plot twists (surprising if you haven't seen it already). THE MALTESE FALCON is one of those movies that you can watch over and over and find something new each time. The picture and sound quality are actually quite good for a film from 1941 as any flaws are minor and inconsequential. The DVD also features the original theatrical trailer, plus a special feature on trailers from Humphrey Bogart movies. This truly is a must-have! Add this DVD to your collection; you will be glad that you did!
Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFUL DVD, CLASSIC FILM NOIR
Review: A classic fabled film from 1941, this story set in San Francisco in the office of Archer and Spade is movie making at it's best. The actors give uniformly great performances and almost eerily seem to be born for their parts: Bogie as Sam Spade; Jerome Cowan as Archer; Greenstreet as Gutman; Elisha Cook as Wilmer; Lee Patrick as Effie and, of course, Peter Lorre as Cairo. Mary Astor briefly revived her fading career (a 1936 red-hot scandal was mostly to blame) and as Brigid O' Shaughnessy she's in her element as the pathological liar; hers is a classic performance. Strangely, this is actually the THIRD filmization of the Dashiell Hammett novel, the others being a 1931 version with Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez (in all fairness, it was adequate) and the poor SATAN MET A LADY,a bizarre 1936 version with Bette Davis (!) and the mealy Warren William.
Rating: 
Summary: Great film, underwhelming DVD
Review: Another DVD for which the makers seemed more concerned with rushing out a DVD than taking the opportunity to clean up the audio and video and make it the definitive release this classic deserves. Picture quality is noticeably inconsistent; audio flutters and is recorded too low--there is white noise during the quieter moments at normal playing volume. A VHS-quality release, but at least it won't degrade with repeated viewings. The extras are worthwhile, except for the ill-conceived cast bios, which fool one into thinking there's supposed to be more, when in fact there's only one bio--Bogart's.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Film; Lousy DVD Transfer
Review: "The Maltese Falcon" seems a natural for DVD; it's a great film that can be watched over and over. However, this release is very disappointing. No effort has been made to restore the film (and the visual flaws are quite noticable) and no effort has been made to add any supplemental material. What you get is a third-rate transfer of the film, and that's it. A real let-down. (Note: Bogart fans may enjoy "The Big Sleep" on DVD; there's no commentary but the transfer is good and you get two versions of the film).
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies of All Time!
Review: This is one of the best detective mysteries ever, great acting all around, Humphrey Bogart is superb as the fast-talking Sam Spade, Peter Loore and Sydney Greenstreet, two of the greatest character actors, give superb performances as the villains. Mary Astor and Elisha Cook Jr. are also good. Great dialogue and a twisted story-line, courtesy of Dashiell Hammett. John Huston couldn't of had a better directing debut, he then went on to become one of the greatest directors of all time. The confrontations between Bogart and Elisha Cook are amusing and the story keeps you hooked all the way through. Great film-noir elements and superb casting make this one of the all-time greats. Extras: that's Walter Huston (John Huston's father) as Capt. Jacobi. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 10!
Rating: 
Summary: Another Nice B&W Transfer to DVD
Review: The B&W photography of this movie is well preserved on the DVD I viewed (just one brief scene is not good in that respect). I rate only 4 stars because I'm partial to my copy of "The Big Sleep" on DVD. By that time, Bogey had refined and perfecte his tough guy image.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping. Essential
Review: This tremendous piece of cinema shows Bogarde at the height of his powers. It surely dispels the notion that Hollywood - or America - in this era was naïve, starry-eyed and all apple pie. Watching this movie shows us just how far our stars of today - Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, and the others - really still have to go before they will be remembered the way the true stars of yesteryear are.
Rating:
Summary: Classic refurbished well
Review: If you look closely, you can still see a slight flutter in the shades of grey in the background, but compare the main film to the trailers in the extra features menu and you can see what a great job of reworking the film was done. Sound is clear and understandable with little noise. I had a terrific urge to drive into San Francisco afterwards and walk around in a hat and overcoat
Rating:
Summary: Warners Doesn't Do It Again
Review: 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 release a slapdash collection of Kubrick's films? or almost never digitally enhance the audio or visual transfer or provide any significant extras? Compared to the deluxe packages that Universal, Criterion, and, even, Paramount has mustered, Warners' issues - all released in cheap and easily breakable snap cases - 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" menu (no, it wasn't a machine error, as I tested on several discs thereafter). Moreover, although 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Maltese Falcon
Review: This is what technology is all about! A stunning transfer of this classic movie to DVD. The picture is sharp and the sound crisp. Melding this great classic to DVD leaves one breathless!
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