The Maltese Falcon

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Detective Film of All Time
Review: "The Maltese Falcon" is perhaps the greatest detective film ever made. It certainly one of the best films ever made. It is populated by great characters-Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), "The Fat Man" (Sidney Greenstreet) and on and on. This is also one of the best written films of all time. The dialogue is snappy, cynical, and funny all at the same time. This movie has not aged at all. Unfortunately, while this is a 5 star movie, the quality of the DVD leaves a lot to be desired. There are so many blips, lines and changes in picture quality from scene to scene (and edit to edit!) that it is very distracting. Frankly, this movie deserves a restoration similar that done on Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and the Criterion Collection's, "The Third Man." I'm afraid, that similar to the CD market, we are going to see poor quality transfers to DVD, followed by new re-mastering and restoration processes that will necessitate the re-release of catalog movies on DVD. Therefore, the customer will have to purchase the same DVD twice to get the picture quality great films, such as this, deserve.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent job in transfering to DVD
Review: The B/W picture is very crisp and clean. They did a great job in the video transfer. The audio is 2 channel stereo and is also very clean.

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Summary: FALCON GETS A NEW LIFE
Review: Thanks to DVD, you may discover or rediscover John Huston's classic film noir in a remarkable restored copy both in sound and picture clarity. Needless to say that Bogart, Astor, Greenstreet and Lorre have not aged a bit as greed and murder unite them in this mystery thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Humphrey Bogart still remains the best there is
Review: I have read both the original Dashiell Hammett novel and seen the movie countless times. Both are indisputable classics in their own right. If you appreciate true hardboiled mystery, buy this movie. If you don't, buy this movie anyway. It might change your mind.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best noirs ever
Review: A hardboiled, tough, flat out wonderfully picture. Bogart is wonderful as Sam Spade, the menagerey of secondary characters is first rate, the graet story, with its rich characters and cool as ice dialouge,and it's moody black and white cinematography,(Ted Turner will get his punishment sooner or later for colorizing this film). Perhaps only out classed by Billy Wilder's Double Indemity, The Maltese Falcon is still one of the best detective films ever, and it certainly has one of the best closing lines ever. It's truly the stuff that great entertainment is made of.

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Summary: Cerco gente inreressata a scambiare delle informazioni sui f
Review: Cerco gente inreressata a scambiare delle informazioni sui film in Italiano

Rating:
Summary: It was made in black and white for a reason
Review: May Ted Turner be stricken colorblind for the wrongs he has rained down on the film industry. This film, a classic and 5-star no-brainer for the original, black and white version, is an absolute classic, one of the original "tough guy" movies that paved the way for such modern day classics as Chinatown and L.A. Confidential. If Turner wants to restore something, let it be his dignity after all the trash he's strewn around on his less-than-superstation. If not that, maybe he could work on restoring the face and career of that hag wife of his.

Rating:
Summary: What is wrong with the last couple of reviewers?
Review: This is one of the best movies ever made. A great movie because of the acting, writing and directing. In other words, movies should be about telling a story, and telling it well. Too "talky", what the hell do you want, the whole point of this movie was the character of Sam Spade, and how the others involved revolve around him. The script keeps as true to Dashiell Hammett's novel as Hollywood would allow,and Bogart is as close in essence to a literary character as anyone has ever managed. Although in the novel Spade is Blond! Forget about today's anemic crime movies, and watch a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Color livens otherwise talky, claustrophobic movie
Review: I've seen both the black and white and color versions of The Maltese Falcon, and by far the colorized version makes what is otherwise a drab, talky movie watchable. The Maltese Falcon has never really done anything for me anyway, cinematically or storywise. It is sort of claustrophobic in that most of the action takes place in and around Sam Spade's (Humphrey Bogart's) apartment or office. It also takes a backhanded, padded approach to solving the mystery of "the little black bird." In the process, little is learned about the supporting cast (except Mary Astor's Brigid O'Shaunessy), although the actors's physical oddities and quirky mannerisms are good enough to make up for lax character development. And the other black mark against The Maltese Falcon is that I found it to be too talky. Boggie's best flicks are tougher and to the point. However this one is burdened with too many quips and witicisms. I had to watch The Maltese Falcon two or three times to piece together everything precisely (even then the way it was put together to begin with still seemed strange). Nevertheless, for some reason, it continues to bask in the afterglow of the Hollywood classics.

Rating:
Summary: Snappy, cool, great
Review: This movie is filled with snappy dialogue, great performances, and the cool (in personality and in the way I think of him) character of Sam Spade, brought to the screen by the one and only Humphery Bogart. It moves very fast, so you may not understand everything, but if you pay close attention, you'll probably get it. Mary Astor (on too briefly), Peter Lorre, ELisha Cook, and Sydney Greenstreet are great. The script is great, too. Wonderful fim noir.