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.
Rating:
Summary: Vintage Film Noir
Review: This is vintage Bogart, you really get to see him play a character with more gall than you ever thought possible. I was riveted to the screen from start to finish. The mystery has more twists and turns than a country road. You also get to see Peter Lorre have a moment of Ren (Ren&Stimpy), when he yells "You bloated eediot!"
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie but not DVD quality picture
Review: I love Humphrey Bogart and this is Bogart at his best. The problem is there was no touch ups to the film when it was transferred to this format. Just because it's on DVD doesn't mean it's digital quality picture. There's a "blurps" in the film and dark and light spots. This is a classic that should be preserved for all time as it was originally seen but obviously this process hasn't been done yet.
Rating:
Summary: Big entertainment in a small package
Review: While at first glance it may seem that you don't get all that much in the quantity department with this DVD, that's really not the case. You get a crisp, gorgeous print of the film; an edition of Robert Osbourne's "Becoming Attractions" that is over 40 minutes long and gives you an overview of Bogart's career by showing about a dozen of his film trailers linked by some interesting commentary; a nice little print essay on the mystery genre; and separate and distinct trailers (that is, they're not part of the Osbourne piece) for both "The Maltese Falcon" and "Satan Met a Lady". The latter was one of the earlier adaptations of "The Maltese Falcon", with the slight difference being that the producers apparently decided to turn it into a goofy comedy! Looking at the two trailers, one gets an immediate education about how different producers can take the same book and come up with wildly different takes on it. Anyway, this DVD is well worth picking up, especially for the price. One final observation, about the film itself: "The Maltese Falcon" is a classic for twenty-three different reasons, but here's one of those smaller reasons that I especially like: one of the major characters, Floyd Thursby, wasn't even cast! The innovative screenplay makes him a major protagonist without even showing him; we get a complete sense of him from the way the other characters describe him and his actions. In other words, Thursby is right there with the rest of the classic characters- provoking responses, impacting on the action- even though we don't actually see him. Neat, huh?
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