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!
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.
Rating: 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.
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