| | |  | GIFT SETS | Home » » The Maltese Falcon (Three-Disc Special Edition) | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | Hard-drinking private eye Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) sleuths the backyard of San Francisco in search of an elusive black bird statuette while evading the setups of three disparate miscreants: the duplicitous Brigid, the perfumed Mr. Cairo, and the scheming Fat Man. John Huston's brilliant directorial debut is aided by first-rate performances, excellent camera work, as well as the director's acute attention to detail while shooting the film. Based on the crime novel by Dashiell Hammett. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Sydney Greenstreet), and Best Screenplay. Previous versions of the story were filmed in 1931 (a.k.a. DANGEROUS FEMALE) and in 1936 (as SATAN MET A LADY, starring Bette Davis), and poorly redone in 1975 (THE BLACK BIRD). | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane | | Director:
| John Huston | | Format:
| Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Subtitle:
| English, Spanish, French | | Number of Discs:
| 3 | | Studio:
| Warner Home Video | | Run Time:
| 178 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| October 03, 2006 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 192 reviews |
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| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Some excellent performances, and a surprisingly effective conclusion help mask over the films few flaws...Jul 06, 2010
I really wish that I hosted `TCM'. I mean, when you watch it and Ben Mankiewicz (I mention him mainly because I really like Robert Osborne) is raving about these older films with such enthusiasm and then you watch the film and you're wondering why he's not more critical, it just makes you want to share your point of view. Shouldn't they be a tad more subjective when discussing these films? Just because they are technically classic films doesn't mean they are flawless. That is why I love it when Alec Baldwin makes a remark about an actress not delivering as strongly as he wanted and you can see the look on Robert Osborne's face, like he's trying to find a way to spin that into a positive.
Anyways, I thought about this while watching `The Maltese Falcon'.
Don't get me wrong, the film is very good, but it isn't spectacular. In fact, the reason I started thinking about the hosts not thinking subjectively enough was because Mankiewicz almost robotically started talking about how Sydney Greenstreet was the films standout, simply because he received an Oscar nomination. Now, I liked his performance, but you'll be hard-pressed to convince me that he is better in this film than Peter Lorre or Mary Astor, both of whom completely elevate the film for me.
I almost felt like yelling "have an opinion, that's what you're paid for" but I didn't.
I heart you TCM, please know that.
Anyways, `The Maltese Falcon' is a very good film, not a great one, but a very good one. It is a noir that revolves around a private eye named Sam Spade who gets in over his head when he is propositioned by a beautiful young woman named Brigid O'Shaughnessy. Brigid says she is looking for her sister, but as it turns out she is really looking for a priceless artifact known as the Maltese Falcon. When Sam's partner winds up dead, and then the man he was paid to tail winds up dead, the police start to close in on Sam himself. It's not just the police he has to worry about though, for Brigid not only brought a bollix story, she also brought a healthy dose of criminal activity in the form of Kasper Gutman and his henchmen, Joel Cairo and Wilmer Cook.
Overall I found the film to be engaging and the twist at the end was VERY fulfilling (that descending elevator shot was priceless) so I totally give props to John Huston for deliver a finely toned directorial debut here. The acting across the board was very good, but I did find that Humphrey Bogart's performance was a tad to clichéd and almost chalky in delivery. He was pigeonholed for a time in this brand of acting, and at times it really worked for him and other times it came off a tad awkward. I didn't like him much here, especially when everyone else in the cast outshined him without even trying. At times I found the films script to be unnecessarily complicated, and you could tell it was trying to deceive you (which is almost never a good thing) but in the end you are left with an engaging experience, so you forgive the flaws.
Anyways, I'm done with my rant. Like I said, this film is very good, I just wish that some people looked at these films a little more objectively and didn't always tack on labels they feel the rest of the world expects them to tack on.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 "May I please have my gun now?"May 04, 2010
This film is not a comedy but I laugh hard most of the way through it. It's so American. There's so much b.s. to wade through and Sam Spade is better at cutting through it than I am. And I've seen this film more than once. I've seen it off and on since I was a kid, with many years spaced in between. My most recent viewing was the most satisfying yet. If I could make one movie, it would be this one.
My dad loved it....Apr 21, 2010
My father is a huge The Maltese Falcon fan. Of course he's seen the film dozens of times, but what made this DVD work so well was the inclusion of an earlier version of the film, made with a different cast and director. Both films stuck very closely to the book, so it's utter fascinating to see classic lines uttered by completely competent, but sadly ordinary, actors.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
good sellerJan 11, 2010
Good seller, would buy from them again. Only complaint--when I got the DVD, the little thing in the middle that holds the DVD in place broke. But I highly doubt that the seller had anything to do with that, probably had more to do with the mailing process. Anyway, have no worries about buying from this person!!
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Classic Movie of a Classic NovelDec 28, 2009
It's mid-afternoon when a woman (Mary Astor) walks into the detective agency of Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) with a tale of a wayward sister she wants them to track down. This sister has taken up with a no good named Thursby. Archer agrees to do the stake out and hopefully follow Thursby to the sister.
In the middle of the night, Spade is wakened by a phone call. Archer has been shot. A little later, Thursby is also shot. The police seem intent on pinning one of those crimes, if not both, on Spade. Meanwhile, the client has disappeared and a man (Peter Lorre) holds Spade a gun point demanding the Maltese Falcon. What in the world is going on?
After I listened to this book on tape, I fully intended to watch the classic movie version. It only took my three and a half years. As such, my recollection of the book might be a little dim, but this movie version didn't deviate too wildly from what I remember. In fact, it improved by tightening up several scenes near the climax that dragged in the book. The story is still compelling and the characters seriously flawed. Yes, the plot is now a cliche in many ways, but this story did it first.
My only real complaint with the movie is the dated acting. The characters speak too fast most of the time, not giving us time to process or emotions time to be fully explored. Of course, that would be a blessing for Mary Astor who over acts all her emotional scenes, and she's got plenty of them. The style of acting here would work well for the stage or a silent movie, but it's caught up in the transition to talking movies, still.
Even so, this movie is well worth watching. It is definitely a classic for a reason.
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