THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
Label: WBHE
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 101 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono (UHD), DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono (BD) with Optional English Subtitles
Video: HDR 2160p UHD Fullscreen (1.33:1), 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jerome Cowan, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Lee Patrick, Sydney Greenstreet
One of the greatest film noir of all-time The Maltese Falcon (1941) is based on author Dashiell Hammett’s novel, this was the third adaptation of the source material, this one starring Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca) as the hard-boiled San Francisco gumshoe Sam Spade who finds himself caught up in a deliciously convoluted case of a bejeweled ancient artifact from Malta. Several parties converge on San Francisco looking to obtain the elusive jewel-encrusted statue known as The Maltese Falcon, which Spade calls "the black bird", with the mysterious Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte) hiring Spade and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan, Night Has A Thousand Eyes) under false pretense, ostensibly to protect her and her sister from a bad-man named Thurby. Spade takes the case but Archer ends up dead (as does Thurby) and Spade finds himself entrenched in an web of lies, death and betrayal. Directed by John Huston (Night of the Iguana) the film also features Gladys George (Madame X), Barton MacLane (The Walking Dead), Lee Patrick (The Snake Pit) as Spade's indispensable secretary, and Sydney Greenstreet (Casablanca) as a highly amused and quite quotable fat-cat mobster, but it's Bogey's sardonic street smart detective that is front and center, in a role that made him a cinema superstar, delivering legendary lines like 'When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it' before delivering another salvo of slaps. Mary Astor is terrific as the sensual femme fatale, and the turn from Peter Lorre (Mad Love) as the sweet-scented Joel Cairo is one of his best in my opinion. There's a reason this is considered one of the best film noir, it set the blueprint for what the hardboiled detective story would become. Sam Spade is the quintessential private eye and the deeply shadow cast look of the film became a template, the films that came after were merely living in the deep off-kilter shadow cast by The Maltese Falcon. This is a must-own, if you've never seen it now is the time to own it, this is the definitive version of the film on home video.
One of the greatest film noir of all-time The Maltese Falcon (1941) is based on author Dashiell Hammett’s novel, this was the third adaptation of the source material, this one starring Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca) as the hard-boiled San Francisco gumshoe Sam Spade who finds himself caught up in a deliciously convoluted case of a bejeweled ancient artifact from Malta. Several parties converge on San Francisco looking to obtain the elusive jewel-encrusted statue known as The Maltese Falcon, which Spade calls "the black bird", with the mysterious Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte) hiring Spade and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan, Night Has A Thousand Eyes) under false pretense, ostensibly to protect her and her sister from a bad-man named Thurby. Spade takes the case but Archer ends up dead (as does Thurby) and Spade finds himself entrenched in an web of lies, death and betrayal. Directed by John Huston (Night of the Iguana) the film also features Gladys George (Madame X), Barton MacLane (The Walking Dead), Lee Patrick (The Snake Pit) as Spade's indispensable secretary, and Sydney Greenstreet (Casablanca) as a highly amused and quite quotable fat-cat mobster, but it's Bogey's sardonic street smart detective that is front and center, in a role that made him a cinema superstar, delivering legendary lines like 'When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it' before delivering another salvo of slaps. Mary Astor is terrific as the sensual femme fatale, and the turn from Peter Lorre (Mad Love) as the sweet-scented Joel Cairo is one of his best in my opinion. There's a reason this is considered one of the best film noir, it set the blueprint for what the hardboiled detective story would become. Sam Spade is the quintessential private eye and the deeply shadow cast look of the film became a template, the films that came after were merely living in the deep off-kilter shadow cast by The Maltese Falcon. This is a must-own, if you've never seen it now is the time to own it, this is the definitive version of the film on home video.
Audio/Video: The Maltese Falcon looks absolutely brilliant in 4K, grain looks wonderful, rich textures abound, and the grayscale and black shadows. This is a gorgeous restoration of a classic film noir, the 4K resolution offers terrific granular detail, plus the HDR10 color-grading affords much deeper and more nuanced black with superior contrast. It really tickles me how good this 80+ year-old film looks on UHD. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono, it sounds it's appropriately vintage sounding but the uncompressed track surprises from time to time with it's fidelity, the Adolph Deutsch (High Sierra) score sounds wonderful. The accompanying Blu-ray is a recycle of the WB 2010 release containing with the older transfer and DTS-HD MA 1.0 mono.
As far as extras go, we get the archival Audio Commentary by Eric Lax on the UHD, which is duplicated alongside all the other archival extras on the Blu-ray disc. Would have loved some new content for this new release but the archival stiff is pretty fantastic. The 2-disc release arrives in a black dual-hubbed keepcase with a single sided sleeve of artwork. Inside there's a redemption code for a 4K digital copy of the film. The slipcover is adorned with the WB 100 anniversary logo in the upper right hand corner, the wrap does not.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Eric Lax
- “Warner Night at the Movies: "Sergeant York” Trailer (2 min), “New Highlights of the Roosevelt Churchill Parley” (Newsreel) (1 min), “The Gay Parisian” (1941 WB short) (20 min), "Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt" (7 min), “Meet John Doughboy” (1941 WB cartoon) (7 min)
- The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Brid (32 min)
- Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart (45 min)
- Breakdowns of 1941 (WB short) (13 min)
- Make-up Tests (1 min)
- 2/8/43 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast (58 min)
- 9/20/43 Screen Guild Theater Broadcast (29 min)
- 7/3/46 Academy Award Theater Broadcast (28 min)
- Trailers: Satan Met a Lady” 1936) (3 min), The Maltese Falcon” (1941) (3 min)
- Slipcover
- Digital Copy
