Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD

List Price: ~~$24.98~~
Buy New: $17.49
as of 9/8/2010 12:43 MDT details
You Save: $7.49 (30%)

Seller: Amazon.com
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

193 reviews
Sales Rank: 829

Format: Dolby, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: Blu-ray
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Running Time: 101 Minutes

UPC: 883929118250
EAN: 0883929118250
ASIN: B0020MMRC0

Theatrical Release Date: 1941
Release Date: October 5, 2010 (In 27 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet released

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
Still the tightest, sharpest, and most cynical of Hollywood's official deathless classics, bracingly tough even by post-Tarantino standards. Humphrey Bogart is Dashiell Hammett's definitive private eye, Sam Spade, struggling to keep his hard-boiled cool as the double-crosses pile up around his ankles. The plot, which dances all around the stolen Middle Eastern statuette of the title, is too baroque to try to follow, and it doesn't make a bit of difference. The dialogue, much of it lifted straight from Hammett, is delivered with whip-crack speed and sneering ferocity, as Bogie faces off against Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, fends off the duplicitous advances of Mary Astor, and roughs up a cringing "gunsel" played by Elisha Cook Jr. It's an action movie of sorts, at least by implication: the characters always seem keyed up, right on the verge of erupting into violence. This is a turning-point picture in several respects: John Huston (IThe African Queen/I) made his directorial debut here in 1941, and Bogart, who had mostly played bad guys, was a last-minute substitution for George Raft, who must have been kicking himself for years afterward. This is the role that made Bogart a star and established his trend-setting (and still influential) antihero persona. I--David Chute/I

Product Description
A gallery of high-living lowlifes will stop at nothing to get their sweaty hands on a jewel-encrusted falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why--and who'll take the fall for his partner's murder. An all-star cast (including Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr.) joins Bogart in this crackling mystery masterwork written for the screen (from Dashiell Hammett's novel) and directed by John Huston. This nominee for 3 Academy Awards00Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Greenstreet) and Screenplay (Huston)--catapulted Bogart to stardom and launched Hustonâs directorial career. All with a bird and a bang!

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 193

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I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble. August 16, 2010
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
He may not look like a "blond Satan," but Humphrey Bogart became the ultimate Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon," the classic movie adapted from Dashiell Hammett's noir mystery. It's a gloriously seedy, dark path through a tangle of lies, murders and and thefts, all centering on the legendary br / br /"Shoo her in, darling." A beautiful woman (Mary Astor) comes into Miles Archer's detective agency and claims to be looking for her sister, who has supposedly gone off with a guy called Thursby. br / br /Just an ordinary case? Wrong. Later on, Miles is shot, followed by the mysterious Thursby -- and since Spade (Bogart) has been dallying with Miles' wife, he's a prime suspect. After being grilled by the police, Spade visits the client -- now calling herself Brigid O'Shaughnessy -- and gets the real story out of her. Or not. Seriously, this woman lies like most people say "Hello." br / br /Things go from bad to worse when Spade is kicked around by little weaselly Joel Cairo and the sinister yet hearty Fat Man. Like O'Shaugnessy, they are searching for the priceless Maltese Falcon, a jeweled bird statue covered in black enamel. Who has the Falcon? Who stole it? Who killed for it? And who might kill again to get it back? br / br /The San Francisco of "The Maltese Falcon" is a smoky, shadowed world, where men and women from across the world ruthlessly pursue priceless treasures. In fact, it's fortunate that this film was filmed before the advent of color, because the black-and-white film just adds to the murky, bleak atmosphere. br / br /The plot is a little hard to follow at first, since there seem to be two unrelated mysteries that don't seem to have anything to do with each other. But as Spade unravels lies and motives, the subplots are twined together and the story becomes truly brilliant. The dialogue is sharp and witty ("I've been bad, worse than you could know." "You know, that's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere"). br / br /And the small cast put the "anti" in antiheroes -- everybody is painted in dark shades of gray. Bogart's growly Sam Spade is strangely charming, and you end up liking him even though he's not much better than the crooks. Astor plays a floaty fluffy femme fatale who has a nastier side, Peter Lorre is wonderfully creepy as Joel Cairo, and Sydney Greenstreet is pleasantly sinister as the Fat Man. The only really GOOD person seems to be Effie. br / br /Sharp, dark and very twisted, this is a fantastic mystery full of twists, greed and the ultimate anti-heroic detective. This is primo noir!

4 out of 5 stars

Some excellent performances, and a surprisingly effective conclusion help mask over the films few flaws... July 6, 2010
Andrew Ellington (I'm kind of everywhere)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful

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. br / br /Anyways, I thought about this while watching `The Maltese Falcon'. br / br /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. br / br /I almost felt like yelling "have an opinion, that's what you're paid for" but I didn't. br / br /I heart you TCM, please know that. br / br /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. br / br /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. br / br /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.

5 out of 5 stars

"May I please have my gun now?" May 4, 2010
Charles de Plume (Fullerton, CA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

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.

5 out of 5 stars

My dad loved it.... April 21, 2010
William H. Vallely (Los Angeles, CA United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

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.

5 out of 5 stars

good seller January 11, 2010
E. Pope (Chicago)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

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!!

Showing reviews 1-5 of 193

1 2 3 4 5 6 ...39 Next »

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