Product Description
Maltese Falcon, The: Special Edition (DVD) (3-Disc)
Additional Features This handsome transfer of John Huston's 1941 masterpiece gets the usual mix of bonus features, with a couple of major additions: the two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett's landmark detective novel. Neither gets it right, although both are fun examples of everyday Warner Bros. fare. The 1931 Maltese Falcon, starring Ricardo Cortez as gumshoe Sam Spade, has plenty of cheek but precious little magic--although it's fascinating to hear some of the same verbatim Hammett dialogue later enshrined in Huston's classic. The 1936 Satan Met a Lady pitches the story as a screwball comedy, with Warren William and Bette Davis playing it as though they wandered in from a Thin Man picture. Other goodies include a historically minded commentary track from Bogart biographer Eric Lax. Three different radio versions of the Falcon are here, two starring Bogart and one with Edward G. Robinson, and a useful half-hour documentary, The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird. Turner Classics host Robert Osborne presents a fun 44 minutes' worth of Bogie coming-attractions trailers. An uncensored collection of bloopers, Breakdowns of 1941, has some hysterical gaffes. Shorts include two Oscar nominees: the cartoon "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt," with Bugs Bunny intruding on the famous poem; and "The Gay Parisian," a colorful and historically valuable performance by the fabled Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo. (Although what Sam Spade would've thought of such a thing can only be imagined.) A humorous cartoon war-effort short, "Meet John Doughboy," gives good flavor of the mood of the era. --Robert Horton
