The Maltese Falcon (1941) + The
Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948/Warner Blu-rays)
Picture:
B Sound: C+ Extras: B Films: B
Humphrey
Bogart is one of the greatest actors in film history and remains so to this
day. He worked with some of the greatest
directors in Hollywood history, but his work
with John Huston was a perfect match and when Huston decided to add being a
director to his work after years of being one of the town’s most sought after
screenplay writers, they made The
Maltese Falcon.
The book
had been made into films before in 1931 and (as Satan Met A Lady) 1936, but the world had changed and that version
was only so much of a hit, especially as 1941 would be the year the U.S.
finally entered WWII. Orson Welles was
also making his feature film directing debut with Citizen Kane and together, they ushered in a new era of mystery,
suspense and realism with much darker themes that we now know as the original
Film Noir movement. While Welles went
all out in his film, Huston had to take a more direct line in his approach to
the mystery, giving it the gumshoe edge of the Dashiell Hammett classic novel
and thus, separating it from all the great mystery novels and mystery novel
series (think Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, the Agatha Christie novels) to
distinguish this new school of thought in detective work and created an
all-time classic in the genre and far beyond.
Bogart is
Sam Spade, who is soon to lose his detective partner in a dirty series of
dealings that has everyone chasing after the title statue, whose beauty, value,
rareness and desirability going through a gauntlet of lust, several crooks who
will do anything to get it and uncover much more about the darkness of the
world around him in the process. Good
thing Spade is tough, but one of the real accomplishments of the film is that
it is so gritty, yet so darkly glamorous throughout in a way no other film had
been before and hardly any have been since.
It is safe to say that only Warner Bros. could have made this film,
because their distinct kind of black and white cinema (from years of dominating
the Gangster genre in part as well as the boldness and guts of the family
running the studio at its early height) and particular kind of energy made this
a film that only could have been made by that studio at that time.
Then
there is that amazing cast, including Mary Astor in one of the greatest roles
and performances of her legendary career, Peter Lorre (clever casting as he was
already very popular as detective Mr. Moto in that film series), Sydney
Greenstreet, Ward Bond and Elisha Cook, Jr. (The Big Sleep, Night Stalker
(1972), Kubrick’s The Killing) is
one of the greatest, most amazing, legendary casts in cinema history. Along with hardly anything going wrong in the
film, down to its excellent of narrative economy in the Classical Hollywood
mode, it is also one of the most imitated, referenced and spoofed films ever
made.
Huston
would later reunited some of the stars for his 1953 spoof Beat The Devil, David Giler (producer on Ridley Scott’s Alien and sequels) directed the 1975
spoof The Black Bird with George
Segal as the son of Spade, the 1976 film version of Neil Simon’s Murder By Death had Peter Falk spoofing
Spade and everyone who goes near the genre cannot escape the shadow of this
film. As for me, I like the film very
much, but it was not my all-time favorite and maybe the restriction of the
narrative style (despite Huston’s very clever playing against censorship of the
time) was still too straight-jacketing to me, but seeing it on Blu-ray is a
revelation because (outside of a great film print) you can finally not just
see, but experience the impact of the film and why it is the classic it will
always remain.
After
making a few moiré films together and seeing WWII ending as it did, Huston and
Bogart made a classic about greed, the down-and-out way of life at the end of
nowhere and the struggles that result in The
Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948, based on the book by B. Traven), with
Bogart as Dobbs, a drifter who cannot catch a break and is about to be broken
by how bad life is until he and a fellow hobo (Tim Holt) team up with a very
old gold prospector (Walter Huston, the director’s father) to strike it rich,
but nothing is going to go as planned and the situation will get uglier and
uglier until there is no turning back.
To its
credit, the film was shot in Mexico for the most part and also holds up very
well, especially once again as John Huston wrote and directed the film and
everyone is working at the peak of their powers and abilities behind and in
front of the camera. Bogart turned in
another iconic performance and the film endures to this day. Again, its book-like approach works and is
excellent in a way that could not be outdone, yet again, I find limits even in
a classic as terrific as this and Falcon. Still, considering the age of both films,
they were built to last and will be with us for centuries to come.
The 1080p
1.33 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image on each film looks very
good for its age, but both also have some minor issues that hold them back from
looking as good as the Blu-ray of Casablanca
(1941, reviewed elsewhere on this site in the defunct HD-DVD format, but
sharing the same transfer as the Blu-ray) despite both offering some stunning
shots. Falcon (shot by Casablanca
Director of Photography Arthur Edeson) can show some softness and some footage
that is not as first generation as the best shots, while Madre (shot by Director of Photography Ted D. McCord of East Of Eden, Two For Seesaw, The Sound of
Music) has that plus some more obvious rear projection work that shows its
age. Still, Video Black is impressive
and it is more film-like than all previous home video versions, which are now
all obsolete. The DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 1.0 lossless Mono mixes on each sound good for the age of the respective
films, including a warmth that has eluded all previous home video versions. The music scores by Adolph Deutsch (Across The Pacific) and Max Steiner
respectively also benefit.
Extras are
many in each case, with both offering feature-length audio commentary tracks by
Bogart Biographer Eric Lax, Lux Radio Theater adaptations of both films,
trailers and newsreels. Falcon adds Breakdown of 1941 – a Warner bloopers reel, Make-up Tests, making-of
featurette The Maltese Falcon - One Magnificent Bird, Becoming Attraction:
Trailer of Humphrey Bogart section, two more radio versions of the story
(making three for this film), Musical Short The Gay Parisian and two
classic Warner cartoons: Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt and Meet
John Doughboy. Madre adds the making-of featurette Discovering
Treasures – The Story Of The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, Outtakes,
trailers for this film and Key Largo,
a feature length documentary profile called John Huston, Joe McDoakes
Short So You Want To Be A Detective and two classic Warner cartoons: 8
Ball Bunny and Hot Cross Bunny.
Two great
films on two impressive Blu-rays, if you love movies, don’t settle for them in
any other format (unless you can afford those film prints). You can also find downloads of these and
other Bogart classics at this link:
http://bit.ly/WBDD_Bogart
- Nicholas Sheffo
