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 (The African Queen) 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. --David Chute

Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic indeed
Comment: Talk about a movie that is standing the test of time. I've put off seeing this movie for I don't know how long. For some reason I had fixed in my mind that I wouldn't like it--BUT boy was I wrong. Bogart shines like the star he was. He commands every scene his in and is able to whip out this fast talking piece with convincing believability. One thing for sure, you have to pay attention or you can easily get lost. The only angle I thought that could have been cut is the whole you love me I know you do stuff. When Mary Astor start spitting that nonsense I started wondering when did anyone have time to fall in love in this movie. Great script, good direction. And all around winner in my book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: COLORIZED version is a unique experience for old and young!
Comment: The product on this page is the COLORIZED version which is hard to find. It is an experience to watch it with a teenager that despises black and white programming. I only wish that the powers that be would colorize this onto DVD using the new technology that was used to colorize the Ray Harryhausen black and white Sci-Fi classics "Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers", It Came from Beneath the Sea" and "20 Million Miles to Earth".

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Customer Rating:
Summary: 3 stars out 4
Comment: The Bottom Line:

An overrated early noir that suffers from O'Shaughnessy's uninspired performance and the lack of any compelling characters the audience cares about, The Maltese Falcon is only really alive when Sydney Greenstreet is onscreen; look to Treasure of the Sierra Madre or Double Indemnity for similar themes done better.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: This is The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of.
Comment: This Is The Best Movie I Ever Seen A Great Package I've Ever Got
The Other To Are Pretty Good.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Stuff Dreams are made Of
Comment: "The Maltese Falcon" is a great movie because of its great actors and tight dialogue. Bogart, as the cynical but ultimately ultramoral, Sam Spade, is great as are his antitheses, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet and Mary Astor. Spade is suckered by a beautiful woman [Astor] into what turns out to be the criminal enterprise of locating the 'Maltese Falcon', a ceramic bird worth millions. Men and women fight and die to gain its possession.

The plot is convoluted but convincing and, finally, after the murder of several illicit wealth-seekers, the Falcon is located it and is found to be a phony. The cops lead the beautiful Astor who, while still proclaiming her 'love' for Bogart, off to her well-deserved punishment. Bogart, as Spade, has the opportunity to set her free but...does the 'right' thing and refuses to save her. Still, the last lines of the film really turn it from a good detective film to a great one. When asked what the worthless ceramic bird is all about, Spade answers, "The stuff dreams are made of."

Dreams, after all, aren't really about wealth. They are about pursuit.

Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

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