Maltese Falcon

(1941)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

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BOGART before Bacall, but a brilliant movie nonetheless - with the ever dependable star power of Humphrey BOGART.

The source novelist Dashiell Hammett’s understanding of neurotic women is brought to the fore in the many ladies in this film who admire Sam Spade for his cynicism because they see it as a challenge to their exploitive wiles. The mistress of the art here is the supremely brilliant Mary ASTOR, who easily steals every scene from Mr BOGART. Sidney GREENSTREET is superbly oafish as the obsessive art collector with a suitably intense Peter LORRE as a highly strung sidekick. Not much happens; it’s all about character – or the lack, thereof.

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Unlike Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, it's hard to imagine Hammett’s detective not becoming corrupted by the sheer awfulness of those with which he regularly deals.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.