Ping!
On a roll. Classic, and worth watching anytime. Thanks!
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1941_film)
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film noir based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett.[2][3]
Directed by John Huston, the film stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his femme fatale client. Gladys George, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet co-star, with Greenstreet appearing in his film debut. The Maltese Falcon was Huston’s directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards. The story follows a San Francisco private detective and his dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers, all of whom are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette.
The film premiered on October 3, 1941, in New York City, and was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1989.[4]
The Maltese Falcon was considered by Roger Ebert to be one of the greatest films ever made[5] and was cited by Panorama du Film Noir Américain as the first major film noir.[6]
The Strand Theatre was opened on April 11, 1914 with the photoplay “The Spoilers” starring William Farnum. It was built for the Mitchel Mark Realty Company and was under the early direction of Samuel “Roxy” Rothapfel. It originally had a seating capacity of 2,989 located in orchestra and a single balcony.
The Strand Theatre began its life with stage shows in addition to movies and also had one of the largest stages in the city in 1914. After stage shows were dropped in 1929, seating was reduced to 2,750. In the late-1930’s stage shows (and vaudeville) were brought back.
After dropping stage shows on July 3, 1951, the Strand Theatre was renamed Warner Theatre, and opened with “Stangers on a Train”. During 1952 to 1953, the theatre closed, was renovated and renamed Warner Cinerama Theatre. Cinerama films moved here from the Broadway Theatre, starting with “This Is Cinerama” in 1953.
In 1963, the auditorium was equipped with a 81 foot wide, 30 feet tall screen to show “Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”. World Premiere’s of 70mm films included “Porgy and Bess”(June 24, 1959), “Exodus”(December 15, 1960), “The Greatest Story Ever Told”(February 15, 1965), “Grand Prix”(December 21, 1966 and “Camelot”(October 25, 1967).
On July 30, 1968, the theatre reopened as a triplex. The Warner Cinerama Theatre with 1,000 seats occupied the main floor. The former balcony became the 1,200 seat Penthouse Theatre. A third theatre built in the old Strand’s stagehouse was also opened, called the Cine Orleans, which had its own entrance on W. 47th Street. In the early-1980’s the Cinerama Theatre and Penthouse Theatre were remodeled and renamed the RKO Warner Twin Theatre.
Unfortunately, on February 8th 1987, after a long and eventful life, one of the greatest movie palaces of New York City closed and was demolished.
“I’m a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk.”
I can tell that you are a man who likes to talk....
The stuff that dreams are made of.....
My favorite scene is when Bogie slaps Mary Astor and says
“I never saw a dame yet that didn’t understand a good slap in the mouth or a slug from a .45.”
That is a classic, classic Hammett line!!!
The Maltese Falcon is probably the greatest example of emperor's new clothing ever filmed.
Greenstreet, Bond, Cook, and Lorre turn in excellent supporting performances, but Bogart is his usual awful self, and there is no chemistry whatsoever between the leads; they're just two wooden Indians passing in the night.
The plot is awful. It consists mostly of people wandering back and forth between various apartments, offices or hotel rooms with little -- if any -- discernible action, and like most of Dashiell "The Commie" Hammett's "hard boiled dialog" the characters communications consist of absurd phrases that no adults have ever uttered.
"When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it!"
That one leaves me rolling in the isles with gut-splitting laughter at its sheer brainlessness every time I so much as think of it.
The Maltese Fail.
Just plain hideous.
Here is a clip of the Maltese Falcon.... : )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCc2v7izk8w
One of the greatest films ever made; an utter cinematic classic for the ages.
Back in the 70’s, when I was a poor starving student, I used to go to film lectures at the AFI, which had a lovely theater tucked away in the Kennedy Center. I wonder if anyone remembers that? For about a dollar you could see a great film and hear an interesting lecture. One night they showed The Maltise Falcon. During the lecture afterward the speaker pointed out that when Bogart refers to the young thug played by Elisha Cook as a “gunsel” the censors let it go by as a supposed reference to a gunman. In fact, it was Yiddish slang for the femail partner in a homosexual trist.
This was a Bogart classic. He WAS the detective just as it was written.
My favorite scene was his jerking Elisha Cook' coat down so he couldn't pull his brace of .45s...