The Maltese Falcon 4K UHD - Humphrey Bogart

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by John Huston
USA 1941

A gallery of high-living lowlifes will stop at nothing to get their sweaty hands on a jewel-encrusted falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why--and who'll take the fall for his partner's murder. An all-star cast (including Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr.) joins Bogart in this crackling mystery masterwork written for the screen (from Dashiell Hammett's novel) and directed by John Huston. This nominee for 3 Academy Awards Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Greenstreet) and Screenplay (Huston)--catapulted Bogart to stardom and launched Huston’s directorial career. All with a bird and a bang!

***

Huston's first film displays the hallmarks that were to distinguish his later work: the mocking attitude toward human greed; the cavalier insolence with which plot details are treated almost as asides; the delight in bizarre characterisations, here ranging from the amiably snarling Sam Spade ('When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it') who opened a whole new romantic career for Bogart, to Lorre's petulant, gardenia-scented Joel Cairo, Cook's waspishly effete gunsel, and Greenstreet's monstrously jocular Fat Man ('By gad, sir, you are a character'). What makes it a prototype film noir is the vein of unease missing from the two earlier versions of Hammett's novel. Filmed almost entirely in interiors, it presents a claustrophobic world animated by betrayal, perversion and pain, never - even at its most irresistibly funny, as when Cook listens in outraged disbelief while his fat sugar daddy proposes to sell him down the line - quite losing sight of this central abyss of darkness, ultimately embodied by Mary Astor's sadly duplicitous siren.

Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 3rd, 1941

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Review: Warner - Region FREE - 4K UHD

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: UK Steelbook: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Warner - Region FREE - 4K UHD
Runtime	1:40:32.818
Video	1.37:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 64,748,931,329 bytes Feature: 61,769,049,408 bytes Video Bitrate: 74.95 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate 4K Ultra HD:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1772 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1772 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DUBs: Dolby Digital Audio German 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -27dB Dolby Digital Audio Italian 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -27dB Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -27dB Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -27dB Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English (SDH), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner 1.37:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 64,748,931,329 bytes Feature: 61,769,049,408 bytes Video Bitrate: 74.95 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video Edition Details: 4K Ultra HD disc • Commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray • Commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax • Featurette The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird (32:06) • Breakdowns of 1941: Studio blooper reel makeup tests (12:53) Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart (44:45) • Warner Night at the Movies 1941 short subjects gallery: Newsreel, musical short The Gay Parisian, 2 classic cartoons: Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt and Meet John Doughboy • Trailers of This Movie, 1941's Sergeant York and 1936's previous Falcon movie adaptation Satan Met a Lady • Audio-only bonus: 3 radio show adaptations-- two featuring the movie's original stars, plus another starring Edward G. Robinson 4K Ultra HD Release Date: April 4th, 2023 Black 4K Ultra HD Case inside slipcase Chapters 28

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective discs.

ADDITION: Warner 4K UHD (April 2023): Warner's are releasing John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon" to 4K UHD. The package includes the 2010 Warner Blu-ray (compared to DVD HERE) as evidence by the M2TS file dates:

The 2160P image is spectacular. Advancing further on the contrast and deep black levels of the VC-1 encoded 2010 Blu-ray. Whites are a shade brighter, black darker, texture is thick but there is frequent depth. Texture is fine and carries a film-like richness. There may be a sliver more information in the frame. The pattern on the couch where Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor) is sitting in her robe, the neon lights behind Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) in Spade's office... look magnificent. This presentation is flawless.

It is likely that the monitor you are seeing this review is not an HDR-compatible display (High Dynamic Range) or Dolby Vision, where each pixel can be assigned with a wider and notably granular range of color and light. Our capture software if simulating the HDR (in a uniform manner) for standard monitors. This should make it easier for us to review more 4K UHD titles in the future and give you a decent idea of its attributes on your system. So our captures may not support the exact same colors (coolness of skin tones, brighter or darker hues etc.) as the 4K system at your home. But the framing, detail, grain texture support etc. are, generally, not effected by this simulation representation.

NOTE: 44 more more full resolution (3840 X 2160) 4K UHD captures, in lossless PNG format, for Patrons are available HERE

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages to date: Mildred Pierce (software uniformly simulated HDR), Tár (software uniformly simulated HDR), Marathon Man (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dazed and Confused (software uniformly simulated HDR), Three Colors: Blue (software uniformly simulated HDR), Invaders From Mars (software uniformly simulated HDR), Death Wish (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (no HDR), High Plains Drifter (software uniformly simulated HDR), Mystery Men (software uniformly simulated HDR), Silent Running (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dressed to Kill (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Power of the Dog (software uniformly simulated HDR), Escape From Alcatraz (software uniformly simulated HDR), I, the Jury (no HDR), Casablanca (software uniformly simulated HDR), In the Mood For Love (NO HDR applied to disc), The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman (software uniformly simulated HDR), Blow Out (software uniformly simulated HDR), Night of the Living Dead (NO HDR applied to disc), Lost Highway (software uniformly simulated HDR), Videodrome (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Last Picture Show (software uniformly simulated HDR), It Happened One Night (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Mummy (1932)(software uniformly simulated HDR), Creature From the Black Lagoon (software uniformly simulated HDR), Bride of Frankenstein (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Amityville Horror (software uniformly simulated HDR), The War of the Worlds (1953) (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Incredible Melting Man (software uniformly simulated HDR), Event Horizon (software uniformly simulated HDR), Get Carter (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Killing (software uniformly simulated HDR), Killer's Kiss (software uniformly simulated HDR)

Warner ratchet up a notch on their Blu-ray audio transfer with a DTS-HD Master dual-mono a shade more robust than the 2010 edition. It is 24-bit and flat but carries some pleasing resonance. The score is by Adolph Deutsch (High Sierra, Ramrod, The Apartment, Across the Pacific) supporting the film with deft subtleties. The disc offers optional English (SDH) and European subtitles and DUBs - and is, like all 4K UHD, region FREE, playable worldwide.

The 4K UHD disc - has only the previous Eric Lax (co-author of Bogart), excellent, commentary expounding on his vast knowledge of Bogie and the film. He does such a good job that you only consider that he could have had some support in a few brief moments. Regardless it is very thorough.

Extras are duplicated from the 2010 Blu-ray (it IS the same disc) including the feature in 1080P and the Lax commentary. The 2006 3-disc DVD extras package as well EXCEPT we have again lost the previous film versions of the classic Hammett caper - namely The Maltese Falcon (1931) with Bebe Daniels and Recardo Cortez and Satan Met a Lady (1936) with Bette Davis and Warren William. Notably the half hour featurette entitled The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird, a 40 minute Turner featurette The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart and there is a vintage blooper reel - about 12 minutes called - Breakdowns of 1941: Studio Blooper Reel, Warner Night at the Movies, 2 cartoons, and three audio broadcasts. So, plenty but nothing new.

The 4K UHD release of John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon" is at the high standard fans have come to expect from Warner's releases. It is the stuff of Noir legend with Bogie as San Francisco private eye Sam Spade, Mary Astor as the femme fatale and support from devoted secretary Gladys George (playing Effie Perine with her own seductive femininity), antagonists Lorre and Greenstreet (his film debut) with punk henchman Wilmer Cook (Elisha Cook Jr.) Unscrupulous characters willing to lie, cheat, steal and murder for the titular jewel-encrusted statuette. It's filled with murder mystery lore; the character of Joel Cairo (Lorre) was based on a criminal whom Dashiell Hammett (who once a worked as a private detective) arrested for forgery in Pasco, Washington, in 1920. It really doesn't get much better and that includes the 4K UHD image despite lack of new package supplements. Our highest recommendation.