The Maltese Falcon

I probably have already blogged about this film and my deep love for it. It's Humphrey Bogart's coming out party as before this film he was often a "thug" and usually died in the film. Here he is the definition of a "leading man" and star. He carries a VERY complex and difficult role and film. The premise follows Bogart (Private detective Sam Spade) as a women comes into his office with the proposition of following a "dangerous man" to find out where he is staying. He's "taken" her sister and she worries about her and wants her to return to Hawaii (I think) at the wishes of her family. Spade's partner (Archer) agrees to the task and is promptly shot for his efforts that night. The story bobs and weaves, twists, turns, and contorts for another 1.5 hours until, after you're lost and don't know who/what to believe, it's over and you want to watch it again. There's great lines ("People lose teeth talking like that", or "It's the stuff that dreams are made of"), some great 1930's speak, which I'm a huge fan of, Bogart, film noir, black and white with close-ups, it's all perfect to me. This is a film worth seeing and enjoying yourself. You can see how many other films have attempted to imitate, or borrow ideas from this great film. Bottom Line: 9.7 out of 10. This is probably too high, but it's certainly one of my all-time favorites. The story unfolds and has so many twists and turns that I've seen it 4-5 times and I find myself constantly looking for things and hints. Similar to Memento in that regard, but obviously it's not told in reverse or anything THAT fancy. Bogart is just amazing and it's been out for so long the history and sets are wonderful and special in their own right. The clothes, technologies, speech, everything is interesting and special to me in the film. It does receive an ever so slight downgrade from perfect due to the low quality of some of the extras poor acting, but that's the only knock I can hang on this great film.