William Wyler’s Dead End made its screen debut on Aug. 27, 1937. The film adaptation of Sidney Kingsley’s Broadway play starred Sylvia Sidney and Joel McCrea, and featured Humphrey Bogart in third billing. But the movie was stolen from them all by a gang of upstart juvenile delinquents, who nicked audience attention like a fancy watch mugged off a clueless rich brat.
Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabe Dell, Bobby Jordan, Bernard Punsly, and Leo Gorcey were the original teen menaces who terrorized theatergoers when the play opened on Oct. 28, 1935. Directed by the playwright, Dead End ran for 684 performances, and is still the longest-running play in the Belasco Theater’s history. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw it three times.
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Dead End isn’t the greatest gangster movie of all time. It followed the classic era of the genre; it was produced by Samuel Goldwyn for MGM studios,...
Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabe Dell, Bobby Jordan, Bernard Punsly, and Leo Gorcey were the original teen menaces who terrorized theatergoers when the play opened on Oct. 28, 1935. Directed by the playwright, Dead End ran for 684 performances, and is still the longest-running play in the Belasco Theater’s history. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw it three times.
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Dead End isn’t the greatest gangster movie of all time. It followed the classic era of the genre; it was produced by Samuel Goldwyn for MGM studios,...
- 12/28/2022
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Woody Allen’s son Moses Farrow defended his filmmaker father against his sister Dylan Farrow’s accusations of sexual abuse, saying their mother, Mia Farrow, coached Dylan to lie.
“I’m a very private person and not at all interested in public attention,” Moses Farrow wrote in a blog post titled “A Son Speaks Out.” “But, given the incredibly inaccurate and misleading attacks on my father, Woody Allen, I feel that I can no longer stay silent as he continues to be condemned for a crime he did not commit.”
In the piece, Moses Farrow says Mia Farrow was well-versed in “coaching, drilling, scripting, and rehearsing — in essence, brainwashing” her children. Moses Farrow said he “witnessed siblings, some blind or physically disabled, dragged down a flight of stairs to be thrown into a bedroom or a closet, then having the door locked from the outside.” He says Mia Farrow slapped...
“I’m a very private person and not at all interested in public attention,” Moses Farrow wrote in a blog post titled “A Son Speaks Out.” “But, given the incredibly inaccurate and misleading attacks on my father, Woody Allen, I feel that I can no longer stay silent as he continues to be condemned for a crime he did not commit.”
In the piece, Moses Farrow says Mia Farrow was well-versed in “coaching, drilling, scripting, and rehearsing — in essence, brainwashing” her children. Moses Farrow said he “witnessed siblings, some blind or physically disabled, dragged down a flight of stairs to be thrown into a bedroom or a closet, then having the door locked from the outside.” He says Mia Farrow slapped...
- 5/23/2018
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
This Friday, Café Society, the latest release from writer/director/comic godhead Woody Allen, waltzes into theaters — the 47th feature Allen has directed over a career spanning 50 years. (Yes, we're counting New York Stories.) He's had box-office successes and outright bombs, Oscar-winning masterpieces and critically panned duds. But regardless of his movies' receptions (and the reoccurring rumors about his personal life), he's managed to pump out a film a year with impressive regularity. Some key elements have stayed the same — once a jazz clarinet slinks onto the soundtrack, audiences know exactly who they're dealing with.
- 7/13/2016
- Rollingstone.com
This Friday, Café Society, the latest release from writer/director/comic godhead Woody Allen, waltzes into theaters — the 47th feature Allen has directed over a career spanning 50 years. (Yes, we're counting New York Stories.) He's had box-office successes and outright bombs, Oscar-winning masterpieces and critically panned duds. But regardless of his movies' receptions (and the reoccurring rumors about his personal life), he's managed to pump out a film a year with impressive regularity. Some key elements have stayed the same — once a jazz clarinet slinks onto the soundtrack, audiences know exactly who they're dealing with.
- 7/13/2016
- Rollingstone.com
There are handful of actors who will forever be ingrained in the canon of film history. John Wayne, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, James Dean, Gregory Peck, to name just a few. One of the most iconic actors of all time, Humphrey Bogart, gets his own four-movie Blu-ray collection this week. This is the kind of release that usually hits near Father’s Day. Get your shopping done early this year.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
There’s no company more adept at re-releasing already available product and making it seem fresh than Warner Bros. The four blu-rays included in “The Best of Bogart Collection” are literally just the four previously-available releases in a new case (and nowhere near as extensive career-wise as the DVD-only box set released for the legend a few years ago). They’re even stacked two on top of each other on each side. However, if you don’t own maybe...
Rating: 4.5/5.0
There’s no company more adept at re-releasing already available product and making it seem fresh than Warner Bros. The four blu-rays included in “The Best of Bogart Collection” are literally just the four previously-available releases in a new case (and nowhere near as extensive career-wise as the DVD-only box set released for the legend a few years ago). They’re even stacked two on top of each other on each side. However, if you don’t own maybe...
- 3/27/2014
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
When you’re looking to put together a movie collection, it doesn’t hurt if you happen to be Warner Brothers. If the collection you’re after is classic gangster movies, you’re really in luck.
For fans of the genre, especially those looking to upgrade titles to Blu-Ray, the new Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics is one you’ve got to get your hands on. Not only do you get some of the films that helped create the genre, and have become the foundation upon which countless movies are built, but the extras are worth the price on their own.
The collection here comes at you like a history lesson, not just of the genre, but of film. Little Caesar, with Edward G. Robinson setting the stage for all future gangsters with “short man syndrome,” but struggling mightily against the production theories of the day, is not only a classic treasure,...
For fans of the genre, especially those looking to upgrade titles to Blu-Ray, the new Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics is one you’ve got to get your hands on. Not only do you get some of the films that helped create the genre, and have become the foundation upon which countless movies are built, but the extras are worth the price on their own.
The collection here comes at you like a history lesson, not just of the genre, but of film. Little Caesar, with Edward G. Robinson setting the stage for all future gangsters with “short man syndrome,” but struggling mightily against the production theories of the day, is not only a classic treasure,...
- 6/7/2013
- by Marc Eastman
- AreYouScreening.com
Ultimate Gangster Collection — Classics
Little Caesar
The Public Enemy
The Petrified Forest
White Heat
Due Out: May 21, 2013
The “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classics“ and “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary” are available on Blu-ray 5/21
Who’S It For?
This collection is for anyone who gets excited for a gangster flick. The look of each film is fantastic, especially considering the age of these movies. Just being able to own (and compare) Little Caesar and The Public Enemy is worth the price alone. Little Caesar has every single cliché that Hollywood is still using for its gangster films. It doesn’t hold up compared to modern movies, but that’s the point of watching it. With Little Caesar these aren’t exactly clichés, but new attempted techniques. The Public Enemy completely holds up. It’s an amazing character study brought to life by the brilliant Cagney. Seeing the intro, explaining that Hollywood is against...
Little Caesar
The Public Enemy
The Petrified Forest
White Heat
Due Out: May 21, 2013
The “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classics“ and “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary” are available on Blu-ray 5/21
Who’S It For?
This collection is for anyone who gets excited for a gangster flick. The look of each film is fantastic, especially considering the age of these movies. Just being able to own (and compare) Little Caesar and The Public Enemy is worth the price alone. Little Caesar has every single cliché that Hollywood is still using for its gangster films. It doesn’t hold up compared to modern movies, but that’s the point of watching it. With Little Caesar these aren’t exactly clichés, but new attempted techniques. The Public Enemy completely holds up. It’s an amazing character study brought to life by the brilliant Cagney. Seeing the intro, explaining that Hollywood is against...
- 5/21/2013
- by Jeff Bayer
- The Scorecard Review
With Father’s Day coming up, it makes perfect sense for Warner Bros. to look to the past, and release two impressive Blu-ray collections. Ultimate Gangster Collection Classic and Ultimate Gangster Collection Contemporary should make plenty of men happy*.
*Women are also allowed to be happy by this news.
Here is the news release…
Burbank, Calif., March 11, 2013 – As part of the studio’s 90th Anniversary celebration, eight of Warner Bros. Pictures’ greatest gangster films – from Edward G. Robinson’s 1931 classic Little Caesar to Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning masterpiece The Departed– will now be available in two Blu-ray sets May 21. Released to coincide with Father’s Day gift-giving, the WB genre greats, along with one of Paramount’s best gangster films, will be offered in the Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classic and Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary.
The four films in the Classic Collection have been remastered for their Blu-ray debuts. They include...
*Women are also allowed to be happy by this news.
Here is the news release…
Burbank, Calif., March 11, 2013 – As part of the studio’s 90th Anniversary celebration, eight of Warner Bros. Pictures’ greatest gangster films – from Edward G. Robinson’s 1931 classic Little Caesar to Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning masterpiece The Departed– will now be available in two Blu-ray sets May 21. Released to coincide with Father’s Day gift-giving, the WB genre greats, along with one of Paramount’s best gangster films, will be offered in the Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classic and Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary.
The four films in the Classic Collection have been remastered for their Blu-ray debuts. They include...
- 3/11/2013
- by Jeff Bayer
- The Scorecard Review
I stumbled upon a list of 41 of Woody Allen's favorite films over at This Recording, which were actually pulled from Allen's 2007 biography written by Eric Lax titled "Conversations with Woody Allen: His Films, the Movies, and Moviemaking" which you can buy from Amazon for $16.47.
Allen comments on the lists, of which he breaks up into different categories, saying, "My tastes seem to me unremarkable except in the area of talking plot comedies where I seem to have little tolerance for anything and certainly not my own films."
Unfortunately, he's pretty much right as I would bet most avid movie watchers will have seen the majority of the films he lists and then when he does get to talking plot comedies he waves a white flag in fear of looking foolish saying, "[My] taste is eccentric and there are any number of comedies I love that would make me seem foolish or should I say,...
Allen comments on the lists, of which he breaks up into different categories, saying, "My tastes seem to me unremarkable except in the area of talking plot comedies where I seem to have little tolerance for anything and certainly not my own films."
Unfortunately, he's pretty much right as I would bet most avid movie watchers will have seen the majority of the films he lists and then when he does get to talking plot comedies he waves a white flag in fear of looking foolish saying, "[My] taste is eccentric and there are any number of comedies I love that would make me seem foolish or should I say,...
- 6/7/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Philip French enjoys an account of Humphrey Bogart's journey from a troubled, wealthy family to movie royalty
Born in the last days of the Victorian era into a well-established New York family, Humphrey Bogart went from riches to even greater riches as he became one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors. His father was a wealthy, Yale-educated doctor addicted to alcohol and morphine, his mother a successful magazine illustrator and heavy drinker, and they were constantly at each other's throats. Emerging from this troubled household Humphrey became a rebellious figure at his exclusive prep school and then in the navy, where he acquired the famous scar on his upper lip, possibly when struck while escorting a fellow sailor to jail but, more likely, in a brawl – certainly not, as claimed, in battle. He was later to remark that he was "Democrat in politics, Episcopalian by upbringing, dissenter by disposition".
He sampled...
Born in the last days of the Victorian era into a well-established New York family, Humphrey Bogart went from riches to even greater riches as he became one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors. His father was a wealthy, Yale-educated doctor addicted to alcohol and morphine, his mother a successful magazine illustrator and heavy drinker, and they were constantly at each other's throats. Emerging from this troubled household Humphrey became a rebellious figure at his exclusive prep school and then in the navy, where he acquired the famous scar on his upper lip, possibly when struck while escorting a fellow sailor to jail but, more likely, in a brawl – certainly not, as claimed, in battle. He was later to remark that he was "Democrat in politics, Episcopalian by upbringing, dissenter by disposition".
He sampled...
- 2/13/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
On the set of Howard Hawks’s To Have and Have Not, Humphrey Bogart, then married to mercurial actress Mayo Methot, fell madly in love with a beautiful 19-year-old who had not quite yet become Lauren Bacall. In an excerpt from their new biography, A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax recount the dazzling, tempestuous start of a legendary Hollywood romance.
- 2/8/2011
- Vanity Fair
Blu-ray is often sold as the ideal way to watch big-budget blockbusters on your home theater system. Yet, as Disney's home entertainment division has shown, the format can also be used to give classic films a new lease of life. In the last couple of months Warner Home Video (Whv) has re-issued several such movies on Blu-ray. Two of the most recent are The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart. There is little point in reviewing the quality of these films because they are widely acknowledged as landmarks in cinema history. Instead, this review focuses on how they look in Hi-Def and the extra features provided on each release.
The good news is that Whv, like Disney, has done its past proud. As with many of its releases of modern blockbusters, the company knows how to deliver a quality product.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre...
The good news is that Whv, like Disney, has done its past proud. As with many of its releases of modern blockbusters, the company knows how to deliver a quality product.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre...
- 11/6/2010
- CinemaSpy
When one thinks of old timey private detectives, one doesn't have to stray too far from imagining the likeness of Humphrey Bogart. He is the face most remembered to represent Dashiell Hammett's hard boiled hero Sam Spade. It's worth noting that the film's version of Spade is considerably different in looks and demeanor than in the novel, and yet Bogart grabs the role so effortlessly and radiates such an overwhelming cool that he not only controls the image of Sam Spade, he also becomes the prototype of every hard boiled private dick, as well as any film noir protagonist, ever since.
As far as the John Huston-Humphrey Bogart combos go (there were six of them), The Maltese Falcon is unbeatable, but that's taking my unapologetic love for unadulterated film noir into account. The titular "Maltese Falcon" is a priceless statue made of gold and encrusted with jewels,...
As far as the John Huston-Humphrey Bogart combos go (there were six of them), The Maltese Falcon is unbeatable, but that's taking my unapologetic love for unadulterated film noir into account. The titular "Maltese Falcon" is a priceless statue made of gold and encrusted with jewels,...
- 10/24/2010
- by Arya Ponto
- JustPressPlay.net
Chicago – Humphrey Bogart is one of the most beloved and iconic movie stars to ever grace the form. The legend of Bogart built through caricatures, impressions, and the rarified air in which some of his films exist can sometimes disguise his unbelievable talent. “Casablanca” may be his best film and we’ll be back with a discussion of more Bogie works in our review of the new box set later this week, but arguably the two best Bogart performances have recently been released on Blu-ray in 1941’s “The Maltese Falcon” and 1948’s “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
Television Rating: 5.0/5.0
It’s rare to have two films from the infamous American Film Institute Top 100 list released in HD in the same week but that’s exactly what we get with “The Maltese Falcon” and “Sierra Madre,” two of the most acclaimed films of all time. The pair being released on...
Television Rating: 5.0/5.0
It’s rare to have two films from the infamous American Film Institute Top 100 list released in HD in the same week but that’s exactly what we get with “The Maltese Falcon” and “Sierra Madre,” two of the most acclaimed films of all time. The pair being released on...
- 10/18/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
This is a film which has been known in the past for looking awful and here it just shines. I'll go so far as to say, that at home, there is simply no replacing this Bluray for fans of Bogey or classic Hollywood cinema. As a film The Maltese Falcon suffers from a staginess that was common to films of its time and in fact and no doubt next to some of Bogeys other stuff, especially Casablanca seems a bit cheesy. But then again it's a film to ignore at your peril. It was nominated for 3 Academy Awards, and launched the careers of Bogart and director John Huston.
The extras from the recent DVD release are all present and accounted for and consist of a commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax, a featurette, the studio blooper real, makeup tests, a trailer gallery for Bogarts films as well as 2 animated shorts,...
The extras from the recent DVD release are all present and accounted for and consist of a commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax, a featurette, the studio blooper real, makeup tests, a trailer gallery for Bogarts films as well as 2 animated shorts,...
- 10/17/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Release Date: Sept. 9
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Writers: Donn Pearce, Frank Pierson
Cinematographer: Conrad Hall
Starring: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Harry Dean Stanton, Strother Martin
Studio/Run Time: Warner Home Video, 126 mins.
Newman has aged well
Stuart Rosenberg's 1967 classic Cool Hand Luke has left a heavy footprint in our pop-culture conscience. A sampling of its many iconic moments includes Boss Godfrey's mirrored aviators, the hardboiled-egg-eating contest and Strother Martin drawling, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate." But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Newly remastered on DVD and Blu-ray, this deluxe edition features a "making-of" documentary and audio commentary from writer Eric Lax. But it's Paul Newman's exhilaratingly understated performance as the existential title character that anchors the film. Unlike Brando or Redford, Newman was a master at softening his masculinity without sacrificing virility. His anti-authoritarianism quietly burns as he first spars then bonds with his fellow prison-camp inmates,...
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Writers: Donn Pearce, Frank Pierson
Cinematographer: Conrad Hall
Starring: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Harry Dean Stanton, Strother Martin
Studio/Run Time: Warner Home Video, 126 mins.
Newman has aged well
Stuart Rosenberg's 1967 classic Cool Hand Luke has left a heavy footprint in our pop-culture conscience. A sampling of its many iconic moments includes Boss Godfrey's mirrored aviators, the hardboiled-egg-eating contest and Strother Martin drawling, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate." But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Newly remastered on DVD and Blu-ray, this deluxe edition features a "making-of" documentary and audio commentary from writer Eric Lax. But it's Paul Newman's exhilaratingly understated performance as the existential title character that anchors the film. Unlike Brando or Redford, Newman was a master at softening his masculinity without sacrificing virility. His anti-authoritarianism quietly burns as he first spars then bonds with his fellow prison-camp inmates,...
- 11/12/2008
- Pastemagazine.com
"The stuff dreams are made of". Not quite, but Warner's new "The Maltese Falcon" gives the 1941 Bogie classic uptown treatment on DVD.
Along for the ride in the three-DVD set are a pair of older films based on Dashiell Hammett's hard-boiled tale: "The Maltese Falcon" (1931) and "Satan Met a Lady" (1936).
The elder "Falcon", with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade, is a treat: funny as hell and sexy in that pre-Code way. The lame "Lady" should interest only Bette Davis fans and masochists. Both talkies flopped for Warner Bros., which stayed on the case and wisely OK'd a third version with a first-time director.
John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), the DVDs' main event, looks and sounds outstanding, though there are some obvious audio synch problems in the final scenes. The video will play a bit on the flat side for those who prefer jacked contrasts with their film noir, but the images unspool handsomely across an uptown gray scale. Wear doesn't figure in. When Humphrey Bogart growls, "I won't play the sap for you," his voice is thick yet distinct; it's easy to forget you're listening to an old movie.
The decent but unexceptional half-hour docu "One Magnificent Bird" features writer Hammett's granddaughter, who obviously has spent a great deal of time talking about black birds and private eyes. She tells how Hammett worked as a Pinkerton operative, then traded on his experiences to write seminal pulp fiction like "The Black Falcon", which first ran as a serial in the rough-hewn Black Mask magazine.
Huston, a successful screenwriter, scooped up the project after Howard Hawks recommended it as his debut directing project. "Just shoot the book", Hawks said, apparently a radical concept at the time. Much of the dialogue in the film comes straight-no-chaser from Hammett.
Bogart specialized in playing villains for Warner Bros. before landing the role of Sam Spade. Not an obvious match: Hammett painted his hero as a blond, devilish-looking character with yellow-gray eyes. The studio wanted George Raft, as they did on "Casablanca".
Mary Astor, fresh from scandal in her personal life, came in as the femme fatale. Peter Lorre, who later called "Falcon" his favorite movie, came in as the vaguely gay treasure hunter. Fat Man Sydney Greenstreet completed the fab four.
"They all seemed to exist", Peter Bogdanovich says of the players. "So it wasn't a question of acting; it was a question of being."
Bogart biographer Eric Lax does the feature-length commentary, apparently mistaking the DVD's listeners for a bunch of note-taking undergrads. Lax seems content to rattle off personal data about the actors and their credits, often ignoring the great scenes he's talking over. At one point he kills time with a history of Warner Bros.
Also included on the discs are a cavalcade of Bogart trailers, six shorts from 1941 and a studio blooper reel.
The three-disc edition retails for $29.98. The "Falcon" discs also come as part of "Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection Vol. 2," which goes for $59.98. That collection features the DVD debut of "Across the Pacific", which reunited the "Falcon" stars and director, as well as "Passage to Marseille" with Greenstreet.* * * * * *
"You're not too smart, are you?" the femme fatale says to the fall guy. "I like that in a man".
Can't boil down film noir any better than that. The line comes from Lawrence Kasdan, circa 1980, who had bet big on the mostly forgotten genre for his first directing project. Kasdan was holding aces after writing "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Empire Strikes Back" but figured a face-first flop would keep him out of the director's chair forever.
The B-movie genre's rat-a-tat dialogue sounded like sure boxoffice. "The language of noir is very extravagant," Kasdan says in "The Plan", a terrific new documentary on the making of "Body Heat". Plus, "I felt like I would have a lot of fun."
The plan soon included a sexy and talented stage actress, Kathleen Turner, who had never made a film. "She had the perfect (voice) for film noir," Kasdan recalls. Like a Lauren Bacall knockoff. Plus, "she had the legs to pull it off."
After nine years, WB finally has rereleased Kasdan's "Body Heat" in a single-disc "deluxe" edition (retail $19.98). It includes three connected documentaries on the making of the film, a curious European TV interview with young Turner and her leading man William Hurt and some deleted scenes. The widescreen video and 5.1 audio are unremarkable but OK.
Kasdan, Turner and Hurt all roll out for the new docus. They seem to have soft spots for the project, which they shot in Florida because of the writers strike. "It was the three of us against the studio system," Turner says. George Lucas kept the production going with a promise to cover budget overages.
"Body Heat" startled the good people of the fern bar era with its sweat-drenched nude scenes for Turner and Hurt. Turner recalls how a schedule screw-up led to their shooting the money sex scene on Day 1. She was terrified, but Hurt tamed the weird dynamic, the actress says, gratefully. The film pleased a lot of women weary of the time's tacky-macho movie sex. "I wanted a woman's voice in there," editor Carol Littleton says. "Not a male fantasy".
Today, with classic film noirs sitting pretty on DVD, the film plays plenty slick -- like a Steely Dan CD tossed on top of a pile of old Stones records. But as co-star Ted Danson puts it, " 'Body Heat' wasn't a ripoff. It was a film noir."...
Along for the ride in the three-DVD set are a pair of older films based on Dashiell Hammett's hard-boiled tale: "The Maltese Falcon" (1931) and "Satan Met a Lady" (1936).
The elder "Falcon", with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade, is a treat: funny as hell and sexy in that pre-Code way. The lame "Lady" should interest only Bette Davis fans and masochists. Both talkies flopped for Warner Bros., which stayed on the case and wisely OK'd a third version with a first-time director.
John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), the DVDs' main event, looks and sounds outstanding, though there are some obvious audio synch problems in the final scenes. The video will play a bit on the flat side for those who prefer jacked contrasts with their film noir, but the images unspool handsomely across an uptown gray scale. Wear doesn't figure in. When Humphrey Bogart growls, "I won't play the sap for you," his voice is thick yet distinct; it's easy to forget you're listening to an old movie.
The decent but unexceptional half-hour docu "One Magnificent Bird" features writer Hammett's granddaughter, who obviously has spent a great deal of time talking about black birds and private eyes. She tells how Hammett worked as a Pinkerton operative, then traded on his experiences to write seminal pulp fiction like "The Black Falcon", which first ran as a serial in the rough-hewn Black Mask magazine.
Huston, a successful screenwriter, scooped up the project after Howard Hawks recommended it as his debut directing project. "Just shoot the book", Hawks said, apparently a radical concept at the time. Much of the dialogue in the film comes straight-no-chaser from Hammett.
Bogart specialized in playing villains for Warner Bros. before landing the role of Sam Spade. Not an obvious match: Hammett painted his hero as a blond, devilish-looking character with yellow-gray eyes. The studio wanted George Raft, as they did on "Casablanca".
Mary Astor, fresh from scandal in her personal life, came in as the femme fatale. Peter Lorre, who later called "Falcon" his favorite movie, came in as the vaguely gay treasure hunter. Fat Man Sydney Greenstreet completed the fab four.
"They all seemed to exist", Peter Bogdanovich says of the players. "So it wasn't a question of acting; it was a question of being."
Bogart biographer Eric Lax does the feature-length commentary, apparently mistaking the DVD's listeners for a bunch of note-taking undergrads. Lax seems content to rattle off personal data about the actors and their credits, often ignoring the great scenes he's talking over. At one point he kills time with a history of Warner Bros.
Also included on the discs are a cavalcade of Bogart trailers, six shorts from 1941 and a studio blooper reel.
The three-disc edition retails for $29.98. The "Falcon" discs also come as part of "Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection Vol. 2," which goes for $59.98. That collection features the DVD debut of "Across the Pacific", which reunited the "Falcon" stars and director, as well as "Passage to Marseille" with Greenstreet.* * * * * *
"You're not too smart, are you?" the femme fatale says to the fall guy. "I like that in a man".
Can't boil down film noir any better than that. The line comes from Lawrence Kasdan, circa 1980, who had bet big on the mostly forgotten genre for his first directing project. Kasdan was holding aces after writing "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Empire Strikes Back" but figured a face-first flop would keep him out of the director's chair forever.
The B-movie genre's rat-a-tat dialogue sounded like sure boxoffice. "The language of noir is very extravagant," Kasdan says in "The Plan", a terrific new documentary on the making of "Body Heat". Plus, "I felt like I would have a lot of fun."
The plan soon included a sexy and talented stage actress, Kathleen Turner, who had never made a film. "She had the perfect (voice) for film noir," Kasdan recalls. Like a Lauren Bacall knockoff. Plus, "she had the legs to pull it off."
After nine years, WB finally has rereleased Kasdan's "Body Heat" in a single-disc "deluxe" edition (retail $19.98). It includes three connected documentaries on the making of the film, a curious European TV interview with young Turner and her leading man William Hurt and some deleted scenes. The widescreen video and 5.1 audio are unremarkable but OK.
Kasdan, Turner and Hurt all roll out for the new docus. They seem to have soft spots for the project, which they shot in Florida because of the writers strike. "It was the three of us against the studio system," Turner says. George Lucas kept the production going with a promise to cover budget overages.
"Body Heat" startled the good people of the fern bar era with its sweat-drenched nude scenes for Turner and Hurt. Turner recalls how a schedule screw-up led to their shooting the money sex scene on Day 1. She was terrified, but Hurt tamed the weird dynamic, the actress says, gratefully. The film pleased a lot of women weary of the time's tacky-macho movie sex. "I wanted a woman's voice in there," editor Carol Littleton says. "Not a male fantasy".
Today, with classic film noirs sitting pretty on DVD, the film plays plenty slick -- like a Steely Dan CD tossed on top of a pile of old Stones records. But as co-star Ted Danson puts it, " 'Body Heat' wasn't a ripoff. It was a film noir."...
- 10/20/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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