Maltese Falcon, The: One Magnificent Bird (2006)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Peter Bogdanovich, Rudy Behlmer, Lincoln Hurst, Larry Cohen, Michael Madsen, Joe Gores, Eddie Muller, James Cromwell and Frank Miller are just a few of the people who show up to discuss THE MALTESE FALCON, the landmark 1941 film from John Huston and Humphrey Bogart. The film starts off talking about the original story and then we get into the 1931 version as well as the 1936 one under the title of Satan MET A LADY. From here the spotlight is on the 1941 film, its production, hiring of the cast and its reputation of one of the greatest films ever made. At just over 30-minutes there's certainly nothing too detailed here but it remains a very entertaining featurette. I think the greatest thing is just getting to hear the history behind the film as well as the original lead that the studio wanted. Another highlight is getting to hear about how the supporting actors got hired on and of course the other films that the success of this would lead to. Fans like Cohen, Madsen and Bogdanovich share their opinions on the film while historians Hurst and Behlmer talk about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. If you're a fan of the film then this here is going to be a must-see. One could always hope it was a tad bit longer but they manage to cram quite a bit into the 30-minutes.
