Warner Home Video has announced two classic movies starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston for release on Blu-ray on October 5: the 1941 detective story The Maltese Falcon, based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett, and the 1947 anti-heroic adventure The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Special features include:
The Maltese Falcon
Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
Featurette: The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird
Breakdowns of 1941: Studio Blooper Reel
Makeup tests
Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart
Warner Night at the Movies 1941 – Short Subjects Gallery:
Newsreel
Musical Short: The Gay Parisian
Two Classic Cartoons:
Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt
Meet John Doughboy
Trailers
The Maltese Falcon
Sergeant York
Satan Met a Lady (1936 previous Falcon movie adaptation)
Audio-Only Bonus: Three radio show adaptations – two featuring the movie's original stars, plus another starring Edward G. Robinson
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax
Featurette: Discovering Treasure: The Story of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Feature-length documentary profile: John Huston
Outtakes
Classic Cartoon: 8 Ball Bunny
Warner Night at the Movies 1948 – Short Subjects Gallery:
Newsreel
Joe McDoakes Comedy Short: So You Want to Be a Detective
Classic Cartoon: Hot Cross Bunny
Trailers:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Key Largo
Audio-Only Bonus: Radio show adaptation featuring the movie's original stars
AWFUL cover. that is why there are so many custom cover websites now. *sigh*. isn't it MORE work MORE money to do a new cover vs. paying licensing for the existing movie poster cover?
Absolutely adore these films. I've had them both on DVD for years and can't wait to see them alongside my Casablanca blu. I don't have any problem with the artwork either, I think they're perfect!
I'm glad they're keeping much of the same extras that are on the DVDs; the extra shorts, newsreels, and cartoons are quite nifty. But regarding the "Maltese Falcon" are they not including the full-length films for the original 1933 version or the remake "Satan Met a Lady"?
Do'h!!
These classics should still be worthwhile buying in HD!
I agree that the covers are somewhat weak, but they're not terrible. What I like about them is that they highlight Bogart, which is the main draw of the films. Really looking forward to picking up these films, although I'm not a huge Maltese Falcon fan.
As bad as these might be, I still feel like they're eons ahead of previous titles like the budget versions of Gone With the Wind or Wizard of Oz. I'd actually be okay in putting these on my shelf.
I will pick up both but I do have a major regret. The most recent release of The Maltese Falcon on DVD also included the original 1931 version and the 1936 remake (Satan Met A Lady). They are not listed for the Blu. Shame.
Awesome news. More classics are finally making their way onto the format, sadly mainly by Warner Brothers only, so my hats off to Warner for caring about the classic movie consumer.
As a couple others have pointed out, I am disappointed with this release of The Maltese Falcon. I really enjoyed the other two incarnations of the story. All three were very different--Satan Met a Lady was more of a comedy than anything--and all would have been very welcome in my collection. I hope Warner comes out with a more comprehensive release down the road...perhaps a double dip for the 70th anniversary edition in 2011?
In keeping with the DVD-edition extras, they managed to keep "8-Ball Bunny" on the Sierra Madre disk.
(Although to be fair, we can see that Bogart in the movie does NOT say "Say, pahdon me, but can you help out a fellow American who's down on his luck?"--Testament to the cartoon that most people think he did.)
Day 1 without a doubt. I've been really into classic movies on blu (and TCM) lately. Ordered quite a few just yesterday. Perhaps a few too many... Anyway, can't wait for these!
As alpha said. The Big Sleep would be much more anticipated then The Maltese Falcon. I love the Falcon too, but the big sleep directors cut is a much better movie.
Haven't seen The Maltese Falcon, but adored The Treasure of Sierra Madre. I may just have to blind-buy The Maltese Falcon.
Too bad, I was kind of expecting at least one Digibook, but the box-arts are still pretty acceptable. At least Treasure of the Sierra Madre. But who knows, maybe they're doing like what Universal did with Psycho's box-art... Have 'em for temporarily until they come up with better ones, or change their minds about Digibooks.
@ paul_66: "The Maltese Falcon" is definitely worth the blind buy, it's fantastic. I on the other hand will be blind-buying "Sierra Madre", can't wait to see it!
As for cover art, I actually really like the artwork for "The Maltese Falcon" but "Sierra Madre" looks really... "meh", I think I'd prefer the poster artwork from the DVD set. It's not bad per se, but it's really static and bland. Part of me is also thinking that these are temp covers though, we'll have to wait and see I guess...
I wasn't crazy about the MF cover either at first but it's starting to grow on me. It's got something of a Criterion feel to it. And it's not like any of the various DVD covers were all that great.
And yeah, whenever the time comes The Big Sleep will also be a day one purchase.
Hartley, I agree. Both box-arts to me are kind of bland one way or another, though not all bad. Though it's just that Treasure of Sierra Madre just looks less random to me than Maltese Falcon. But maybe Maltese Falcon is starting to grow on me a little like octagon. But maybe we'll get some better ones.
I'm also starting to think about other Bogarts I haven't seen yet that are also from John Huston and Howard Hawks such as The Big Sleep, which someone mentioned already, To Have and Have Not and Key Largo. All of which, I believe were released on DVD by Warner. I do, however have trust in Warner to release the classics. They've already been so good at it. I may have to blind-buy those as well. I'm also good at having faith in certain movies, even movies I haven't seen, especially when they're already considered classics and they're by similar directors and actors of movies I already have. I also look them up on IMDb.com and read about them and learn about them.
Seriously, what's so great about a digibook? I'd much prefer a plain jane Blu-Ray case with a booklet included in the case, it matches the rest of the collection and is easy to replace if broken or if it turns out to be one of those flimsy eco-box cases.
I do have to agree the box art for Sierra Madre is absolutely terrible, though Maltese Falcon really isn't that bad.
I really like The Big Sleep, but The Maltese Falcon is a much better movie in my opinion. I thought this was a universal sentiment. The MF is a much cleaner story and the Gutman/Cairo dialog is fantastic. We all know about the problems with The BS's story--it doesn't really make sense.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh I love Treasure, nothing like a nasty, paranoid Boggie. Peter Lori is great in MALTESE FALCON and this should be a great transfer seeing as the DVD looks pretty good...ahhh, can't wait. Now if we can get started on the Jimmy Stewart movies....WONDERFUL LIFE was nice but we need more...
Do what I do when a Blu-ray does not feature a DVD extra (e.g Battle of Britain). For that movie I used a blank 3-disc Blu-ray case and combined the 1 Blu-ray with the 2 DVD set that included the audio commentary and documentaries not included on the Blu-ray. I also regularly use 2 disc BD cases to combine DVD and BDs of the same movie.
I saw "The Maltese Falcon" for the first time only a couple years ago, loved it and bought the 3-disc special edition soon thereafter. The extras on this blu-ray disc are all available on that wonderfully-done 3-DVD set. In fact, the DVD set contains a couple other versions of the same story that are apparently not included in this forthcoming BD.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to this Blu-ray release and will probably pick it up when the price is at least moderately discounted, seeing as the aren't any new extras and (to my surprise) it's not getting the blu-ray book or UCE treatment (at least not yet).
I've never seen "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" but may blind-buy at some point. I'm still meaning to pick up "The African Queen" gift set at some point in the not-too-distant future.
BTW, I like the cover graphic for the Maltese Falcon's BD. To my eyes, it's definitely an improvement over the cover art of the DVD version I have. The studio should have developed some other concepts for the The Treasure of the Sierra Madre BD cover, though.
