Word: bogarting
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...Maltese Falcon" (1941) was, in several respects, a significant "first" in Hollywood history. Not only was it the first American detective movie and John Huston's first job as a director, but it also gave Bogart his first full-fledged hero role and was the first of the four all-time classic Bogies ("Casablanca", "To Have and Have Not", and "The Big Sleep" are the others). Adapted by Huston almost word for word from the Dashiell Hammett novel, "The Maltese Falcon" is a tough-minded, unpretentious little mystery, which may critics feel is still the best ever produced...
...movie has been brilliantly cast. Bogart surely "born to play" Sam Spade. The detective's bitter lines get sharp emphasis from Bogart's smug grin and sour lisp, making Spade probably the most thoroughly intimidating character Bogie ever portrayed. Sydney Green-street is just right as the jovial, pedantic Fat Man, obsessed with the "black bird." His great line: "Well, by Gad, if you lose a son it's possible to get another, but there's only one Maltese Falcon," is perhaps the best in a movie full of great lines. Peter Lorre is suitably effete and prim...
...Sleep" (1946) is producer-director Howard Hawkes' version of "The Maltese Falcon." Based rather closely on the Raymond Chandler novel, which, in turn, seems to have borrowed heavily from Hammett's, "The Big Sleep" has several important elements in common with the earlier movie: Philip Marlowe (Bogart) is a just-barely-watered-down Sam Spade - a little more romantic, but otherwise every bit as hard and even more violent; he has to contend with a similarly secretive and much more attractive client (Lauren Bacall); and he, like Spade, has to keep the police at bay so they...
...Beat the Devil" (1954) is Bogart making fun of himself. Many of his avid devotees find the film heretical, and Bogart himself is said not to have liked it much, but it's an indisputably clever bit of whimsey. Written by Truman Capote and John Huston and filmed by Huston's own company on the Gulf Sorrento in Southern Italy, the whole production was a casual vacation exercise for Huston and some of his actor-friends who happened to be in the area at the time...
...film's main interest lies in the novelty of a grubby Grant. He is miscast as a Bogart, but he makes a sprightly stab at crudity. When his dinghy starts to capsize with a full cargo of sweet young things, one tiny mutineer bites him, and he throws a capful of water in her face. When Caron slaps him, he lets her have it too. When Trevor Howard informs him that the island has a hidden treasure-trove of good Scotch whisky, Grant starts pawing the turf like Pavlov's dog. His engaging brand of rough-house finally...