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cin-e-rama: triptych format (three cameras, three projectors) employing a high, wide, deeply curved, three-panel screen, yielding a panorama that extended nearly to the limits of peripheral vision; introduced in 1952.
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Shadow Boxing
Sam Spade: What do you want me to do -- learn to stutter? Watching The Maltese Falcon is a little like tripping on your way up a staircase in the middle of the night: you can't quite see what you've hit, but you know that it's solid and full of hard edges. More than fifty-five years after it was made, John Huston's adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel continues to breathe mystery and innuendo at every turn. Watch it not only because it is central to the film noir genre, but also because its tight pace, sharp dialogue, and deep shadows will compel you to watch it repeatedly in an effort to catch nuances that always seem just beyond your reach. The symbolic center of this movie is the "Maltese Falcon," a jewel-encrusted gold statuette made for a king by crusaders in 16th-century Malta. At the beginning of the movie, scrolling text informs us of the statue's checkered history: after the falcon was stolen by pirates on its way to the king, it was lost for hundreds of years. An antiques dealer, who found it in the early 1920's and covered it in black enamel to disguise its worth, was murdered soon after acquiring it. As The Maltese Falcon begins, the precise whereabouts of the statue are unknown. Shrouded and eternally misplaced, the falcon is much like the movie itself. Both statue and film share dark exteriors that conceal and reveal in the same motion. As Sam Spade, the cynical detective who has a sleeve full of sarcastic quips, Humphrey Bogart acts with intense energy and direction. This was his favorite role, and whether he's clenching his jaw in the final scenes or blowing smoke into the face of a lackey who has been tailing him, Bogart commands attention. While director Howard Hawks, in The Big Sleep (1946), made Bogart look shorter and less menacing, Huston's upward camera angles help create Bogart's riveting presence, tinged with dark power. The members of the backing cast are perfectly suited to their roles: Peter Lorre imbues Joel Cairo with a slick look and a sickly-sweet smile, Sydney Greenstreet's pursed lips give his character an unlikely, baby-like charm, Mary Astor mixes truth and lies as Brigid O'Shaughnessy, Lee Patrick, as Spade's secretary, combines hard-boiled spunk with feminine grace, and Elisha Cook, Jr. perfectly captures his character's wounded pride. Despite the many fine performances, however, this is Bogart's movie: moving beneath his own enigmatic layers of conflicting motivations--love, loyalty, money, and duty--he becomes as intriguing as the statue he's paid to search for.
Rating (1-5): 5.0
The Maltese Falcon (1941) |