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Bibliothèque | Type de matériel | Numéro de cote topographique | Statut |
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Recherche en cours... Port Charlotte | DVD | MOVIE MAL | Recherche en cours... Inconnu |
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Résumé
Résumé
After two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett's detective classic The Maltese Falcon, Warner Bros. finally got it right in 1941--or, rather, John Huston, a long-established screenwriter making his directorial debut, got it right, simply by adhering as closely as possible to the original. Taking over from a recalcitrant George Raft, Humphrey Bogart achieved true stardom as Sam Spade, a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye who can be as unscrupulous as the next guy but also adheres to his own personal code of honor. Into the offices of the Spade & Archer detective agency sweeps a Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor), who offers a large retainer to Sam and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) if they'll protect her from someone named Floyd Thursby. The detectives believe neither Miss Wonderly nor her story, but they believe her money. Since Archer saw her first, he takes the case -- and later that evening he is shot to death, as is the mysterious Thursby. Miss Wonderly's real name turns out to be Brigid O'Shaughnessey, and, as the story continues, Sam is also introduced to the effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and the fat, erudite Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet, in his film debut). It turns out that Brigid, Cairo and Gutman are all international scoundrels, all involved in the search for a foot-high, jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon. Though both Cairo and Gutman offer Spade small fortunes to find the "black bird," they are obviously willing to commit mayhem and murder towards that goal: Gutman, for example, drugs Spade and allows his "gunsel" Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.) to kick and beat the unconscious detective. This classic film noir detective yarn gets better with each viewing, which is more than can be said for the first two Maltese Falcons and the ill-advised 1975 "sequel" The Black Bird. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Critiques (2)
Critique du Guardian
Crime outsells everything else on audio, especially now with summer holidays looming and people looking for something not too taxing to listen to in the car or on the beach. Purists will opt to download Raskolnikov's criminal career unabridged (running time: 24 hours) from Audible.co.uk, but it hardly fits the lightweight requirement. Last month the BBC launched an impressive package of thrillers, old and new, to suit every whodunit taste. You may already have heard some of the Le Carre with Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley. I'll be lynched for saying this, but I think he's better than Alec Guinness. What's more - and this really is heresy - in this terrific adaptation of Hammett's gangsters-and-molls classic, Tom Wilkinson as the macho, cynical, ruthless private eye Sam Spade is better than Humphrey Bogart. If you saw the movie and cannot imagine anyone but Bogie playing the part, listen to Wilkinson in this version and think again. His voice is a mixture of cold steel and hot sex, interspersed with throwaway wisecracks - irresistible. It's a complex story set in 1920s San Francisco against a background of honky-tonk pianos, speakeasys, clacking typewriters and echoing footsteps on sidewalks that could only be made by the sort of flamboyant two-tone, stack-heeled, patent leather bowling shoes favoured by Al Capone. Spade is hired by a beautiful, mysterious young woman, with a variety of pseudonyms and a breathless way of speaking, to trail someone called Floyd, so paranoid that he always sleeps with crumpled newspaper round his bed to hear who's sneaking up on him. I won't spoil it by telling you what happens. I'm a sucker for tough-guy dialogue. Here's the siren reminding Spade that he loves her, to which he retorts: "Suppose I do, what then? Maybe next month I won't. If I send you over I'll be sorry as hell. I'll have some rotten nights but that'll pass. If that doesn't mean anything to you, forget it." I certainly will not, and you won't, either. Caption: article-audio11.1 Crime outsells everything else on audio, especially now with summer holidays looming and people looking for something not too taxing to listen to in the car or on the beach. Purists will opt to download Raskolnikov's criminal career unabridged (running time: 24 hours) from Audible.co.uk, but it hardly fits the lightweight requirement. Last month the BBC launched an impressive package of thrillers, old and new, to suit every whodunit taste. You may already have heard some of the Le Carre with Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley. I'll be lynched for saying this, but I think he's better than Alec Guinness. - Sue Arnold.
Critique du Library Journal
Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett; Bogart's Sam Spade personifies the hard- boiled detective. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.