Double Feature

The Maltese Falcon

Everyone’s looking for it and they’ll do anything to get it! The Maltese Falcon, that is. It’s not just the opulent treasure in the mind’s eye of every San Francisco low-life, it’s also one of the first shining examples of Hollywood noir, a stunningly confident directing debut for John Huston, and a sordid melodrama which transformed Humphrey Bogart from B-movie sideman to star romantic lead. Mary Astor co-stars as the hot-blooded but inscrutable femme fatale who drags hard-boiled private eye Sam Spade (Bogart) into the hunt for the Falcon. Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet (in his Academy Award-nominated film debut!) round out the conspiratorial cast as dandy-gangsters with twisted loyalties. The paradigm for film noir to come, this loaded, sordid mystery gets right to the tragic truth about love and crime: “It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.”

“Mr. Huston gives promise of becoming one of the smartest directors in the field.” – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

“One of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form. Unfolding a most intriguing and entertaining murder mystery, [The Maltese Falcon] displays outstanding excellence in writing, direction, acting and editing – combining in overall as a prize package of entertainment” – Variety

The Petrified Forest

A rundown diner bakes in the Arizona heat. Inside, fugitive killer Duke Mantee sweats out a manhunt, holding disillusioned writer Alan Squier, young Gabby Maple and a handful of others hostage. As trapped as his captives, Mantee admits: “It looks like I’ll spend the rest of my life dead.” The Petrified Forest, Robert E. Sherwood’s 1935 Broadway success about survival of the fittest in the modern world, hit the screen a year later with Leslie Howard (Squier) and Humphrey Bogart (Mantee) magnificently recreating their stage roles and Bette Davis (Gabby) ably re-teaming with her Of Human Bondage co-star Howard. Sherwood initially wanted Bogart for a smaller role in this 1936 classic. “I thought Sherwood was right,” Bogart said. “I couldn’t picture myself playing a gangster. So what happened? I made a hit as the gangster.” So right was he that Howard refused to make the film without him… and helped launch Bogey’s brilliant movie career. (Warner Bros)