Today I went to the Family Dollar a couple of blocks from the house. Since it was the first of December, I wanted to get some chocolate cherries and some candy covered pretzels and some eggnog, which I did. But then I saw the little stand of DVDs and I thought to myself, "This looks like a pretty poor selection. But maybe somewhere there is something worthwhile. I'm going to look through them all to make sure." And so I did, and among the dross I did find some things that tickled my fancy. There was a copy of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (not as fancy as the edition I already own) and a "Best of Duck Tales" (from the new iteration I have been enjoying, which has been on now since 2017 - how time flies!). But as you can see, the movie I walked away with was "The Maltese Falcon".
It's a pretty basic version, though it has a few extras. I only recently got into films like this, but every time it's on TCM these days I feel compelled to watch it and since I never see it completely, having the DVD on hand is great. Bogart's Spade's resourcefulness is great (without being superhuman), and Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet are wonderful foils. Mary Astor's scheming character as she plays everyone against everyone while looking like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth makes her an equal player in the schemes surrounding the Black Bird. And John Huston's directing? So good!
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