Stars: Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Marisa Berenson, Fritz Wepper

Director: Bob Fosse

Summary: Award-winning musical set in pre-war Berlin, based on the book 'GOODBYE TO BERLIN by Christopher Isherwood. Sally Bowles is an American singer who falls in love with Brian who is bisexual...

Hit musical film of decadent, pre-war Berlin, based on the Kander-Ebb musical from John van Druten's play I AM A CAMERA, which, in turn, was based on Christopher Isherwood's novel GOODBYE TO BERLIN. Sally Bowles is an American singer who falls in love with Brian who is bisexual.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

The Maltese Falconis still the tightest, sharpest, and most cynical of Hollywood's official deathless classics, bracingly tough even by post-Tarantino standards. Humphrey Bogart is Dashiell Hammett's definitive private eye, Sam Spade, struggling to keep his hard-boiled cool as the double-crosses pile up around his ankles. The plot, which dances all around the stolen Middle Eastern statuette of the title, is too baroque to try to follow, and it doesn't make a bit of difference. The dialogue, much of it lifted straight from Hammett, is delivered with whip-crack speed and sneering ferocity, as Bogie faces off against Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet, fends off the duplicitous advances of Mary Astor, and roughs up a cringing "gunsel" played by Elisha Cook Jr. It's an action movie of sorts, at least by implication: the characters always seem keyed up, right on the verge of erupting into violence. This is a turning-point picture in several respects: John Huston (The African Queen) made his directorial debut here in 1941, and Bogart, who had mostly played bad guys, was a last-minute substitution for George Raft, who must have been kicking himself for years afterward. This is the role that made Bogart a star and established his trend-setting (and still influential) antihero persona. --David ChuteEND

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1972
Release Date:	October 4, 2004
Runtime:	119 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	F H E D 1833
Keywords:	Music, Films, Cabaret, Shows, Performing, Musicals, Arts
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts