Soccer Dad

The maltese remake

There's so much blogging going on, I shouldn't be surprised when two very disparate blogs cover the same territory.

Seraphic Secret who is a screenwriter (Robert Avrech) and Hollywood historian, has been profiling lesser known Jewish actors. (Not necessarily that these actors weren't stars, but that it wasn't widely known that they were Jewish.)

Today he profiled Ricardo Cortez in which he wrote:

Cortez's portrayal of detective Sam Spade in the original Maltese Falcon (1931) is an absolutely stunner. Cortez is far more dangerous and sensual than the lip-curling and deeply mannered Bogart. There's a great moment when Cortez suspects leading lady Bebe Daniels of stealing money and hiding it under her clothing. Casually, with an amused but sharp-as-dagger delivery, he orders Daniels to strip naked. The delight he takes in the bad girl's oh-so-shocked expression is just priceless. He's playing a game with her, but she knows it's a game with deadly consequences. It's a beautifully modulated performance—one minute silken, the next steel—and Cortez is in charge of every inch of the frame.

I never know that the Maltese Falcon was a remake.

But then The Glittering Eye did a post on movie remakes.

I think the all-time greatest remake was probably The Maltese Falcon. You know, the one with Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet, and Mary Astor. It was a remake of 1931’s The Maltese Falcon, which featured Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. That was actually a pretty decent picture itself but nothing like as good as John Huston’s remake.

Now I don't know if they'd disagree about the relative merits of each movie or about the performances of the leading men. Still it's fascinating that they both covered the same bit of information from different directions.

the maltese falcon, movies.