UHD Review The Maltese Falcon UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Will Krupp]

The excellent book The Genius of the System has some great inside history based on original records of movie production at the various studios from around 1930 to the late 1950s. The author details, among many other things, how the costs of A-features were climbing in the late 1930s and into the 1940s.

I think this is one of the "great books" about the historical movie business and one that every film lover should have in their library!

 

[Robert Crawford]

The excellent book The Genius of the System has some great inside history, based on original movie production records, at the various studios from around 1930 to the late 1950s. The author details, among many other things, how the costs of A-features were climbing in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. This book has a good audio version as well.

In 1941 the movie Sergeant York had a cost of about 1.7 million. How Green was My Valley was about $800,000. Ziegfeld Girl 1.5 million. Hitchcock's Suspicion 1.1 million. Sullivan's Travel's $700,000. The Sea Wolf $1 million. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1.1 million. Dumbo 950,000. In 1939 The Wizard of Oz cost about $2.8 Million.

So there were A-movies that were less than a million, but few were as low as the cost of The Maltese Falcon at $375,000. It's obviously a complicated picture, and although many movies were somewhere around a million, and some quite a bit more, many were less.

B-movies, and there were obviously a lot of those (although few are watched today), were pretty much all made for way less than The Maltese Falcon.

Speaking of the new 4K UHD blu-ray, I watched it last night with the audio commentary and it looks fantastic! The commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax is really good from my pov.


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The Maltese Falcon was shot on a sound stage without many outdoor scenes and with a cast of actors not making much money at that time. The director was his first film so he didn’t cost much money.

 

[Bartman]

I think it’s the Vudu app for LG’s WebOS. The WebOS app for Prime Video had that issue for quite awhile about two years ago.

I only contacted Vudu not LG. It would be unusual for either company to respond so quickly.

 

[dpippel]

I think it’s the Vudu app for LG’s WebOS. The WebOS app for Prime Video had that issue for quite awhile about two years ago.

More than likely, and it's another good argument for stand-alone streaming boxes. The apps on TVs don't get updated with new features and bug fixes nearly as often as those same apps on platforms like Apple TV and Roku.

 

[Bartman]

More than likely, and it's another good argument for stand-alone streaming boxes. The apps on TVs don't get updated with new features and bug fixes nearly as often as those same apps on platforms like Apple TV and Roku.

But I don't have any spare HDMI inputs on my TV?

 

[Robert Crawford]

But I don't have any spare HDMI inputs on my TV?

Then you have to make do with what you have in your setup. We all have to make compromises from time to time.

 

[Will Krupp]

But I don't have any spare HDMI inputs on my TV?

I wouldn't sweat it. When I got my LG C9 I compared the picture quality on the TV's internal apps (when available) to those on a stand alone roku and, in my opinion, the LG's apps won every time.

 

[Todd Erwin]

I only contacted Vudu not LG. It would be unusual for either company to respond so quickly.

And what will likely happen is Vudu blaming LG and LG blaming Vudu.

 

[commander richardson]

not enough HDMI inputs . Then buy an HDMI Switcher x 3 inputs for less than $10. There is no loss of picture quality .

 

[Bartman]

not enough HDMI inputs . Then buy an HDMI Switcher x 3 inputs for less than $10. There is no loss of picture quality .

Please recommend a switcher that is guaranteed 4K compatible and automatically switches to the latest active input?

 

[Robert Crawford]

It’s time to get back to talking about The Maltese Falcon 4K/UHD.

 

[benbess]

In the audio commentary Eric Lax says that Humphrey Bogart himself may have come up with the memorable line at the end of the movie....

Spoiler

Detective played by Ward Bond: "What is it?" Sam Spade: "The uh...stuff that dreams are made of." This is thought to be inspired by Shakespeare's play The Tempest from 1611, where the magician Prospero says, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

 

[DanH1972]

I checked with Amazon before making a few inexpensive Warner HD purchases last year and they are for life, even if you drop Prime membership.

For the life of what? Prime and other streaming services lose their film title licenses all the time.

 

[Bartman]

For the life of what? Prime and other streaming services lose their film title licenses all the time.

For the life of the Prime member. Prime loses licences for free access frequently, Prime purchases are for perpetuity.