Films
/
The Maltese Falcon (1931)
The Maltese Falcon (1931) poster

The Maltese Falcon (1931)

Mystery, Crime • 1h 20m

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Cast: Ricardo Cortez, Bebe Daniels, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel, Robert Elliott, Thelma Todd, Otto Matieson, Walter Long, Dwight Frye, J. Farrell MacDonald, Agostino Borgato, Morgan Wallace, Lucille Ward

HD Streaming

Video format

HD Streaming

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 10 months ago

Overview

A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.

Release details

Featured Lists
Length
80 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
Dangerous Female

Featured in Pre-Code Films

See more →

Director: Edgar Selwyn

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration

Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements

Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ

Director: Howard Hawks

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Indicator Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Frank Capra

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony Frank Capra Boxset Blu-ray

Director: William Dieterle

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Forbidden Hollywood Collection: Volume 4 DVD

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive DVD

Director: George W. Hill

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive DVD

Director: David Butler

Video format: Only Unofficial Sources

Sources: archive.org (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

The DVD isn't an official one, and according to a user review on Amazon:

This DVD comes from Archive.org, where the movie can be viewed for free. The original source, comes from the Fox Movie Channel

Director: W.S. Van Dyke

Best English-Friendly:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Best Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray, 4k scan

Director: Victor Halperin

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

More from Roy Del Ruth

See more →

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Directors: Vincente Minnelli & Lemuel Ayers & Roy Del Ruth & George Sidney & Robert Lewis

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Best English-Friendly & Video:

VCI Blu-ray

More Mystery on Blu-ray

Director: Roman Polanski

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.

Lionsgate and the upcoming Imprint have the same discs.

Best Audio:

Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the "Original 5.1" as lossy Dolby Digital, which is very different from the AC3 on the original DVD.  This new "Original 5.1" may in fact be a downmix of the Atmos track.  FWIW, the original DVD AC3 still sounds very good.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Disney 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

BD LPCM 5.1

Audio Notes:

The DTS-HD on the UHD has been dynamically compressed, has had its center channel boosted, and surrounds lowered (typical modern nearfield mix for soundbars).  Very different from the BD and DVD tracks.  The BD LPCM is basically just a lossless version of the DTS and AC3 from the original DVD (the AC3 actually being the superior mix on that particular release).

Director: Roman Polanski

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

2011/2025 WB Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

2011/2025 WB Blu-ray for correct audio (2010 release has audio issue)

Director: Rose Glass

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

A24 4K Blu-ray

Best Video & Audio:

Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

Markedly better encoding on Plaion than A24 and without any low-pass filtering

Director: Gus Van Sant

Best English-Friendly:

US Shout! Factory Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Best Video & Audio:

French Carlotta Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Shout! Factory and Carlotta use the same scan https://slow.pics/c/Wcn5YFlw, the Carlotta has two extra bonus features

Director: Mark Pellington

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

88 Films is FiM encoded

Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

2005 Universal DVD

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

See chris's review

Best Audio:

1991 Daiei LaserDisc

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, work done to un-Nolan the 4K master, the first ever appearance of the 35mm mono track on physical media and a new restoration/remastering of the 70mm 6-track mix.

Video Notes:

(early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed)

Best Audio:

1997 MGM LaserDisc, 1998 MGM DVD

Director: Paul Leni

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Theatrical/Original A negative: MoC Blu-ray

European C/D negative but better picture quality: Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

From DVDBeaver: The MoC Blu-ray is scanned from the American A negative, as opposed to the European C or D negatives used by Photoplay and others (Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray), so it is identical with the film US audiences saw in 1927

See caps for comparison

In addition, the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has sepia tinting throughout while the MoC Blu-ray has yellow for normal scenes, blue for night scenes, and some even green tintings.

Edit history

1 edit

Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 10 months ago

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.