  Humphrey
Bogart Signature Collection
A Warner Bros. Icon - for His Time and for All Time
HUMPHREY BOGART: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION VOL. 2 DEBUTS SEPTEMBER 12
DVD
Debuts of The Maltese Falcon 3-Disc Special Edition and
Bogie Classics Across The Pacific, Action In the North Atlantic,
All Through The Night and Passage To Marseille
For the
Official Website, Click Here
 Burbank,
Calif., June 12, 2006 – On September 12, Warner Home Video honors one of the
most popular movie actors of all time with the DVD release of Humphrey
Bogart: The Signature Collection Volume 2. Highlighting this collection
is a deluxe new 3-Disc Special Edition of The Maltese Falcon,
featuring a newly-remastered edition of the 1941 John Huston masterpiece
starring Bogart as Dashiell Hammett’s definitive Sam Spade. This new deluxe set
is loaded with hours of bonuses including the 1931 version of The Maltese
Falcon and the 1936 film, Satan Met a Lady, commentary by Bogart
biographer Eric Lax, a recently recovered additional scene as well as vintage
Warner “Night at the Movies” features.
Also
contained in the collection are four more Bogart classics making their DVD
debuts -- Across the Pacific, Action in the North Atlantic, All Through
the Night and Passage to Marseille. Each film has been
restored from the original camera negatives and has been digitally remastered,
with each title enhanced with entertaining features. The new five film,
seven-disc gift set will sell for $59.92 SRP; all titles are exclusive to the
collection, except The Maltese Falcon 3-Disc Special Edition,
which will also sell separately for $29.92 SRP. Orders are due August 8.
Named AFI’s #1 male movie star of all time, Humphrey Bogart
has been a cult figure throughout the world since the 1940s. Mostly, he played
characters who were smart, playful, courageous, tough, and reckless -- who lived
in a corrupt world yet were anchored by an inner moral code. He also excelled
portraying men with flaws and weaknesses that ultimately led to their downfall.
One of the most prolific actors in motion picture history, he appeared in 85
films which have demonstrated their enduring popularity by selling to date more
than five million copies on video and DVD. Bogart won a Best Actor Academy
Award® for his performance in The African Queen and earned an Oscar®
nomination for Casablanca and The Caine Mutiny.
The Maltese Falcon Three-Disc Special Edition (1941)
This
nominee for three Academy Awards – Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Greenstreet)
and Screenplay (Huston) – solidified Bogart’s stardom and launched John Huston’s
illustrious directorial career. An all-star cast (including Sydney Greenstreet,
Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr.) joins Bogart in this classic film
noir story about hard-boiled detective Sam Spade (Bogart) and the gallery of
lowlifes he’s after to find his partner’s killer as well as the jewel-encrusted
life size statue of a falcon. Filled with twists and turns, the crackling
mystery masterwork was based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel. The Maltese
Falcon was added to the National Film Registry in 1989 and is #23 on the
American Film Institute’s (AFI) List of 100 Greatest Movies.
This
all-new 3-Disc Special Edition is full of extras, including two features which
preceded Bogie’s landmark Falcon -- the 1931 pre-code version of
The Maltese Falcon and the 1936 film, Satan Met a Lady, starring
Bette Davis.
Disc One
Special Features:
·
New digital
transfer of 1941 movie from restored elements
·
Commentary by
Bogart biographer Eric Lax
·
Warner Night at the Movies 1941
short subjects gallery:
o
Vintage Newsreel,
Oscar®-Nominated Technicolor musical short The Gay Parisian
o
Classic Cartoon: Oscar® nominee
Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt
o
Trailers of The Maltese
Falcon and 1941’s Sergeant York
·
Languages:
English & Français (1941 movie only)
·
Subtitles:
English, Français & Español (1941 movie only)
Disc Two
Special Features:
·
2 Previous movie
versions of the classic Hammett caper:
o
The Maltese Falcon
(1931) with Bebe Daniels and
Ricardo Cortez
o
Satan Met a Lady
(1936) with Bette Davis and
Warren William
·
Theatrical
trailers
Disc Three
Special Features:
·
New
Documentary
The
Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird
·
Robert
Osborne Hosts
Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart
·
Breakdowns of 1941:
Studio Blooper Reel
·
Audio-only bonus:
3 radio show adaptations featuring the movie’s original stars including a
version starring Edward G. Robinson
Across the
Pacific
(1942)
The
winning team from The Maltese Falcon is reunited for Across
the Pacific. This crisply written wartime thriller reunites three
Falcon leads -- Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet. The Maltese
Falcon’s John Huston directs this reunion, and once again, the combination
of stars and director comes up a winner. Like The Maltese Falcon, the
film has “the same irresistible mixture of darkness, double-cross and quirky
humor,” according to Tom Milne, Time Out Film Guide. Here Bogart plays
counterspy Rick Leland who trades romantic barbs with Alberta (Mary Astor),
matches wits with sly Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet) and swaps bullets with
saboteurs of the Panama Canal.
DVD Special
Features:
·
Warner Night at the Movies 1942
Short Subjects Gallery:
o
Vintage newsreel
o
Patriotic Technicolor short
Men of the Sky
o
Classic cartoon The Draft
Horse
o
Trailers of Across the
Pacific and 1942’s Captains of the Clouds
·
New featurette
Hollywood Helps the Cause
·
Breakdowns of 1942:
Studio Blooper Reel
·
Subtitles:
English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Action in the North Atlantic
(1943)
This
World War II salute to the Merchant Marines is an action-filled voyage of a
besieged freighter and shows how the role of these men supplying the war effort
was the lifeblood of democracy’s arsenal. Humphrey Bogart, a World War I seaman
and an avid recreational sailor, stars as First Officer Joe Rossi who, along
with his captain (Raymond Massey), matches tactics with U-boats and the
Luftwaffe. The tactics were so on target that this became a Merchant Marine
training film.
DVD
Special Features
·
Warner Night at the Movies 1943 short subjects gallery:
o
Vintage newsreel
o
Musical short Cavalcade of
Dance
o
Classic cartoon Greetings
Bait
o
Trailers of Action in the
North Atlantic and 1943’s Northern Pursuit
·
New featurette
Credit Where Credit Is Due:
·
Audio-only bonus:
radio show with George Raft and Raymond Massey
·
Subtitles:
English, Français & Español (feature film only)
All Through
the Night
(1942)
In this
comedy thriller, Bogart had fun in the change-of-pace role of Gloves Donahue, a
NY gambler and petty crook. Gloves is definitely more interested in his racing
sheet and favorite cheesecake than he is in current events, until the baker gets
bumped off, and that changes everything. The fun is winningly contagious in a
spoof that pits him against Nazi spies. The wonderful supporting cast of shady,
but good guys includes William Demarest, Jackie Gleason and Phil Silvers, all of
whom seem to have stepped from Damon Runyon’s Guys and Dolls world.
DVD Special
Features:
·
Commentary by
director Vincent Sherman and Bogart biographer Eric Lax
·
Warner Night at the Movies 1942
short subjects gallery:
o
Vintage newsreel
o
Joe Doakes comedy short So
You Want to Give Up Smoking
o
Classic cartoon Lights
Fantastic
o
Trailers of All Through the
Night and 1942’s Gentleman Jim
·
New featurette
Call the Usual Suspects: The Craft of the Character Actor
·
Subtitles:
English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Passage to
Marseille
(1944)
Humphrey
Bogart reunites with director Michael Curtiz and other key Casablanca
personnel (including co-stars Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet).
Bogart plays Jean Matrac, a World War II French patriot who escapes Devil’s
Island, survives a dangerous freighter voyage and becomes a gunner in the Free
French Air Corps.
The film
sailed into theaters on stormy seas. Controversy surrounded the scene in which
Matrac machine-guns the helpless survivors of a downed plane that attacked the
freighter. That a soldier of freedom would act ignobly brought protests from
religious and censorship groups.
Special
Features:
·
Warner Night at the Movies 1944
short subjects gallery:
o
Vintage newsreel
o
Oscar®-winning patriotic short
I Won’t Play and Oscar® nominee Jammin’ the Blues
o
Classic cartoon The Weakly
Reporter
o
Trailers of Passage to
Marseille and 1944’s Uncertain Glory
·
New featurette
The Free French: Forgotten Unsung Victors
·
Breakdowns of 1944:
Studio Blooper Reel
·
Subtitles:
English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Additional biographical information on Bogart:
Humphrey
DeForest Bogart was born on December 25, 1899, the son of a Manhattan surgeon
and a magazine illustrator. He had a privileged upbringing but was expelled from
an elite East coast private school, after which he joined the U.S. Naval
Reserve. In the early ‘20s, he managed a stage company owned by a family friend
and began performing regularly. In 1930 he got a contract with Fox and made his
feature film debut in a short called Broadway’s Like That, co-starring
Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell.
After
five more years of stage and minor film roles, Bogart finally got his big break
when he reprised his Broadway role as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest.
He signed a contract with Warner Bros. and was on his way to mega-stardom with
roles in such classics as High Sierra, Casablanca, The Big Sleep, Key Largo,
The African Queen and, of course, The Maltese Falcon and the other
films in this collection.
Bogie also
had a storied personal life, having been married four times, the last to actress
Lauren Bacall, with whom he appeared in four films. The first was To Have and
Have Not,
in 1944, with the 19 year old
Bacall making her screen debut at age 19. The role marked the beginning of her
great acting career as well as one of Hollywood’s legendary love stories. Bogie
and Bacall were married in 1945 and their marriage thrived, despite a 25-year
age difference, until Bogart died in 1957 from throat cancer. In her
autobiography, By Myself, Bacall notes, “No one has ever written a
romance better than we lived it.”
Review of Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection
It has taken me a while to go through all of these CDs, but from a lover of
movies, it was well worth it. I have seen many of these movies many times
again, but each time is like seeing it anew. Humphrey Bogart is the
epitome of what an actor should be. Others have tried to emulate him, but
very few have come close. Some say that it was the movies that made him,
but it was really Bogart that made the movies into the classics that they are
today. Could you imagine anyone else besides Bogart in the part of Rick?
If you are reading this, you already know how great of an actor he is and how
great the movies are. Therefore, I am not going to give you a review of
the movies - there is no need.
What I am going to give you some insight into is the exceptional quality of the
DVDs and all of the extra features they come with. If you have seen the
movies in this collection before, the features they come with are well worth the
price of the set. I will just list a few of the features of one or two of
the DVDs below (some DVDs include many more features than I have mentioned)
Casablanca: There is a fantastic Casablanca tribute hosted by Lauren
Bacall and another feature by Bacall in which she takes a look at Bogart's life.
There are also not one, but two full length film commentaries in which you learn
so much about the movie and its actors. There is also a great cartoon with
Bugs Bunny that I enjoyed.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: Some really great documentaries about
the making of the movie are included with pictures, other featues include an
interesting audio only version of a 1949 radio show.
The Maltese Falcon: This three disc edition includes commentaries,
trailers, bloopers, radio adoptions and a whole lot more.
All the other DVDs include special features as well.
My only comment is that the collection does not include The African Queen,
but I guess that is what volume 3 would be for. If you like Bogart you
will love this collection, if you love Bogart, you will fall in love again, if
you really do not know about Bogart, I can only envy you that and remember the
first time I heard the word "Play It Again Sam."
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