Yep, that's right. The super-famous 1941 version is a remake. In a way it's almost comforting that Hollywood has always been allergic to new ideas, as opposed to becoming money-hungry bastards only recently. And it's almost a shot for shot remake, too. There are a few key differences in character portrayal, however. In the original, Sam Spade (played by Ricardo Cortez) is much more of a ladies-man than Bogey played him. Now whether or not that's because this pre-dates the Hayes Code I don't know. But in this one, Archer is aware that Sam has been sleeping with his wife, which adds a new element to his later murder. The feel of the movie is much different, much more light-hearted than the '41 version which probably reflects the general mood of the public at the time.
Honestly, if you were going to own one, I'd say stick with the Bogart classic. This one is really only notable as a piece of trivia.
This was on the same disc because it's basically the same movie except that it's the horn of Roland instead of a falcon from Malta. Bette Davis plays the femme fatale and she's much more of a spitfire than Mary Astor or Bebe Daniels. Honestly, this was probably one of those "we don't have the copyrights so we're just going to change a couple of the names enough so we don't get sued" things. If you'd never seen either version of the real thing it's pretty good but I wouldn't watch them back to back if you can help it.
No comments:
Post a Comment