Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection: Volume II DVD Credits:

Region: 1

Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection: Volume II DVD Release Date: 2nd October 2006

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Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection: Volume II DVD Review:

Although the first volume of the Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection had Casablanca and The Treasure of Sierra Madre, the second volume has the just released three-disc Maltese Falcon and a couple of great lesser known hits from Bogart. Each DVD contains a Warner Night at the Movies feature, which includes newsreels, shorts, cartoons and trailers from the year the film was released, so that you get the feeling of what was going on when the film came out.

Across the Pacific

This film was made just after The Maltese Falcon, which is also included in this set. It shares a similar feeling as Bogart plays a soldier who has just been dishonorably discharged. He takes a voyage by boat to the Panama Canal where he becomes entangled in a saboteur of the canal, played by Sydney Greenstreet. He also has the usual romantic interest played by Mary Astor. To wrap the whole package up perfectly Across the Pacific is directed by John Huston. The special features include a blooper reel from 1942 and a featurette, Hollywood Helps the Cause, about film’s war effort.

Action in the North Atlantic

This a propaganda film through and through. The Nazis are predictably wicked and the American Merchant Marines are perfectly patriotic. They are all such perfect soldiers that this film was eventually shown as a Merchant Marine training film. Despite the dripping patriotism and pro-war speeches every five minutes, this is a terribly exciting film to watch. The humor is mostly Hitler jokes, but some of the performances help make the delivery a success. On the DVD there is an audio only special feature which is a radio show with George Raft and Raymond Massey. There is also a featurette, Credit Where Credit is Due.

All Through the Night

This film is a strange mix of gangster and propaganda film. It begins with a group of mobsters debating over war issues, each with his opinion of how they would dispatch of Hitler. Their leader is the fearless Gloves Donahue, played by Bogart in a near caricature of his many other gangster roles. When Gloves is deprived of his daily cheesecake it brings him to the murder of his favorite baker. In attempting to discover who killed him, Gloves stumbles on a Nazi conspiracy in the center of New York City. All Through the Night starts in silly fun and switches from spoof to suspenseful thriller then back again all through the film. The fight sequences are especially entertaining and surprisingly brutal. Peter Lorre co-stars as a particularly brutal killer. The DVD has a commentary track with director Vincent Sherman and Bogart Biographer Eric Lax. There is also a great featurette, Call the Usual Suspects: The Craft of the Character Actor as well as the usual Warner Night At the Movies features.

The Maltese Falcon

Not only is this the best known Bogart film in the set, but it is also the latest and the greatest. Included in the set is the three-disc special edition set of Maltese Falcon. Disc one has the 1941 mystery thriller which has Bogart as Sam Spade, a private detective trying to get to the bottom of his partner’s murder which involves a precious artifact. John Huston wrote and directed the film and it co-stars Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Mary Astor, who all collaborated again with Across the Pacific. Disc one also has a commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax and a Warner Night at the Movies collection of newsreel, shorts, cartoons and trailers.

Disc two has two additional movies, including a 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon and Satan Met a Lady, both earlier attempts at adapting the Dashiell Hammett novel, the latter being a goofy and comical version of the story and starring Bette Davis in the femme fatale role. Disc three has a new documentary on The Maltese Falcon, and there is a featurette on the trailers of Bogart hosted by Robert Osborne. There are also audio-only special features that are radio adaptations of the film, two of which have the cast of the film. The third stars Edward G. Robinson.

Passage to Marseille

The first half of Passage to Marseille we are told story within story, so many times that it becomes difficult to remember where it all started, and then as each story is completed we are brought back to the beginning story, which is told to a newspaper man when he asks about a soldier, played by Bogart. Once we delve into the layers of storytelling we find that he was once a newspaper man, but after wrongly being sent to prison he escapes with a group of men to fight for France against German invasion. It is a great propaganda film directed by Michael Curtiz, who also directed the same stars in Casablanca. The DVD includes a new featurette, The Free French: Unsung Victors, and the usual Warner Night at the Movies features.

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Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection: Volume II DVD review written by: Ryan Izay