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| Sam Spade  The Maltese Falcon 1941 The Character: The antihero protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, private investigator Sam Spade, is based on the author's experiences as a private detective for the Pinkerton Detective Agency in San Francisco. Hammett not only invested Spade with characteristics drawn from his own personality but also gave him his own first name, Samuel, which Hammett had discarded when he launched his career as a writer. Trivia: - Filming was completed in two months at a cost of less than $300,000. - Two "Maltese Falcons" were used for the film because Humphrey Bogart dropped the original during shooting. The original falcon is on display in the movie museum at Warner Bros. studios; its tail feathers are visibly dented from Bogey's flub sixty years ago. - George Raft was originally cast as Sam Spade. He turned it down because it was "not an important picture," taking advantage of a clause in his contract that said he did not have to work on remakes. Quotes: - The stuff that dreams are made off - I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble. - If you kill me, how are you gonna get the bird? And if I know you can't afford to kill me, how are you gonna scare me into giving it to you? - When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it. Oscars: Wins: / Nominees: Sydney Greenstreet was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Best Picture Best Screenplay Trailer The Maltese Falcon | ||||
| Fred C. Dobbs  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled prospector named Howard and decide to join with him in search of gold in the wilds of central Mexico. Through enormous difficulties, they eventually succeed in finding gold, but bandits, the elements, and most especially greed threaten to turn their success into disaster. Trivia: - Robert Rossen submitted at least nine drafts of rewrites on the screenplay when John Huston was away during the war. - The fight scene in the cantina took five days to shoot. - The film took 5-1/2 months to shoot and was 29 days over schedule. - One of the first American films to be made almost entirely on location outside the USA. - Filmed in Mexico, though Warners’ studio head Jack L. Warner had the unit return to Hollywood when the budget started to exceed $3 million (Warner, however, did admit that he thought the film was one of the greatest ever made). Quotes: - Can you help a fellow American down on his luck? - Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges. - Conscience. What a thing. If you believe you got a conscience it'll pester you to death. But if you don't believe you got one, what could it do t'ya? Makes me sick, all this talking and fussing about nonsense. - I think I'll go to sleep and dream about piles of gold getting bigger and bigger and bigger Oscars: Wins: Walter Huston - Best actor in a supporting role John Huston - Best Director Best Screenplay Nominees: Best Picture Trailer The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | ||||
| Charlie Allnut  The African Queen 1951 Robert Morley and Katharine Hepburn play Samuel and Rose Sayer, brother and sister British Methodist missionaries in a village in German East Africa in 1914 during World War I. Their mail and supplies are delivered by the rough-and-ready Canadian boat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) of the African Queen, whose coarse behavior they tolerate in a rather stiff manner. Trivia: - The first choices for the lead roles were John Mills and Bette Davis.- The fight scene in the cantina took five days to shoot. - The boat is now docked next to the Holiday Inn just off US Highway 1, in Key Largo, Florida. - To show her disgust with the amount of alcohol that John Huston and Humphrey Bogart consumed during filming, Katharine Hepburn drank only water. As a result, she suffered a severe bout of dysentery - Katharine Hepburn's first color film. - The scene in which Humphrey Bogart finds his body entirely covered with leeches (This was actually shot in the studio in London), Bogart insisted on using rubber leeches. John Huston refused, and brought a leech-breeder to the studio with a tank full of them. This made Bogart queasy and nervous -- qualities Huston wanted for his close-ups. Ultimately, rubber leeches were placed on Bogart, and a close-up of a real leech was shot on the breeder's chest. Quotes: - Well I ain't sorry for you no more, ya crazy, psalm-singing, skinny old maid! - Can you make a torpedo? Well do so Mr. Allnut.. - One thing in the world I hate: leeches. Filthy little devils - There ain't nothing so complicated as the inside of a torpedo Oscars: Wins: Humphrey Bogart - Best actor in a leading role Nominees: Best Screenplay Best Director - John Huston Best Actress in a leading role - Katherine Hepburn Trailer The African Queen |
Casablanca