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1.Christmas in Connecticut starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Reginald Gardiner, S.Z. Sakall directed by: Peter Godfrey December 23, 1993
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $3.85
Bad direction keeps this movie from being good. In fact, even Barbara Stanwyck comes off looking awkward in some scenes. But she can never be truly bad. Her presence and a great supporting cast keep me watching this one again and again: (the usually weird) Sydney Greenstreet feels just enough out of place to be really fun, (the often overly cute) S. Z. Sakall gets to deliver all the sardonic jabs that keep the movie from being too sweet, and (the always wonderful) Una O'Connor is, well, just wonderful. The one-reel extra, A Star in the Night, is the kind of pure Christmas schmaltz that will have any true holiday believers bawling on cue. And that alone is worth the price of purchase.

2.Casablanca (Aniv B&W) starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt directed by: Michael Curtiz November 02, 1992
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $0.09
With the new Blu-Ray versions of old classics, it may be time for Amazon to rethink how it publishes their reviews, normally one of the things I like most about their store! When I heard Casablanca was coming out in Blu-Ray, my first thought was, "I wonder if Blu-Ray has anything to offer to an old Black and White film, or is it just a marketing ploy?" So, I go to Amazon, look up the BLU-RAY VERSION of Casablanca, and find 536 reviews telling me that Casablanca is one of the best movies of all times. Great! I know that! What I want to know is, does the Blu-Ray edition offer me any viewing advantages over my current DVD of this movie? How about limiting the reviews to only those who can add something of value to the specific edition being evaluated. Otherwise, with all ... Read More

3.The Maltese Falcon starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane directed by: John Huston January 16, 2001
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $2.99
"The Maltese Falcon" is a great movie because of its great actors and tight dialogue. Bogart, as the cynical but ultimately ultramoral, Sam Spade, is great as are his antitheses, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet and Mary Astor. Spade is suckered by a beautiful woman [Astor] into what turns out to be the criminal enterprise of locating the 'Maltese Falcon', a ceramic bird worth millions. Men and women fight and die to gain its possession. The plot is convoluted but convincing and, finally, after the murder of several illicit wealth-seekers, the Falcon is located it and is found to be a phony. The cops lead the beautiful Astor who, while still proclaiming her 'love' for Bogart, off to her well-deserved punishment. Bogart, as Spade, has the opportunity to set her free but...does the ... Read More

4.Hucksters starring: Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Ava Gardner directed by: Jack Conway September 01, 1998
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $11.40
Every veteran of the advertising industry is sure to find lots to enjoy and ponder in this Clark Gable-Debra Kerr classic. The Hucksters was an adaptation of Frederic Wakeman's devastating novel -- rumored to be a roman a clef -- about big-bucks corporate thuggery and Mad Ave skullduggery in the 1940s. Returning ad executive Clark Gable and impoverished war-widow socialite Debra Kerr try to hang onto their integrity and each other in the freewheeling, utterly unprincipled world of Madison Avenue in the years after World War 2. They negotiate a minefield of high-stakes ad campaigns, sexually exploitative art directors, abusive CEOs, lickspittle corporate toadies (literally!), and cutthroat ad-agency politics where senior executives are FBI informants who destroy their rivals by ratting them ... Read More

5.Mask of Dimitrios (1944) starring: Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Victor Francen directed by: Jean Negulesco June 09, 1997
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $20.45
With all respect to the wonderful Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, I feel that it's Zachary Scott, in hisfirst film, who makes this one unforgettable. He's sinister, treacherous, vicious, and utterly amoral---and you can't take your eyes off him, any more than you could stop watching a cobra rearing up in front of you. You can see how Faye Emerson (in a memorable performance) falls in love with him. Adapted from Eric Ambler's spy thriller, "A Coffin for Dimitrios," this was directed by Jean Negulesco, who did the quite different but equally well crafted "Humoresque" two years later. We can be grateful that it's available, if only on VHS.

6.Malaya starring: Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet, John Hodiak directed by: Richard Thorpe June 22, 1994
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $9.75
With James Stewart and Spencer Tracy starring together, "Malaya" seemed a good bet to be a movie worth seeing. It is a rather decent movie for its' time but there were some issues I had with its' factual content. I mention that because the movie does a good job of dealing with an actual issue that existed during the war; the shortage of raw rubber. If I'm not mistaken, the need for other habitats for the rubber plant (Brazil) and the development (out of necessity) for synthetic rubber, led to the eventual demise of the Southeast Asian rubber market. However, that came later and, at the outset of WWII, Japanese control of the rubber producing area caused a critical shortage for the US and its' Allies. The objection I had with "Malaya" was the cosy relationship that existed in the Malayan setting between ... Read More

7.Casablanca starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt directed by: Michael Curtiz August 08, 1994
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $2.89
With the new Blu-Ray versions of old classics, it may be time for Amazon to rethink how it publishes their reviews, normally one of the things I like most about their store! When I heard Casablanca was coming out in Blu-Ray, my first thought was, "I wonder if Blu-Ray has anything to offer to an old Black and White film, or is it just a marketing ploy?" So, I go to Amazon, look up the BLU-RAY VERSION of Casablanca, and find 536 reviews telling me that Casablanca is one of the best movies of all times. Great! I know that! What I want to know is, does the Blu-Ray edition offer me any viewing advantages over my current DVD of this movie? How about limiting the reviews to only those who can add something of value to the specific edition being evaluated. Otherwise, with all the new Blu-Ray versions that ... Read More

8.Maltese Falcon starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane directed by: John Huston December 23, 1993
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $0.29
"The Maltese Falcon" is a great movie because of its great actors and tight dialogue. Bogart, as the cynical but ultimately ultramoral, Sam Spade, is great as are his antitheses, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet and Mary Astor. Spade is suckered by a beautiful woman [Astor] into what turns out to be the criminal enterprise of locating the 'Maltese Falcon', a ceramic bird worth millions. Men and women fight and die to gain its possession. The plot is convoluted but convincing and, finally, after the murder of several illicit wealth-seekers, the Falcon is located it and is found to be a phony. The cops lead the beautiful Astor who, while still proclaiming her 'love' for Bogart, off to her well-deserved punishment. Bogart, as Spade, has the opportunity to set her free but...does the 'right' thing and refuses ... Read More

9.Conflict (1945) starring: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet, Rose Hobart, Charles Drake directed by: Curtis Bernhardt September 01, 1998
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $16.90
Well to do engineer Richard Mason played by the venerable Humphrey Bogart has a perplexing problem in the rather average film noir "Conflict". He is desperately in love with Evelyn Turner played by the fetching Alexis Smith. Unfortunately he's married to her older sister Katherine played by Rose Hobart. So desperate is Bogey that while recovering from an auto accident suffered when returning home from an anniversary party thrown for him by family friend, psychologist Dr. Mark Hamilton played by a slightly less corpulent Sydney Greenstreet, he plots his wife's murder. Bogey tricks his wife into driving alone to the mountain lodge they frequent through some treacherous mountain passes. He beats her there and waylays her, plunging her car over a cliff with her in it. Unfortunately Bogey's plans go awry. Smith, while ... Read More

10.Background to Danger starring: George Raft, Brenda Marshall, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Osa Massen directed by: Raoul Walsh September 01, 1998
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $25.95
Sometimes on a dark and stormy night, the only film that will do is a 40's studio generated film noire.....for just those times, I reach for "Background to Danger." This spy thriller, set in an exotic location, has lots of action and plot twists to keep me entertained, but not overwhelmed. It's the cast, courtesy of the 40's studio-system, that makes this film an often overlooked jewel in the film noire crown. George Raft, though slick-looking, gives a wooden portrayal of a businessman turned spy-guy, but the rest of the cast somehow makes the movie happen around him. Brenda Marshall and Osa Massen's characters are more than adequate as glamorous, mysterious women in the inimitable 40's style. Peter Lorre, the devious Russian and Sidney Greenstreet, the quintessential nasty Nazi move the plot thru it's sometimes confusing, ... Read More

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