African Queen

Casablanca
$19.98
This movie is an Icon. And you are supposed to like it. People who made it had no idea what Europe was like in 1941. It is piece of ESCAPIST cinema with no affection and truth. It is rather succesfull comercial production but not real Art. "Highly entertaining and even inspiring" (words on the cover of the two disc set). It says it all! With War on the background and millions of people perishing. It is not about history? Well, then make pure romance and don't try to deal with something you have no idea about.

The African Queen
$29.98
I've enjoyed this film for years, and was delighted when I found it was finally available on DVD.

Unfortunately, when I got the Asian print ( a fact which my supplier did not mention), I found that its quality resembles a cell-phone camera pirate print.

My advise to y'all is to wait for a better version. When a good one comes out, I'll be throwing the one I bought away.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Two-Disc Special Edition)
$26.98
This is the film that features the famous "badges" quote parodied in "Blazing Saddles," not to mention by most every one in every American company that requires a badge. The line in this movie is as follows: "We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. We don't need no stinking badges!" It's spoken by an actor named Alfonso Bedoya playing a bandit named "Gold Hat." The actor dominates each scene he is in, coming across as quite intelligent despite a set of bad teeth. He actually looks like the genuine article (as I perceive it, anyway), as though plucked right out of that location and era.

The key characters in this movie are all grimy and swarthy, just what you would expect from down-on-their-luck gold prospectors in 19th-century Mexico. Everyone plays his part well in this feature, from the slightly nutty Walter Huston (Howard), to the likeable Tim Holt (Curtin), to the ultimately greed-infected Humphrey Bogart (Fred C. Dobbs). The acting is especially first-rate when Bogart is outfitting a burro with sacks, all the while muttering to himself and venting.

While I highly recommend the film, I do believe that Bogart's transition from nice guy to greed monster is a bit too rapid or, perhaps, inconsistent, which is more the screenplay's fault (or the director's) than anything else. Fred C. Dobbs seems all crazy about gold in one scene, then too even-keeled in the next before getting back to wacky Gold Dust Dobbs again. Sure, maybe it could go that way, particularly if one is periodically left alone with one's thoughts, but nevertheless his decay seems a bit unnatural.

The African Queen [Blu-ray]
$39.99
I've enjoyed this film for years, and was delighted when I found it was finally available on DVD.

Unfortunately, when I got the Asian print ( a fact which my supplier did not mention), I found that its quality resembles a cell-phone camera pirate print.

My advise to y'all is to wait for a better version. When a good one comes out, I'll be throwing the one I bought away.