Some Old Films are OK By Me.

In two posts, written in March of 2018 [The Maltese Falcon (Novel) and Calling a Spade a Spade ] I wrote of my fondness for the classic 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon and how the movie had lead me to hunt up the novel, which I located at a Canadian website - fadedpage.com.

When I wrote those two posts, I was able to get my old movie fix from watching TCM on my television. Sadly, my cable company has ceased having TCM in their programing. Fortunately. I have since discovered a website which has a gazillion old movies from the 1930's and 1940's for viewing - ok.ru.

To watch movies on the website, you have to go about it in a slightly indirect way. I discovered the website serendipitously while searching for an old movie. I soon discovered that going to the ok.ru home page was not for me. It's in Russian and I can't make heads or tails of it. However, it didn't take me long to figure out that if you wanted to locate a particular old movie (Duck Soup, for example) you simply go to Google and type in duck soup ok ru and if the movie is on the site you'll find a link to it in the search results.

Last night, I thought I might want to watch The Maltese Falcon again. It was there, of course, but I changed my mind. I was aware of two earlier film versions and I went in search of those two.

The earliest version was made in 1931 - two years after the novel was published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.. I located it by searching for The Maltese Falcon 1931 ok ru.

Like the later Bogart film, this one sticks fairly close to the novel. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two films is that in the 1931 version, Kasper Gutman is killed by his flunky Wilmer Cook. I especially liked seeing Thelma Todd as Iva Archer and Dwight Frye as Wilmer Cook.

In 1936, Warner Bros. remade the film as Satan Met a Lady . The studio still owned the rights and thought they could make a few bucks by changing the story a bit.

They shouldn't have.

This version is absolutely dreadful. Bette Davis thought the rewrite to be "junk" and refused to show up on the set. She was suspended by Warner Bros. but returned to work in order to cover living expenses for her mother and medical care for her sister.

For some reason, Warren William, who I had previously seen in The Gracie Allen Murder Case, wears the most ridiculously God-awful hat throughout the film.

I'd only recommend Satan Met a Lady for the curiosity seekers, and not those in search of a great film.