Since she started this unfortunate chain of events in motion, Spade becomes further involved with Miss O'Shaughnessy s, who leads him into a web of lies, greed and murder. It seems both men are trying to recover a black enameled statue known as The Maltese Falcon , which they believe to be in Miss O'Shaughnessy s possession. The full frame black and with transfer is very strong and is taken from a film element that is in remarkably good condition. There are a number of visible age related blemishes in the print. Additionally, there are some missing frames, so I would imagine that there has been very little or no restorative work done on this 1941 film.
Blacks are deep black, except for occasional shots that utilize rear projection.
These process shots are far closer in appearance to gray than they are to black. Contrast for the most part is excellent, smoothly recreating everything from bright whites, through the various shades of gray, and finally down to absolute black. Film grain is somewhat noticeable in a handful of places, but it never becomes bothersome. There are no problems with digital compression artifacts during the presentation. Age and the recording technology available in 1941 limit the fidelity of the Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack.