Faithful readers of PopeWatch will recall that the Pope sent PopeWatch a package with a Spanish dubbed Blu-ray of The Maltese Falcon (1941). PopeWatch has been quite busy of late on various matters and it was not until this week that PopeWatch had time to watch the Blu-ray. Growing up in the Sixties PopeWatch had seen the movie on television frequently, but it had been a few decades since PopeWatch had last viewed the entire film.
The Pope had attached to the video a cryptic note that what the actor Sydney Greenstreet said was the truth. Born in England in 1879, Mr. Greenstreet became a notable stage actor both in Great Britain and in America. Unlike many of his profession, he had only one wife, to whom he was married from 1918 until his death in 1954. Over the years Mr. Greenstreet received many offers to appear in films, but he declined them all, until he accepted his role in The Maltese Falcon, for which he received wide acclaim. In eight years he made 24 films, many considered classics like Casablanca. It is remarkable while giving stunningly good performances he was battling both diabetes and Bright’s disease, the dire combination which would kill him at age 74 in 1954. His unusual personae has been recalled in various guises down the decades.
Well, PopeWatch concentrated this week on the initial appearance of Greenstreet in the film and came up bupkis. Here is what PopeWatch was watching, in the original English:
Do any of the numerous readers of PopeWatch see anything that PopeWatch may have missed?
