The Maltese Falcon (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.)

Stephanie Prange

February 15, 2023

As part of the year-long centennial celebration for the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. Studio, three classics from the Warner Bros. library — The Maltese Falcon, Cool Hand Luke and Rebel Without a Cause — will be available for purchase on 4K Ultra HD disc and digital in April.

On April 4, The Maltese Falcon and Cool Hand Luke will be available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc and digitally. Rebel Without a Cause will be available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc April 4 and digitally April 18.
 
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc will include each feature film in 4K with HDR and a digital version of the feature film.

Academy Award winner Humphrey Bogart stars in the classic film noir The Maltese Falcon (1941) as tough San Francisco private detective Sam Spade. The famously convoluted story follows Spade’s involvement with a deadly band of international thieves who will lie, double cross and murder to obtain a small, jewel-encrusted statue known as The Maltese Falcon. Spade’s partner, Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan), accepts a job protecting a young woman (Mary Astor). Neither Spade nor Archer believe the woman or the story she tells them, but they do believe her money. Then, when Archer is murdered, Spade’s search for the killer drags him into the web of lies and death spun by the desperate people seeking The Maltese Falcon. The film is directed by John Huston in his directorial debut. The screenplay is by Huston and is based on the 1930 novel by Dashiell Hammett. In addition to Bogart, Cowan and Astor, the film stars Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Lee Patrick and Sydney Greenstreet. The Maltese Falcon was nominated for three Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Greenstreet) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Huston). Previously released special features include commentary by Eric Lax; “Warner Night at the Movies,” featuring the Sergeant York trailer, the newsreel “New Highlights of the Roosevelt Churchill Parley,” the 1941 Warner short “The Gay Parisian” and the 1941 Warner cartoon “Meet John Doughboy”; “The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Brid”; “Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart”; the Warner short “Breakdowns of 1941”; makeup tests; a Feb. 8, 1943, Lux Radio Theater broadcast; a Sept. 20, 1943, Screen Guild Theater broadcast; a July 3, 1946, Academy Award Theater broadcast; and the trailers “Satan Met a Lady” (1936) and “The Maltese Falcon” (1941).

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Academy Award winner Paul Newman stars with George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke (1967), the story of a man who will not surrender to authority — even at the cost of his life. In the film, when Luke Jackson (Newman) is sentenced to a Southern prison for a minor infraction, his intelligence, calm under pressure and inability to accept defeat soon gain him the respect of his fellow inmates on the chain gang — and the nickname Cool Hand Luke. But they also earn Luke the enmity of the warden, who cannot allow any inmate to challenge his authority. When Luke’s mother dies, he decides to escape, and he will not allow anyone to stop him. The film is directed by Stuart Rosenberg.  The screenplay is by Donn Pearse and Frank R. Pierson and is based on the Pearce’s 1965 novel of the same name. In addition to Newman, Cool Hand Luke stars George Kennedy, J.D. Canon, Robert Drivas, Lou Antonio, Strother Martin and Jo Van Fleet. Cool Hand Luke was nominated for four Academy Awards, Best Actor (Newman), Best Supporting Actor (Kennedy), Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Pearce and Pierson) and Best Original Music Score (Lalo Schifrin), and won for Best Support Supporting Actor. Previously released special features include commentary by Eric Lax;
the featurette “A Natural-Born World-Shaker: Making Cool Hand Luke”; and the trailer.

James Dean stars in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), a movie that shocked the United States with a performance that still electrifies the screen 25 years after his untimely death prior to the film’s release. In this archetypal drama of teenage angst and rebellion, three high school students who should lead idyllic lives in their stable, comfortable suburban families explode with a violence and sexuality that their parents cannot understand. This coming-of-age sfilm ripped the façade from the post-war American dream to expose the rage of the country’s youth. The film is directed by Nicholas Ray from a story by Ray, a screenplay by Stewart Stern and an adaptation by Irving Shulman. In addition to Dean, the film stars Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen and William Hopper. In 1990, Rebel Without a Cause was added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.” Previously released special features include commentary by Douglas L. Rathgeb; the 1974 TV special “James Dean Remembered”; the featurette “Rebel Without a Cause: Defiant Innocents”; the featurette “Dennis Hopper: Memories from the Warner Lot”; screen tests; wardrobe tests; and deleted scenes.