Warner Home Video has released 4K Blu-ray upgrades of two of the most popular films from its vast library, 1941’s The Maltese Falcon and 1967’s Cool Hand Luke.

John Huston’s film version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon was his first as director.

Already an Oscar nominee for his screenplay of 1940’s Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet, he would again be a nominee for his screenplays for both Sergeant York andThe Maltese Falcon at the 1941 Oscars. He would, however, have to wait until 1948 to receive his first nomination for Best Director, but then won Oscars for both his writing and direction for that.

The first version of The Maltese Falcon with Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez in 1931 was a straight thriller, while the second version, retitled Satan Met a Lady, with Bette Davis and Warren William in 1936, was a comedy-drama. Huston’s version was one of the screen’s first films noir starring Humphrey Bogart in the role that made him a superstar.

Bogart plays Sam Spade, a private investigator who is drawn into the quest for a priceless statuette that results in the murder of his partner. The game of cat-and-mouse intrigue includes his manipulative, lying client Mary Astor and dangerous criminals Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Elisha Cook Jr.

The film was also nominated for Oscars for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Sydney Greenstreet in his screen debut. Mary Astor won the year’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar albeit for her role opposite Bette Davis in The Great Lie.

The black-and-white film looks spectacular in 4K.

Bogart, Astor, and Greenstreet were reunited for Huston’s 1942 film Across the Pacific. Bogart, Greenstreet, and Lorre were reunited for 1942’s Casablanca and 1944’s Passage to Marseilles. Greenstreet and Lorre were together again in 1943’s Background to Danger, 1944’s The Mask of Dimitrios, and 1946’s Three Strangers and The Verdict.

Cool Hand Luke was the first theatrical film for TV director Stuart Rosenberg since 1960’s Murder, Inc. Based on a novel by Donn Pierce, it was nominated for 3 Oscars for Best Actor (Paul Newman), Best Supporting Actor (George Kennedy), Best Adapted Screenplay (Frank Pierson and Donn Pierce), and Best Score (Lalo Schiffrin). Kennedy won. Pierson eventually won for 1975’s Dog Day Afternoon. Newman had to wait even longer, finally winning for 1986’s The Color of Money. Pierce was never nominated again. Schiffrin was nominated another five times but never won.

Newman is Cool Hand Luke, a non-conformist prisoner on a Florida chain gang who keeps escaping. A throwback to 1932’s I Am a Fugitive Was a chain Gang, the film also compares favorably to 1953’s Stalag 17 and 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption, all of which are about the camaraderie of prison inmates and their attempts to escape.

The supporting cast is equally fine with Kennedy in his best screen role as Newman’s closest buddy and Strother Martin as the cynical warden the standouts. Martin’s “what we have here is a failure to communicate” became one of the screen’s most repeated lines of dialogue.

The film’s color cinematography by Conrad Hall has never looked better than it does in 4K.

Newman’s Oscar nomination was his fourth acting nod following Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, and Hud. It was followed by a producing nomination for Rachel, Rachel, acting nominations for Absence of Malice and The Verdict, and an honorary award in recognition of his many memorable and compelling screen performances, and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft. The year after his honorary win he won his only competitive Oscar for The Color of Money. He was nominated again for 1994’s Nobody’s Fool and 2002’s The Road to Perdition five years before his death.

Cool Hand Luke marked the first time he was nominated for a film that wasn’t also nominated for Best Picture. He was the only actor nominated that year for a film that wasn;t nominated for Best Picture. His competition consisted of Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde, Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, Rod Steiger in In the Heat of the Night, and Spencer Tracy in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Steiger won. Ironically, 1967 is remembered as the year of Sidney Poitier, who starred in three of the year’s biggest hits, In the Heat of the Night with Steiger, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with Tracy and Best Actress winner Katharine Hepburn, and To Sir, with Love. Everyone has an opinion as to who was nominated instead of the shockingly omitted Poitier. I think it was Newman who, in my book, gave the year’s sixth best performance.

Kino Lorber has released Jim McBride’s 1987 film The Big Easy on Blu-ray.

The film was a major hit upon its release, but its mix of comedy and violence doesn’t hold up particularly well. Dennis Quaid has always said that his portrayal of the cocky New Orleans detective was his favorite role but his over-the-top Southern accent is a strain on the eardrums. Ellen Barkin, who also considers it her favorite film, is much easier on the ear as the no-nonsense assistant district attorney investigating police corruption.

The film does feature a strong supporting cast led by Ned Beatty as Quaid’s police captain, Grace Zabriskie as his mother, and Tom O’Brien as his brother.

The Blu-ray includes an audio commentary by McBride moderated by filmmaker Douglas Hosdale.

Happy viewing, everyone.