TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Murder Mysteries (The Maltese Falcon / The Big Sleep / Dial M for Murder / The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946)

• THE MALTESE FALCON Some high-living lowlifes want to get their sweaty hands on a bejeweled falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why and who ll take the fall for his pertner s murder. Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr. co-star in a crackling masterwork directed and written for the screen by John Huston.THE BIG SLEEP (1946) L.A. private eye Phi

First, he was bugged by the almighty burger, now Oscar®-nominated renegade filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) is biting the hand that feeds him by exposing Hollywood’s dirtiest little secret: the games they play to get advertisers’ products strategically placed in movies and on television. Spurlock uses his irreverent comedic style to infiltrate corporate boardrooms and ad agency pitch meetings to show how far they will go without our even knowing it! Since the advent of recording! devices and on-demand services, consumers have been bypassing commercials like never before, so advertising agencies have stepped up their use of product placement. In The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) renders the process transparent as he documents his attempts to get Madison Avenue to fund his film. After a flood of rejections, he takes a series of meetings with companies willing to align their brand with his--and make no mistake, Spurlock is as much a brand as Donald Trump or Outkast's Big Boi, who show up to talk about product endorsement. The director's entertaining and enlightening journey even leads him to a juice purveyor that opens its wallet for placement above the title--hence the name of the pomegranate beverage which appears on all promotional materials. As one observer puts it, "You're selling out, but not selling out." For perspective, Spurlock solicits commentary from progressive thinkers, like Ralph Nader and Noam ! Chomsky, and Hollywood types, like J.J. Abrams, who created Lost, and Quentin Tarantino, who admits that a certain all-night diner rejected his offer to appear in Reservoir Dogs. Spurlock even travels to São Paulo to take a look at their ban on outdoor ads: no billboards or messages on cabs and buses, rendering the city clean and downright dull for those accustomed to American-style marketing. The film as a whole resembles a full-length version of a Mad Men pitch meeting--but funnier. --Kathleen C. FennessyFirst, he was bugged by the almighty burger, now Oscar®-nominated renegade filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) is biting the hand that feeds him by exposing Hollywood’s dirtiest little secret: the games they play to get advertisers’ products strategically placed in movies and on television. Spurlock uses his irreverent comedic style to infiltrate corporate boardrooms and ad agency pitch meetings to show how far they will go without our even knowing it! Since the advent of recording devices and ! on-demand services, consumers have been bypassing commercials like never before, so advertising agencies have stepped up their use of product placement. In The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) renders the process transparent as he documents his attempts to get Madison Avenue to fund his film. After a flood of rejections, he takes a series of meetings with companies willing to align their brand with his--and make no mistake, Spurlock is as much a brand as Donald Trump or Outkast's Big Boi, who show up to talk about product endorsement. The director's entertaining and enlightening journey even leads him to a juice purveyor that opens its wallet for placement above the title--hence the name of the pomegranate beverage which appears on all promotional materials. As one observer puts it, "You're selling out, but not selling out." For perspective, Spurlock solicits commentary from progressive thinkers, like Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky, and ! Hollywood types, like J.J. Abrams, who created Lost, an! d Quenti n Tarantino, who admits that a certain all-night diner rejected his offer to appear in Reservoir Dogs. Spurlock even travels to São Paulo to take a look at their ban on outdoor ads: no billboards or messages on cabs and buses, rendering the city clean and downright dull for those accustomed to American-style marketing. The film as a whole resembles a full-length version of a Mad Men pitch meeting--but funnier. --Kathleen C. FennessyOscar nominated, boundary pushing director Morgan Spurlock's POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold that looks with humorous insight into the world of product placement and marketing. Providing the soundtrack to this insightful and humorous documentary are a wide array of artist, including two originals tracks recorded specifically for the soundtrack, a spoken word piece from director Morgan Spurlock and a track entitled "The Greatest Song I Ever Heard" by the band OK Go, who isn't shy about their associations ! with brands and product placement.

The fascinating tale of Kubrick’s unfilmed masterpiece

Now available in an unlimited, single-volume edition!

For 40 years, Kubrick fans and film buffs have wondered about the director's mysterious unmade film on Napoleon Bonaparte. Slated for production immediately following the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick’s "Napoleon" was to be at once a character study and a sweeping epic, replete with grandiose battle scenes featuring thousands of extras. To write his original screenplay, Kubrick embarked on two years of intensive research; with the help of dozens of assistants and an Oxford Napoleon specialist, he amassed an unparalleled trove of research and preproduction material, including approximately 15,000 location scouting photographs and 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery. No stone was left unturned in Kubrick's nearly-obsessive quest to uncover every piec! e of information history had to offer about Napoleon. But ala! s, Kubri ck’s movie was not destined to be: the film studios, first M.G.M. and then United Artists, decided such an undertaking was too risky at a time when historical epics were out of fashion.

TASCHEN’s tribute to this unmade masterpiece makes Kubrick’s valiant work on "Napoleon" available to fans for the first time. Based on the original 2009 limited edition which featured ten books hidden inside of a carved out reproduction of a Napoleon history book, this publication brings all the original elements together in one volume. Herein, all of the books from the original edition are reproduced in facsimile: correspondence, costume studies, location scouting photographs, research material, script drafts, and more. Kubrick’s final draft is reproduced in its entirety.

The text book features the complete original treatment, essays examining the screenplay in historical and dramatic contexts, an essay by Jean Tulard on Napoleon in cinema, ! and a transcript of interviews Kubrick conducted with Oxford professor Felix Markham. The culmination of years of research and preparation, this unique publication offers readers a chance to experience the creative process of one of cinema’s greatest talents as well as a fascinating exploration of the enigmatic figure that was Napoleon Bonaparte.

*Includes access to searchable/downloadable online research database: Kubrick's complete picture file of nearly 17,000 Napoleonic images*

THE MALTESE FALCON Some high-living lowlifes want to get their sweaty hands on a bejeweled falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why â€" and who’ll take the fall for his pertner’s murder. Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr. co-star in a crackling masterwork directed and written for the screen by John Huston. THE BIG SLEEP (1946) L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) takes on a blackmail caseâ€! ¦and wears out his gumshoes trailing murderers, nightclub rogu! es, the spoiled rich and more. Lauren Bacall joins Bogart under Howard Hawks’ brisk and atmospheric direction of an ace adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel. DIAL M FOR MURDER Alfred Hitchcock’s screen version of Frederick Knott’s stage hit casts Grace Kelly, Ray Milland and Robert Cummings as points of a romantic triangle. She loves Cummings; her husband Milland plots her murder. But when he dials a Mayfair exchange to set the plot in motion, his right number gets the wrong answer! THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946) Based on the novel by James M. Cain (Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce), this quintessential film noir stars John Garfield and Lana Turner as illicit lovers who botch a first attempt to bump off her husband, pull it off and betray each other at trial. Amorous attractions never proved so fatal as in this steamy, stormy classic.