The Hollywood Studios, Year-By-Year – Warner Brothers, 1931 – The Maltese Falcon & The Last Flight; with bonus discussion of Little Women (2019), The Souvenir (2019) and more!

This week, for Warners Bros. 1931: THE MALTESE FALCON (dir. Roy Del Ruth) and THE LAST FLIGHT (dir. William Dieterle). Warners is an early adopter of Dashiell Hammett, but is his least political novel a good fit for the most political studio, or not? And Dieterle, in his first English-language film, turns Warners into Paramount and tackles the Lost Generation, introducing themes that he'll continue to explore in his WWII films with Joseph Cotten. Then, in our Moviegoing section: we exchange thoughts on a couple of new movies about young women becoming artists that couldn't be more different, Greta Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN and Joanna Hogg's THE SOUVENIR.   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          The Maltese Falcon (dir. Roy Del Ruth) 0h 30m 47s:          The Last Flight (dir. William Dieterle) 0h 59m 19s:          Winter cinemagoing section: LITTLE WOMEN (2019; dir. Greta Gerwig); THE SOUVENIR (2019; dir. Joanna Hogg); VERTIGO (1958; dir. Alfred Hitchcock) and THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS (1954; dir. Kenji Mizoguchi) – +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise's latest published film piece – "Elaine May's Male Gaze" – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at [email protected] Theme Music: "What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre