'Falcon' invites contrast; DVD includes three versions.(WASHINGTON WEEKEND)(FROM THE VAULTS) From: The Washington Times | Date: December 28, 2006 | COPYRIGHT 2006 The Washington Times LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Byline: Gary Arnold, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

At a curiously absentminded juncture in his 1980 autobiography, "An Open Book," John Huston wrote, "Only successful pictures are made over again. .. I've never known of an instance where the remake was as good as the original."

How about famously better than the original? The septuagenarian memoirist had temporarily forgotten his own debut feature as a Hollywood writer-director, the 1941 version of "The Maltese Falcon...