The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Bogart, Lorre, Astor and Greenstreet

'The Maltese Falcon' is a classic adventure detective movie made in 1941, written and directed by John Huston, making his directorial debut, and based on the 1930 detective novel by Dashiell Hammett. The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his beautiful client, Sydney Greenstreet in his movie debut, and Peter Lorre.

The movie is considered to be one of the first of film noir genre movies which became so popular during the next two decades. It certainly has many of the noir properties: it is influenced by hard boiled crime fiction, it has a city setting, taking place almost entirely in anonymous and claustrophobic hotel rooms and offices frequently photographed at night, murky symbolic shadows - which are withheld until the elevator door casts jail-bar shapes across the face of the duplicitous heroine at the end, and a general sense of doom and cynicism.

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Awards and Reception

'The Maltese Falcon' was made on a low budget, even by 1941 standards, of $300,000, and was originally released as a B picture by Warner Brothers. The public response to the movie was so positive that it was quickly reassessed to an A status. It was a resounding success both critically and financially, and its reputation has continued to grow ever since. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Sydney Greenstreet), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Director, John Huston.)

It was further honored in 1989 when it was selected by the Library of Congress, for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In the American film Institute's 2007 list of top 100 Movies it is ranked at number 31.

Production

The novel had been filmed twice before, under its own title in 1931 with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade and as 'Satan Met a Lady' in 1935 with Warren William as the Spade character and a young Bette Davis. Huston who, remarkably, wrote the screenplay, as well as making his directorial debut, remained faithful to the original Hammett novel, particularly the dialogue which is quite superb. Whereas other great Hollywood directors pursue their own visions, Huston was at his best when making faithful adaptations of minor classic novels. Having served an apprenticeship as a writer, he selected the book from Warner Brothers' catalogue of properies and was so confident in the strength of his material that his script consists essentially of a transcription of Hammett's dialogue although removing any references to sex that the Hays Office had deemed to be unacceptable.

He was fortunate enough to have a letter-perfect cast down to the smallest bit parts, and the restraint not to go over the top. He carefully tailored the screenplay shot by shot, and did his own detailed sketches for every scene, in the same way exactly as Hitchcock made his movies. He gave the actors free rein to work out their scenes themselves, following his carefully detailed script.

Synopsis and Characters

Humphrey Bogart, graduating from B-movie bad-guy roles to tough romantic heroes, plays cool private eye Sam Spade who lives by his own moral code. He is out to bring in the murderer of his partner and thwart a group of treacherous adventurers who have become so caught up in the search for the fabulous jeweled bird of the title that they make the fatal mistake of assuming everyone is as corrupt and greedy as they are.

Mary Astor might at first glance seem a little matronly for a femme fatale, but her strange primness in tight suits and tighter hairstyle is weirdly apt for a woman who always has a backup falsehood in place. Sydney Greenstreet's talkative, obese, self-delighted King of Greed, Kaspar Gutman, Peter Lorre's polite, sad, scented, whiny Joel Cairo are screen immortals, with perennial fall guy Elisha Cook Jr. as the angry little gunman Wilmer who is doomed always to be on the outside of the deal.

Summary

'The Maltese Falcon' still stands up as a movie classic for its brilliant script, masterly direction and some outstanding individual performances.

With a fine combination of cast, characters, story, and atmosphere, the movie is one of the most entertaining films of its kind, enjoyable even after numerous viewings. It climaxes not only with the punchline that the black bird everyone has been scheming and killing to possess is actually a fraud but also the classic moment as the detective admits that he loves the murderess but is still going to let her get hauled off to jail. Absolutely riveting cinema.