The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A Brilliant Conflict

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel, "The Maltese Falcon," had been made into a movie twice before. The first time in 1931, it had modest success. The second time, retitled and greatly rewritten except for the characters, it flopped in 1936. But this time, Warner Brothers, decided to do it as Hammett wrote it - with the dark and sinister aspects, and the streetwise and hardboiled detective in Sam Spade. John Huston wrote the screenplay based on Hammett's book. And Huston had his directorial debut with the film. He pioneered the look of film noir on film with his stark shots and scenes. Everything about this production seemed perfect. The casting was the final plumb. Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade is the perfect portrayal of Hammett's character. He has something of a reputation for carousing, but he doesn't let that endanger his sharp eyes and nose. He notices details and when he smells a skunk, he brings it out into the open. Mary Astor has the female lead as Brigid O'Shaughnessy, who first comes to Spade as Miss Wonderly. She's the perfect mysterious and questionable femme fatale. Spade doesn't know how far he can trust her. He falls for her, but he's nobody's fool. The supporting cast, too, is superb, and they each set a standard for the roles of the characters they play. Sydney Greenstreet is Kasper Gutman and Peter Lorre is Joel Cairo. Who could imagine anyone else in those roles. Gladys George is very good as Iva Archer, Elisha Cook is believably sinister as Wilmer Cook, and Ward Bond is very good Detective Tom Polhaus. A few dark crime mysteries were made before this, but "The Maltese Falcon" was the first to put everything together as clearly film noir. It is widely regarded as the film that established the sub-genre. Many consider this story and film one of the greatest detective stories of all time. Some think it is the best one. A 2006 documentary on "The Maltese Falcon" has several sources who comment on Hammett's story and the 1941 movie. Mystery writer Joe Gores, author of the 1975 novel, "Hammett", says Hammett "wrote about what he knew. He was not a writer trying to learn about detectives. He was a detective trying to figure out how to write." Indeed, Hammett had spent some early years working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Baltimore, MD. Eddie Muller, author of "Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir," said, "Hammett's big contribution was writing speech the way it was actually spoken. Before Hammett, detective fiction was all very elitist, upper crust. It was game-playing nonsense, you know." Gores attributed mystery writer Raymond Chandler as saying, "Hammett took murder out of the drawing room and dumped it in the alley where it belonged."Author Michael Druxman says that Humphrey Bogart's climb to stardom was boosted more by George Raft than anyone else. Bogart became a star from leads he played in films that Raft turned down. The three biggest such films were "High Sierra," "The Maltese Falcon," and "Casablanca." Indeed, since those films were made and well into the 21st century, few could imagine anyone else other than Bogart playing the leads in them. Perhaps that's one reason why Hollywood hasn't tried to remake those films."The Maltese Falcon" should delight anyone who enjoys intrigue and mystery. It's essential for any serious film collection.

Most significant for, retrospectively, being considered the first example of 'film noir', it is also Humphrey Bogart's first starring role. Watched today it is fine with some good dialogue but it is slow to start. For current audiences the big entrance of 'knockout' Mary Astor is a real letdown. There is no sign of the lustful lovely and barely a hint of the 'femme fatale' although she does seem to get into the role and is hampered at first with the duplicitous nature of her standing. All is okay and interesting enough to hold the attention and then Peter Lorre enters and the screen lights up. Later it will start to glow when Greenstreet makes his wonderful entry. Bogart who has seemed a bit stiff and awkward with the similarly inhibited Astor is great with the guys, police and all. If his banter with the lady had been as good we would have had a fully fledged 'noir' from the start.

The film has a strong and great script. Sam Spade's character is written so well showing how he is clever, greedy, bold, and a good talker. The performers were perfect especially (Mary Astor) as (Brigid O'Shaughnessy) and (Peter Lorre) as (Joel Cairo). Of course i didn't mention (Humphrey Bogart) with them because i can't find the right words to describe his performance, but the way he talked in the movie was brilliant. The direction was good. The narrative was unbelievable There were nice clothes and suitable decor for a private detective's office The Soundtrack was very appropriate for a noir film. it was an interesting movie that i didn't want to end10/10

Bogart made his name as a private detective in this one, so the expectations were pretty much high prior to watching. Humprey's being classical Humprey, cool, old school macho trying to wiggle his way out an elaborate scheme revolving around the ancient artifact, but that's pretty much it. Rest of the cast, as the script itself will blend into a classical conspiracy/crime story of that era, with all the right moves and turns, but lacking any kind of innovation at all. „Maltese Falcon" is solid piece of movie history and a classical Bogart's role that made him what he is.