Review of The Maltese Falcon (1941) by Rainer K — 02 Mar 2012

Personally, I prefer modern, naturalistic acting style over "traditional" acting like they did it in Hollywood's Golden Era. Unfortunately, this change in acting together with the different way films are made today - beginning with cinematography, over to writing and dramaturgy - and the demise of the studio system also took away considerable amounts of classic stardom.

This may sound silly in times of previously unknown media attention but film stars today get definitely less attention on screen than the hyped stars and starlets of the 30s, 40s or 50s.

Hence, screen presence declined over the years and nowadays actors seldomly own the scene like a Bogart, Brando or Wayne.

Just watch the opening scene of The Maltese Falcon to see what I mean. Modern movie stars have natural screen presence as well but the effort in maximising this talent (through training, filming and marketing) isn't act out as it was back then.

Bogart plays Sam Spade - a guy we call "Ungustl" where I come from. A man of honor but greedy and lacking some basic manners which affects his behaviour (can be described as rough...). He plays a PI, in a way that would become obligatory for myriads of film noir to come. His supporting players were also similar role models for later films and together with groundbreaking storytelling this makes The Maltese Falcon a highly influential piece of cinema.

Fortunately, the script is so good and it aged pretty well, so this is not like so many other influential films utterly boring but still highly entertaining and thoroughly recommendable.

Indeed, a bit old fashioned but twisted and full of colourful characters, all perfectly cast and brilliantly played - special praise to Sidney Greenstreet whose Kasper "Fat Man" Gutman even became namesake for an atomic bomb, and Peter Lorre as a smooth talking but reckless partner in crime.