Review of The Maltese Falcon (1941) by Michael Y — 16 Aug 2011

If you ever watch an old detective story and wonder 'who ever thought of this?' The Maltese Falcon is your answer. The very first noir movie and surely one of the best.

Private detective, Samuel Spade, is stuck between a rock and a hard place when his partner is killed looking for a man, who is later killed also. The cause of all this murder has to do with the obsession with one jeweled incrested statue called The Maltese Falcon. In order to solve this mystery, Spade has to trust an untrustworthy woman, and even more untrustwothy men who all double cross eachother to obtain the rarest treasure of them all. Normally I'm not a big fan of noir movies, especially American noir, but The Maltese Falcon IS the inspiration behind them all, and I may say it is a well written story too. Its story is mature and the events raise more questions that later unfold before you. Humphrey Bogart stars as the hard boiled detective and is the pinnacle of his career, turning him into a star. Mary Astor as the lying Brigid O'Shaughnessy is spacifically wonderful in this movie. And of coarse no noir movie is cool without Peter Lorre as a bad guy. Noir is a very tricky genre, full of bad cliches and confusing storylines that may or may not make sense in the end. But The Maltese Falcon is the one that started it all and earns its place as one of the greats.

John Huston, who is normally a screenwriter, takes it on himself to direct this movie. And what a wonderful job he does. The cinematography of this movie is what made future noir movies so popular. Many of the scenes are filmed during night, the over-use of hard light or dull light in black backgrounds. And the whole movie is filmed not at eye or shoulder level, but at groin level, having the camera always tilt upward to the actors. This gives the actors a very strong suit to wear as their performances seem even more mysterious and powerful. And I didn't catch this at first sight, but the set design and costume design are wonderfully creative as well, simulating a sort of prison enviroment through horizontal lines. All these things jump started so many other movie ideas and designs it's not even funny.

Like I said, some noir movies I like, some I don't. But The Maltese Falcon deserves all the credit despite because it is a very influencial to cinema history, stars a great cast, and has a very open story and creepy theme that makes this movie great to watch, even for today.