Review of The Maltese Falcon (1941) by Peter H — 12 Aug 2011

John Huston's THE MALTESE FALCON [1941]: "Come closer.....I want to talk to you; I'm going to tell you an astounding story. The story of THE MALTESE FALCON, 600 years the Falcon has carried a great wealth under its grotesque wings. I can tell you a thousand tales of the men and women who have hunted for this evil bird, but every story has the same end....murder. Listen to these incredible people all consumed by their passion and greed for THE MALTESE FALCON".

Source - Sydney Greenstreet's opening address in the original Theatrical Trailer for the 1941 film-.

70 years ago in Hollywood in the very same year Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre Performers made CITIZEN KANE RKO Pictures over at Warner Brothers Studios had given the green-light for another remake the novel THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett. The then new film was the third time the novel had been brought to the silver screen. The two previous films made by the studio resulted in the pre-production code 1931 film THE MALTESE FALCON (later re-titled DANGEROUS FEMALE) that the Hayes Office deemed "Lewd" prevented the film being re-realised in 1936 for its depiction of a lot of the novels taboo material and the 1936 light-comedy SATAN MET A LADY which was loosely based upon the story. As luck would have it, the then new film was a box-office success upon it's realises but for what came after for this classic thriller was a legacy so great it shadows its predecessors.

What came as a result of this 1941 film were three notable changes, the first was the birth of both a new cinematic style and genre called Film-Noir. THE MALTESE FALCON is wildly regarded today by many scholars, critics, historians and fans of cinema as the first major film to be a Film-Noir movie. Noirs would reign supreme as visually stunning black and white films throughout the 1940's and 1950's before giving way to colour films. This film marked the directorial debut of John Huston who would become a key director within the Film-Noir genre and of course this film bridged one stars progression form a villainous gangster into a pop-culture Icon, Humphrey Bogart.

THE HUMPHREY BOGART FORTNIGHT.

Day One: THE MALTESE FALCON [1941] often voted or always named by numerous movie media and Film institute's to be one of the greatest leading male performer of all time. Humphrey Bogart is without a doubt one truly legendry actors of cinema and with many great to very good films that he starred in. Bogart is my latest focus of my latest review series here on this site, so over the next two weeks I'm taking a look at a few films of "the greatest leading male performer of all time". And what better start to with one of the greatest films of all time THE MALTESE FALCON, which after many films starring as a diabolical villain in numerous gangster films Bogart got his big break with the film HIGH SIERRA which established him as a leading man. With THE MALTESE FALCON Bogart was given a role which perfectly bridges his transition from a villain to iconic silver screen hero with the role of Sam Spade.

THE PLOTLINE.

Set in San Francisco (circa 1941) the story of the film starts off in the offices of Archer and Spade, Private Investigators. Sam Spade (Bogart) and his partner Miles Archer get a new job from a client called Miss Ruth Wonderly who is looking for her sister who is involved with a man called Thursby. Wonderly hires Archer to follow her after a meeting with Thursby in hopes of getting back her sister from him. Later that night Archer winds up being shot dead along with Thursby and the police suspect that Spade might be the likely culprit. After the police can't track down Miss Wonderly at her hotel after she check out the hard boiled Spade takes it upon himself to try and find the killer of his partner.

The next day Spade is hired by Miss O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor) who turns out to be none other than Ruth Wonderly who tells Spade that Thursby was her partner and most likely killed Archer. But with no idea of who could have killed Thursby, Spade is hired to find the killer of Thursby. When Spade returns to his office he is informed about some man waiting for him by his secretary Effie. The man turns out to be a person called Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) who offers him $5000 dollars for "the Black Bird" then who searches his office at gunpoint when Spade doesn't know what Cairo is going on about. When meeting up again with O'Shaughnessy, Spade tells her about Cairo and the talk about the Black Bird. Spade then arranges a meeting between O'Shaughnessy and Cairo which during the meeting reviles between the pair (while Spade is present) brings up the identity of a key figure in the tangled web, The Fat-man.

The next day when Spade head for Cairo's hotel (after their meeting the night before was interrupted by the police) Spade notices that someone has been following him and tells the young thug that he wants to meet the fat-man. Upon that encounter Spade meets the fat-man called Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) who in the first meeting is reluctant to tell Spade anything relevant about the Bird which spade gets out of by acting furious and pretending he has the figure. The next meeting with Gutman, Spade is told by Gutman what the figure is The Maltese Falcon a rare treasure which was stolen from the Knights of Malta in the time of the crusades that since its disappearance has resurfaced until recently when Gutman tracked it down before he lost it.

When Spade is drugged by Gutman and is left unconscious on the floor of Gutman's Hotel, Spade wakes up several hours later to find a copy of the days shipping news with the arrival of one ship in the Hotel Room. When Spade arrives at the harbour to find the ship in flames, Spade returns to his office where he and Effie are greeted by a fatality wounded ship's captain with a large bundle in his arms. Which turns out to be none other than the Maltese falcon, and then suddenly the phone rings with O'Shaughnessy screaming. Spade then finds back at his apartment O'Shaughnessy, Gutman, Cairo and the young thug all after the same thing The Maltese Falcon.

THE ACTING, DIRECTION, SCRIPTING AND CINEMA-PHOTOGRAPHY.

Let's start with the main focus of this review series Bogart and more importantly his performance as Sam Spade. Much like John Wayne's frontiersman characters in most of Westerns, Bogart is without a doubt the most iconic figure of the hard boiled P.I character Film-Noir genre. Bogart's performance as the hard boiled anti-Hero Spade is highly brilliant and so amusing between seeing him puffing away chain smoking on rolled cigarettes, outwitting his opponents and getting steamed at several points, it's now wonder why Bogart became an Iconic Hollywood lead after this film was a huge success. In fact over 70 years later Bogart's performance still holds up with the passing of time as Spade.

With the other performances by the likes of Mary Astor as the Femme Fatal plays well against Bogart's performance. With the performances by the likes of Peter Lorre as the highly effeminate Cairo is amusing to see if you were chilled by Lorre's Performance in Fritz Lang's M made 10 years prior to this film. Greenstreet's Oscar nominated Best Supporting Actor performance as Gutman lead to string of films were he played a bunch of shady characters in other films like the owner of the Blue Parrot in CASABLANCA. Greenstreet is just as amusing to view alongside Lorre.

With both the Scripting and direction by John Huston who would go on to direct other film-Noir classics and several other Bogart classics like THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, KEY LARGO and THE AFRICAN QUEEN was an actor as well (who was of course the sadistic Noah Cross in CHINATOWN) apparently knew how to aid his performers with their characters. Instead of giving long winded direction to his performers gave simple direction to his actors and actress to help them understand what motivated their characters. Huston's direction and Oscar nominated scripting combined with the stunning and stylish black and white cinema-photography and the terrific performance by Bogart make this film a true classic of the Film-Noir genre and without a doubt one of the finest films of all time. It' shouldn't come as a surprise that this has become a new Favourite film of mine and my rating for this brilliant film is a much deserved 100%.