Review of The Maltese Falcon (1941) by Bruce W — 11 Oct 2010

4: It doesn't get much more noir than this and it is one of the first. I can't wait to read Hammett now. I've been reading Chandler lately, but can definitely sense just from a comparison between Spade and Marlowe that the two writers are quite different.

Bogart played both characters to perfection though, as he did just about every character he portrayed on the screen. Just as with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, this is film that helps define the word classic.

It will never get old, despite the fact that was designed to speak to a very particular mood deriving from the economic depression and worldwide conflict in the 1930's and 1940's. It's the kind of film that is referenced to this day in the most unlikely places, even when the story is completely unrelated to the source material.

It has become a part of the cultural consciousness and is understood as a thing apart from itself. Individuals that aren't really familiar with the specifics of the film probably have a general sense of its subject matter.

Even today there was a reference to the Maltese Falcon in an NPR story. The ending is spectacular and very open-ended. The story is no where near to being resolved. The journey and the search simply continue, although Spade's role in it has concluded.

Detective stories like this have been copied and recreated time and again over the years and will never get old or tired. It's one of the founding pictures of one of my favorite genres and it includes all of the elements that make it great, although I've always thought Huston could have used a bit racier and more beautiful dames.