Review of The Maltese Falcon (1941) by Aaron C — 06 Oct 2009

Agressive and engaging. The Maltese Falcon is pure noir purely executed. Back then I don't think the conventions were established so there's no way anything this production team did that was done before.

I hear it's word-for-word from the novel, which I have to give brownie points to. Bogart is a fast talkin', hard punchin' private eye. This Sam Spade character is a classic example of the anti-hero, or the emerging idea thereof.

Peter Lorre is equally compelling and creepy. How he can balance the two is beyond me. Oh, the plot, the story. Wow. Such dialoug. It weaves the story so intricately. I probably didn't catch the best parts of it either.

This was my thousanth film watched and it's the stuff that dreams are made of.