The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Dashiell Hammett (novel)
John Huston (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 October 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery

Tagline:

It's thrilling . . . it's chilling . . . it's the most baffling mystery story in years !

Plot:

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

Plot Keywords:

Partner | Murder | Police | Maltese Falcon | Statuette

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 win

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Sam Spade
Mary Astor	...	Brigid O'Shaughnessy
Gladys George	...	Iva Archer
Peter Lorre	...	Joel Cairo
Barton MacLane	...	Det. Lt. Dundy
Lee Patrick	...	Effie Perine
Sydney Greenstreet	...	Kasper Gutman
Ward Bond	...	Det. Tom Polhaus
Jerome Cowan	...	Miles Archer
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Wilmer Cook
James Burke	...	Luke
Murray Alper	...	Frank Richman
John Hamilton	...	District Attorney Bryan

Also Known As:

The Gent from Frisco (USA) (working title)
Die Spur des Falken (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Le faucon maltais (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Relíquia Macabra (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
5 enohoi, 3 eglimata (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
A máltai sólyom (Hungary) [hu]
Der Malteser Falke (Germany) [de]
El falcó maltès (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
El halcón maltés (Spain) [es]
Il mistero del falco (Italy) [it]
Maltézský sokol (Czechoslovakia: Czech title) [cs]
Malta sahini (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Maltan haukat (Finland) [fi]
Maltan haukka (Finland) (DVD title) [fi]
Malteski Soko (Serbia) [sr]
O Falcão Maltês (Brazil) [pt]
Riddarfalken från Malta (Sweden) [sv]
Ridderfalken (Denmark) [da]
Sokól maltanski (Poland) [pl]
To geraki tis Maltas (Greece) [el]

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G (TV rating) | UK:A (original rating) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:PG (video rating) | Spain:T | Iceland:L | West Germany:16 (nf) | New Zealand:PG | South Korea:12 (2003) | Brazil:12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Norway:16 (1945) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #7457)

Filming Locations:

Bush Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Sam Spade refers to Wilmer as a "gunsel", a term the censors assumed was a slang reference to a gunman. The Yiddish term "gunsel", literally "little goose", *may* be a vulgarism for homosexual (the word "faigle", or "little bird", is usually used in that manner). It is more usually an "underground" term which refers to a person who is either a "fall guy" or a "stool pigeon", in which case Spade is making both a direct and an indirect reference to Wilmer's character.

Goofs:

Continuity: Towards the end, after Brigid tells Sam she can't look at him, she covers her face with her hand. From another angle, her hand isn't there.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sam Spade: Yes, sweetheart?
Effie Perine: There's a girl wants to see you. Her name's Wonderly.
Sam Spade: A customer?
Effie Perine: I guess so. You'll want to see her anyway. She's a knockout.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now? (1975)

Noir at its best

Humphrey Bogart died nearly fifty years ago, but polls still put him at the top of all-time Hollywood stars. What turns a man into a legend? The man himself wasn't much: a slight build, not too tall, no Stallone muscles to swell his suit. What he had in classic films like `The Maltese Falcon' was a voice that cut through a script like a knife. `The Maltese Falcon,' directed by John Huston in 1941, reprised Dashiell Hammett's thriller. (It had been filmed before.) Hammett practically invented the tough guy so deep in cynicism nobody could hope to put anything past him. The novel, thick with plot, wasn't easy for director John Huston to untangle. Few people who cherish this film can summarize its story in a sentence or two. I'll try. San Francisco private eye Sam Spade (Bogart) is pulled into the search for a fabulously valuable statue by a woman who seeks his help. First, his partner is killed, then Spade pushes through her lies to uncover connections to an effete foreigner (Peter Lorre) and a mysterious kingpin (Sydney Greenstreet). The story unfolds like a crumpled paper. But the whodunit becomes less important than how we respond to the strong screen presence of Bogart and his co-stars. That's what makes `The Maltese Falcon' a classic. We see more and appreciate more each time we watch it. The art of Huston and Bogart doesn't come across until a second or third viewing. Huston invented what the French called film noir, in honor of Hollywood films (often `B' movies, cheap to make, second movies in double features) that took no-name stars into city streets to pit tough guys, often with a vulnerable streak, against dangerous dames. Audiences knew that when the tough guy said, `I'm wise to you, babe,' he'd be dead within a reel or two. Bogart was luckier than most noir heroes, but it cost. Struggling to maintain his own independence – against the claims of love or his own penchant towards dishonesty – the Bogart hero can do little better than surrender, with a rueful shrug, to the irony his survival depends on. The climax of `The Maltese Falcon' ranks with the last scene of `Casablanca,' another Bogart vehicle, in showing how the tough guy has to put himself back together after his emotions almost get the better of him. That assertion of strength, bowed but not broken, defines the enduring quality of Bogart on screen. For Huston, telling this story posed a different problem. Telling it straight wasn't possible – too many twists. Huston chose to focus on characters. One way to appreciate Huston's choices is to LISTEN to the movie. Hear the voices. Notice how in long sequences narrating back story, Huston relies on the exotic accents of his characters to keep us interested. Could we endure the scene in which Greenstreet explains the history of the Maltese falcon unless his clipped, somewhat prissy English accent held our attention? Also, we watch Bogart slip into drug-induced sleep while Greenstreet drones on. Has any director thought of a better way to keep us interested during a long narrative interlude? And is there a bit of wit in our watching Bogart nod off during a scene which, if told straight, would make US doze? All of this leads to the ending, minutes of screen time in which more goes on, gesture by gesture, than a million words could summarize. He loves her, maybe, but he won't be a sucker. The cops come in, and the emotional color shifts to gray, the color of film noir heroes like Bogart. Bars on the elevator door as Brigid descends in police custody foreshadow her fate in the last image of Huston's film. But after the film, we're left with Spade, whom we like and loathe, a man whose sense of justice squares, just this once, with our own, maybe. Black and white morality prevails in a black and white movie, but Sam Spade remains gray – and so does our response to this film classic.