"This is the stuff dreams are made of!" Thus ends Director John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon", and I was sad to see such an enjoyable film end as the elevator grille foreshadows femme fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy's (Mary Astor) fate.
Humphrey Bogart, in the performance that made him a star, plays hard-boiled San Francisco detective Sam Spade. His task: After numerous deceptions, Mary Astor hires him to find the Maltese Falcon, a jewel-encrusted medieval statuette made of solid gold for which many human lives have already been spent. Somewhere along the line the bird has acquired a thick coat of black enamel, hiding its true value except to those who know its secret. Complications arise, including the murder of Spade's partner, Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan). Then another murder takes place, then another.
A stellar supporting cast including Mary Astor (Brigid O'Shaugnessy), Sydney Greenstreet (Casper Gutmann), Peter Lorre (Joel Cairo), Ward Bond (Det. Tom Polhaus), and Elisha Cook, Jr. (Wilmer) makes one of the most power-packed detective films imaginable. Director John Huston's father Walter Huston plays a cameo.
Black and white cinematography by Arthur Edeson makes the most of the light and shadows of a subject rife with darkness as Humphrey Bogart prowls the darkened streets of San Francisco in search of the elusive black bird.
The script, by director John Huston, lifted almost verbatim from the Dashiell Hammett novel, is the one that established the genre of Film Noir, where all heroes are flawed and bound for hell. Bogart's rapid-fire lisp is used to deliver dozens of memorable lines. When Sydney Greenstreet asks Bogart if his associates know what the falcon is, he replies: "Cairo didn't say he did and he didn't say he didn't. She said she didn't, but I took it for granted she was lying." is an example of the snappy dialogue.
The "Maltese Falcon" set the standard by which all future detective films should be judged. The acting, story and cinematography are all first class, and are seldom approached by other Hollywood productions.
The Warner Bros. DVD contains a well preserved copy of the film in its original 1.33:1 theatrical format, with English and French languages and subtitles, a 45 minute feature entitled Becoming Attractions - a documentary on Bogart's ascent to stardom by analysis of his film trailers hosted by Robert Osborne, and a History of Mystery essay tracing the development of film noir. The Maltese Falcon has pride of place as the first of the film noir genre.
Fans of detective stories, action movies, and black and white genre enthusiasts will love this movie. I give it five stars with my heartiest recommendations.
Other film noir classics you'll want to see include Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep, Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown, and Russell Crowe and Kim Bassinger in LA Confidential. Happy viewing!
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