The Maltese Falcon
John Huston’s “The Maltese Falcon” is many things. It’s a great crime drama, and by all accounts the original film noir. It’s one of the best directorial debuts in movie history from Huston…and it came out the same year of another equally-famous debut (Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”). It’s also the film that launched Humphrey Bogart (up until then a character actor) into the realm of an icon, and also turned Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet into two of the most popular supporting actors in the movies.
For me, however, “The Maltese Falcon” has some other significance. Over the years the film has become one of my favorite “classics,” not the least of which because of the fact that I’ve been privileged to see the film twice on the big screen: the first time during Warner Bros. 75th anniversary festival in 1998; the second on my 29th birthday with a dozen or so friends at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre as part of a double feature with Huston/Bogart’s later “Key Largo.”
It’s an easy film to love, and an easier film to watch over and over. Bogart stars as Sam Spade, a San Francisco private eye who is hired by a woman named O’Shaughnessy (Mary Astor), though she introduces herself by a different name, to get her sister away from a man named Thursby. His partner Miles Archer goes to tail Thursby…and the bodies start to pile up. First Miles, then Thursby; naturally, Spade becomes a suspect, but he was always more suspicious of O’Shaughnessy. He needs to be able to trust her. From here, this is when the story moves to the mysterious falcon of the title, and when any number of shady characters come out of the woodwork.
The classics like this and “Casablanca” and other Warner Bros. greats are interesting to watch. The tone is very specific. Even when the music feels playful or out of place, it always gets to the heart of the matter in such films. The dialogue (adapted by Huston from Dashiell Hammett’s novel) is equally functionary (which is to say, filling in the plot points) and cleverly stylish and funny. Part of that is because of the cast; Bogart in particular has so many great comedic lines it’s a wonder he didn’t star in more comedies. (Well, maybe not that much of a wonder; Bogart’s face is more suited for noir and drama.) But he isn’t alone; Lorre and Greenstreet make their marks on the film with performances they would echo throughout their career- Lorre as a sniveling slime, Greenstreet as the sort of business-minded criminal who knows the story, even if he doesn’t know how it’ll end.
Almost 70 years later, this film still packs a punch as entertainment and as great filmmaking. The two weren’t always as disparate as filmmaking disciplines as they are now. But back in the ’40s, something like “The Maltese Falcon” could be both a big hit and an Oscar nominee (this one got nods for Best Picture, Screenplay and Supporting Actor for Greenstreet). Nowadays, it’s a little trickier, which makes it easier to fall in love with a movie like this when they come into your life…like a priceless artifact you’ll do anything to get your hands on.
