Some film buffs believe The Maltese Falcon is the very first film noir, with down-and-dirty characters in portraits of greed and betrayal. Faithful to Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 book, with a Shakespearean tagline Humphrey Bogart himself made up, it’s pulp fiction brought to life.
Bogart is the original hardboiled detective, Sam Spade. Mary Astor is the femme so fatale men are willing to die for her. And Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are globetrotting rogues pursuing the priceless Maltese Falcon - the "stuff that dreams are made of."
The plot
The story is convoluted, and telling too much would ruin it for first-timers. Suffice it to say that Bogie's Sam Spade and his partner get involved with the lovely Bridgid O'Shaughnessy (Astor). The partner quickly winds up dead, along with Bridgid’s most recent boy toy. Sam is drawn into the intrigue surrounding the Maltese falcon, a jewel-encrusted statuette enameled in black to hide its worth.Pretty much everybody except Sam's secretary is lying, cheating, stealing and trying to shoot each other. Nobody can be trusted, and the police are breathing down Sam's neck. So is his partner’s widow, who has a past with Sam, and wants more now that hubby’s out of the way.
Meanwhile, Sam’s falling for Bridgid. Maybe she’s falling for him, too. And everybody wants to get their hands on the black bird. It’s up to Sam to solve the murders, find the treasure and wrap up the loose ends.
The players
Bogart established himself fully as leading man material in this extremely successful film. He’s not just the archetypal screen detective here. He’s the reluctant hero, a man who denies his desires to live by his own moral compass and serve a larger justice – a type we would see again in Casablanca and The African Queen.
Astor is cool and stylish as Bridgid - maybe a little too cool. Greenstreet, in his movie debut, is plump with menace as Kaspar Gutman, and Lorre steals his scenes as the effeminate, slightly weaselly Joel Cairo. Lee Patrick plays Sam’s secretary, establishing another movie archetype as the indispensable Girl Friday. Her scenes with Bogie seem warmer and more genuine than Astor’s do. In the vernacular of the day, she’s all right.
The Director
This was the first movie Bogart made with his longtime friend John Huston as director. (Huston, who was also a scriptwriter, wrote other parts Bogart played for other directors.) The two were legendary drinking buddies, and Huston directed Bogie in three of his greatest performances: The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The African Queen.The Bottom Line
Tense and entertaining film noir, The Maltese Falcon established many now-familar aspects of the genre. The ensemble cast is superb, the dialogue is crisp and the black-and-white cinematography is gorgeous.But here’s a bit of classic movie heresy. While I love The Maltese Falcon, I don’t quite buy the Bogart/Astor relationship. Which is too bad, because the famous "who loves who" climax depends on it, and these two don’t really generate the intense heat the script demands.
But that’s a minor kvetch. The Maltese Falcon deserves its status among great classic movies.
