Sam Spade is caught in a frantic search for the jeweled falcon of Malta and his partner's killer. His pursuit leads him to a group of desperate individuals who also want the bird.
Still the tightest, sharpest, and most cynical of Hollywood's official deathless classics, bracingly tough even by post-Tarantino standards. Humphrey Bogart is Dashiell Hammett's definitive private eye, Sam Spade, struggling to keep his hard-boiled cool as the double-crosses pile up around his ankles. The plot, which dances all around the stolen Middle Eastern statuette of the title, is too baroque to try to follow, and it doesn't make a bit of difference. The dialogue, much of it lifted straight from Hammett, is delivered with whip-crack speed and sneering ferocity, as Bogie faces off against Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, fends off the duplicitous advances of Mary Astor, and roughs up a cringing "gunsel" played by Elisha Cook Jr. It's an action movie of sorts, at least by implication: the characters always seem keyed up, right on the verge of erupting into violence. This is a turning-point picture in several respects: John Huston (The African Queen) made his directorial debut here in 1941, and Bogart, who had mostly played bad guys, was a last-minute substitution for George Raft, who must have been kicking himself for years afterward. This is the role that made Bogart a star and established his trend-setting (and still influential) antihero persona. --David Chute
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
a timeless classic Just watched the DVD a second time, what a fine story, a great cast and just the best direction. What ever happened to Hollywood that we don't get this kind of film anymore from there?
Classic Classic, one of Bogart's best. They don't make them like this anymore. Highly recommended. I didn't want the other movies, but had to buy the package set to get The Maltese Falcon. Wish Amazon would have offered the movie as a stand-alone.
The First Film Noir - Bogie's Best! [VHS VERSION] I got to rewatch this as I was reviewing my VHS collection. From MGM/UA comes the VHS version in "glorious black and white." The cassette plays the original film as-is, with no clean-up, complete with little crackles and dust motes, etc. Bogart plays Sam Spade, one of his best roles that nearly typecast him as the hard-boiled film noir private detective. San Francisco 1941, complete with Bay Bridge and Bush & Stockton Streets. At that fateful corner, Sam's partner Archer bites it. But he never... more info
The Maltese Falcon ESSENTIAL MOVIE!!! The Maltese Falcon is one of Hollywood's greatest, if not THE greatest, examples of the film-noir genre. Bogart, already a star, ascended to the top of the list with this film. The film is based on Dashiell Hammett's novel of the same name. The director, John Huston, mostly known as a screenwriter to this point, made his directorial debut with a stunning effort. Bogart & Huston would return to do 6 more films together, all successful until the final one, Beat the Devil. Bogart was... more info
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