The Maltese Falcon Film Critique

The Maltese Falcon Film Critique

Priya Robinson

Introduction to Film

ENG 225

Adam Deustch

December 5th 2011

Film critics, historians, enthusiasts and auteurists alike believe that The Maltese Falcon is the very first film noir. With down-and-dirty characters, from a hard boiled anti hero, a damsel in distress, a femme fatale to a group of sell their young soul for a dollar archetype band of thieves, all that in which portraits of greed and betrayal. The film holds close to Dashiell Hammett's 1929 book, with a Shakespearean tagline Humphrey Bogart himself made up, for its time it is truly pulp fiction brought to life.

Bogart creates the blue prints to the original hardboiled detective, Sam Spade(also an anti hero in his own right). Mary Astor is the femme so fatale that even the most stone like quality of men are willing to die for her. And Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are globetrotting rogues, lacking in any scruples to say the least, pursuing the priceless Maltese Falcon - the "stuff that dreams are made of."

Picture is a remake of an original film turned out by Warner's 10 years ago, with Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez. An intriguing piece of melodramatic entertainment, "Maltese Falcon" weaves quickly through a sequence of attention-holding episodes to fracture through to a most naive climax. To solidify utmost in audience reaction, the audience can take advantage of the bombshell end by publicizing preliminary times of the movie, and advising patrons to get utmost amusement by viewing it from the start. Extra advance development to obtain first day patronage will roll up hefty momentum in the key runs.

"Film Noir is Crime drama marked by dark themes, a cynical outlook, anti-heroes, often with a scheming femme fatale, nighttime actions, expressionistic visual style, and voice-over narration"(Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. 2011).

"Other mysteries may be more specifically news reporter stories, crime thrillers, or detective stories. Perhaps the most notable of these is film noir, in which cynical, hard-boiled detectives, often tempted and/or betrayed by a femme fatale (a desirable but scheming "fatal woman"), solve crimes in a manner reminiscent of pulp detective nov¬els. Some noir films, rather than focusing on detectives trying to solve a mystery, depict people trying to plan or commit crimes, or having general underworld dealings and double-dealings. Film noir literally means "black film" in French, and applies to stories treating dark themes, shady characters, and more often than not, physically dark set¬tings with much of the action occurring at night. Low-key, high-contrast lighting and strong use of diagonal, expressionistic patterns and odd camera angles are common in"(Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. 2011).

A quick synopsis of the tale can be quite difficult without giving too much of the mystery away. The story is convoluted, too say the least.. Suffice it to say that Bogie's Sam Spade and his partner Archer get involved with the lovely Bridgid O'Shaughnessy (Astor) on the premise of an easy money job. The partner quickly winds up dead, along with Bridgid's most recent boy toy (that she hired the pair to send packing. Sam slowly falls deep into the intrigue as Brigid pursues the Maltese falcon, from the naked eye a black statuette but underneath the enamel a jewel-encrusted goldmine.

A wayward Mexican standoff surrounds them both, and pretty much everybody except Sam's secretary is lying, cheating, stealing and trying to shoot each other. Nobody can be trusted, while the police are breathing down Sam's neck(since he is having an affair prior to the murder of his partner he stands to be quite the suspect). Like all love triangles there is drama 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 (one can never tell with so many deceptive tongues in the mix. But what is certain is that everybody wants to get ahold of the Falcon. It's up to Sam to solve the murders, find the treasure and wrap up the loose ends.

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 start of a long line of antiheros, a man who denies his near sited desires, whilst going by his own moral compass and serves a larger self serving big picture.

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, painfully honest, but two faced Joel Cairo. Lee Patrick plays Sam's secretary, establishing another movie archetype as the indispensable Girl Friday. Probably because the lack of sexual tension, and the fact her presence can be utilized for the benefit of Bogart's character makes their scenes with seem warmer and more genuine than Astor's do. To quote the the vernacular of the day, "she isn't any ordinary dame, in fact she's all right".

"The names of the characters are suggestive. Spade and Archer connote hard-boiled action; Wonderly (one of Brigid's pseudonyms) is amazing; Kaspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), who makes a dramatic entrance about halfway through both novel and film, is enormously fat; Cairo hints at Levantine decadence. All the parts are perfectly cast. The events, which take place during four days in early December 1928, raise two questions: Will the criminals get the falcon, and will Spade or the police get Brigid?" (Meyers, J. 2011).

This was the first movie Bogart made with his longtime friend John Huston as director. Since it is said they were long time drinking pals its no wonder that Huston, (who was also a scriptwriter, wrote other parts Bogart played for other directors.)put him into two other very successful films besides the Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The African Queen.

. It leaves the audience with a distinctly down-beat conclusion and bitter taste. The film reflects the remarkable directorial debut of John Huston (previously a screenwriter) who efficiently and skillfully composed and filmed this American classic for Warner Bros. studios, with great dialogue, deceitful characters, and menacing scenes.

The precocious director Huston was very faithful to Dashiell Hammett's 1929