Customer Reviews

The Maltese Falcon - with BONUS FEATURES

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This DVD issue of the famous classic is the one to get. The print has been digitally restored and looks absolutely great. The film's merits have been extensively documented - the superb screenplay lifted straight from the riveting novel, a perfect cast matching the novel's characters magnetically, the tight direction and moody lighting and the famous low slung camera angles making so many of the characters larger than life, particularly Sydney Greenstreet. This is a story to revisit regularly as you notice more nuances in the riveting characters. Of particular note is the outstanding way in which Huston has circumvented the censorship e.g. the soundtrack when Peter Lorre enters the film with the scented calling card, cleverly informing the audience that he is gay.

There is a lot more to enjoy in this package. Eric Lax provides a detailed commentary but he speaks too quickly cramming in too much biographical information about the cast and crew and not enough on the superb filming techniques. Also included is a "Warner's Night at the Movies" program which includes a fascinating newsreel about Roosevelt and Churchill's famous meeting at sea during the war, an excellent Bugs Bunny cartoon where you can see Bugs's personality developing into the Bugs we all know even if, in 1941, he still does not quite look himself and, best of all, a technicolour short film in good condition of the Ballet Russe. Warner Brothers were pioneers here and the film captures the witty choreography of the ensemble even though it was clearly a great challenge to edit the performance. There are also trailers for the film itself and one for "Sergeant York", Gary Cooper's Oscar winning film from the same year.

All in all, this is a great package of a timeless thriller.

Like few other actors, Humphrey Bogart ruled the Hollywood of the 1940s and 1950s - epitome of the handsome, cynical and oh-so lonesome wolf and looking unbeatably cool in his fedora and trenchcoat, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth; endowed with a legendary aura several times larger than his real life stature, and still admired by scores of women wishing they had been born 50+ years earlier, preferably somewhere in California and to parents connected with the movie business, so as to have at least a marginal chance of meeting him. The American Film Institute recently elected him the No. 1 film legend of the 20th century; and looking back, indeed no other actor seems to have been surrounded by the same kind of darkly magical aura as the one surrounding Bogart.

"The Maltese Falcon" (1941), directed by John Huston, based on Dashiell Hammett's 1930 like-named novel and itself also ranking in the top quarter of the AFI's list of the 100 best 20th century movies, laid the groundwork for Bogart's lasting image, by transforming his on-screen persona from the tough, often two-dimensional gangsters he had portrayed before; beginning with the 1936 adaptation of Robert Sherwood's "Petrified Forest" where, like in its 1934 stage production, Bogart had starred opposite Leslie Howard, with Bette Davis as the female lead. Now imbuing his tough guy shell with a softer core, in "The Maltese Falcon" Bogart became not only Hammett's Sam Spade but, moreover, the film noir anti-hero per se; a role that stayed with him throughout the rest of his career, and in which he still remains virtually unparalleled.

The movie's long-famous story centers around the mysterious statute of a falcon made from solid gold, diamonds and other precious stones; the 16th century Maltese Knights' immeasurably precious gift of thanks to Emperor Charles V for the protection he had granted them. Stolen by pirates, blackened on the outside in order to conceal its true value and passed on through the centuries by a number of unsuspecting possessors, it finally attracts the attention of two rivaling pairs of equally cunning, ruthless and high-flying scoundrels, who chase each other and the statue halfway around the world and finally end up in Sam Spade's San Francisco office - not without getting both Spade's partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) and one of their own killed in the process; thus also causing additional grief for Spade, whom the police soon suspect of being behind the murders himself - or at least behind that of Archer - in order to make off with Archer's widow Iva (Gladys George). And of course, it doesn't exactly help that he has had his office sign changed from "Spade & Archer" to "Samuel Spade" within mere hours of his partner's death.

Looking at the movie and its stars' almost mythical fame, it is difficult to imagine that, produced at the height of the studio system era, this was originally just one of the roughly 50 films released by Warner Brothers over the course of one year. But mass production didn't equal low quality; on the contrary, the great care given to all production values, from script-writing to camera work, editing, score and the stars' presentation in the movie itself and in its trailer, was as responsible for its lasting success as were Humphrey Bogart and his outstanding costars; first and foremost Mary Astor as the double-crossing and now partner-less Brigid O'Shaughnessy, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet (in their first of several appearances opposite Bogart) as Joel Cairo and Kaspar Guttman, O'Shaughnessy/Astor's competitors for possession of the precious statue, and Elisha Cook, Jr., as Guttman's rough but inept bodyguard Wilmer Cook. Genre-defining and the first truly giant highlight of Bogart's career, "The Maltese Falcon" is an unmissable piece of Hollywood history, captivating you from the first moment you spend in Sam Spade's office all the way to its cynical conclusion, and a thrill to watch over and over again.

Also recommended:
Humphrey Bogart - The Signature Collection, Vol. 1 (Casablanca Two-Disc Special Edition / The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Two-Disc Special Edition / They Drive by Night / High Sierra)
Humphrey Bogart - The Signature Collection, Vol. 2 (The Maltese Falcon Three-Disc Special Edition / Across the Pacific / Action in the North Atlantic / All Through the Night / Passage to Marseille)
Bogie and Bacall - The Signature Collection (The Big Sleep / Dark Passage / Key Largo / To Have and Have Not)
Complete Novels: Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man (Library of America #110)
Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)
Brother Orchid
Bullets or Ballots
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series)
Chinatown (Special Collector's Edition)

1941's "The Maltese Falcon", Director John Huston's classic film noire adaption of Dashiel Hammett's superb detective novel, was the movie that provided Humphrey Bogart with his signature screen personna, the world-weary, cynical anti-hero with a personal code of honor.

Bogart stars as private detective Sam Spade, whose partner is murdered while on assignment. Spade's investigation leads to his partner's client, the beautiful, mysterious and duplicitious Brigid O'Shaugnessy (played by Mary Astor), and entangles him in the search for a rare, jeweled statue called the Maltese Falcon. O'Shaughnessy is competing for the stature with a shifty gang of foreigners led by Kasper Gutman (played with panache and menance by Sidney Greenstreet).

Against his better judgement, Spade gets romantically involved with O'Shaugnessy and with the dangerous hunt for "the black bird." As a trail of bodies brings in the police, Spade will find himself on a battleground of rapidly shifting loyalties, trying to find the black bird and solve the mystery of his partner's death. The ending is a tense, well-staged drama with a surprising ending entirely in keeping with Bogart's character as anti-hero.

The movie features crisp black and white cinematography. The dialogue, often lifted whole from the novel, is tough in tone and rapid-fire delivery. The plot itself is sometimes difficult to follow; Bogart's explanation to the police at the end of the movie only partially resolves the mysteries.

This movie is very highly recommended to fans of Humphrey Bogart and of the film noire genre.

...paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him A Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels..."

The Falcon was lost in time.
Our mystery begins when a beautiful but enigmatic woman (Mary Astor) shows up at the Spade and Archer detective agency. She gives them a story that is implausible; however they are well paid. This leads to the death of Archer.

Who did it and why? The police suspect Sam Spade.
Who do you suspect?

As the story unfolds many interesting characters (suspects) show up and the story takes different turns as the mystery of the missing black bird continues.

I will not go through the whole story However there is many well know actors and Hammett dialog.

For readers you are in for a treat as the movie follows the book pretty well with a few exceptions as the absence of Gutman's daughter.

Be sure to view the earlier version of this story "Dangerous Female" (1931); you will get a different view.
Sam Spade (Ricardo Cortez)
Ruth Wonderly (Bebe Daniels)

There are a few films that are variations of this one but they are comparatively inferior.

The film its self comes in many packages from multiple DVD's to Blu-ray. Each has its advantage and disadvantages. However it is the basic presentation that I am reviewing as that is the classic.

He may not look like a "blond Satan," but Humphrey Bogart became the ultimate Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon," the classic movie adapted from Dashiell Hammett's noir mystery. It's a gloriously seedy, dark path through a tangle of lies, murders and and thefts, all centering on the legendary

"Shoo her in, darling." A beautiful woman (Mary Astor) comes into Miles & Archer's detective agency and claims to be looking for her sister, who has supposedly gone off with a guy called Thursby.

Just an ordinary case? Wrong. Later on, Miles is shot, followed by the mysterious Thursby -- and since Spade (Bogart) has been dallying with Miles' wife, he's a prime suspect. After being grilled by the police, Spade visits the client -- now calling herself Brigid O'Shaughnessy -- and gets the real story out of her. Or not. Seriously, this woman lies like most people say "Hello."

Things go from bad to worse when Spade is kicked around by little weaselly Joel Cairo and the sinister yet hearty Fat Man. Like O'Shaugnessy, they are searching for the priceless Maltese Falcon, a jeweled bird statue covered in black enamel. Who has the Falcon? Who stole it? Who killed for it? And who might kill again to get it back?

The San Francisco of "The Maltese Falcon" is a smoky, shadowed world, where men and women from across the world ruthlessly pursue priceless treasures. In fact, it's fortunate that this film was filmed before the advent of color, because the black-and-white film just adds to the murky, bleak atmosphere.

The plot is a little hard to follow at first, since there seem to be two unrelated mysteries that don't seem to have anything to do with each other. But as Spade unravels lies and motives, the subplots are twined together and the story becomes truly brilliant. The dialogue is sharp and witty ("I've been bad, worse than you could know." "You know, that's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere").

And the small cast put the "anti" in antiheroes -- everybody is painted in dark shades of gray. Bogart's growly Sam Spade is strangely charming, and you end up liking him even though he's not much better than the crooks. Astor plays a floaty fluffy femme fatale who has a nastier side, Peter Lorre is wonderfully creepy as Joel Cairo, and Sydney Greenstreet is pleasantly sinister as the Fat Man. The only really GOOD person seems to be Effie.

Sharp, dark and very twisted, this is a fantastic mystery full of twists, greed and the ultimate anti-heroic detective. This is primo noir!

"Huh?" answers the trivia question: "What is the last line in the 1941 film, THE MALTESE FALCON?"

John Huston's adaptation was actually the third Hollywood take on Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade novel. The first "Falcon" (1931) got renamed DANGEROUS FEMALE in the early TV era. In many respects this one's truer to the book, is nicely atmospheric and has a rousing climax, but it suffers from a weaker cast. The 1936 Bette Davis film, SATAN MET A LADY strays farthest from Hammett's storyline and is decidedly unpopular.

SYNOPSIS for John Huston's "Falcon":
Mysterious Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Astor) hires the private eye firm of Spade and Archer to tail Floyd Thursby, a man she claims has captured the affections of her kid sister. Miles Archer (Cowan) volunteers for the job. When both Thursby and Archer are found shot to death, the police suspect Sam Spade (Bogart).

The plot thickens when gardenia-scented Joel Cairo (Lorre) visits Sam's office and offers him 5K to locate a small statue of a black bird. Sam quickly learns that Brigid also seeks the "dingus," as does the elegantly beefy Kasper Gutman (Greenstreet), who's willing to pay a much larger reward. Gutman's heavily-armed young bodyguard Wilmer (Cook Jr.) shadows Spade everywhere, while detectives Polhaus (Bond) and Dundy (MacLane) show up on his doorstep at all hours of the day and night, looking to solve the murders. Brigid is terrified of Cairo and the Fat Man; Sam doesn't know which of the three to believe or trust.


Huston's dierctorial debut is an absolute masterpiece. A nicely honed script, skillful photography and in particular, solid acting from all players makes THE MALTESE FALCON a film one never grows tired of. Very highest recommendation!


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(8.4) The Maltese Falcon (1941) - Humphrey Bogart/Mary Astor/Gladys George/Peter Lorre/Sydney Greenstreet/Lee Patrick/Ward Bond/Barton MacLane/Jerome Cowan/Elisha Cook Jr./John Hamilton (uncredited: Walter Huston/William Hopper)

Bogart is excellent as usual in probably his best-known film. The film suffers as I think Mary Astor was miscast as the female love interest. She is too reserved and cold, and the audience never really has a chance to warm to her character. Had Lauren Bacall, Katherine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergan or any of the dozens of excellent actresses available at the time taken the part, it would have completely changed the film. As it is I found myself wondering what Bogart's character sees in her. The writing is forced on that point, where Astor makes a play for Bogart to get her way with the falcon, and Bogart almost falls for it. Her acting just can't make it real enough to feel any sympathy or empathy for her when Bogey finally sends her up for the fall.

Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are in fine form, so it's especially disappointing that Astor brings the whole cast down with an uninspired and unbelievable performance. It's still a classic, but one that could have been much better with a different leading lady that we could actually like.