The Maltese Falcon-1941

This film established the reputation of John Huston as a creditable director and it came to him against great many checks that any young filmmaker would face when he is moving from one field to another. Young Huston was one of Hollywood’s hottest screenwriters and he wanted to try his hand into directing. He was certain he had the right material in Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon though two earlier adaptations of Hammett’s novel were failures.( In 1931, a lack-luster but faithful adaptation starred Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade. In 1936, it was reincarnated into a mystery-screwball comedy, called SATAN MET A LADY, starring Bette Davis.)
Warner studio boss Jack gave a reluctant go ahead, but advised that he would be working on a tight budget and on a short leash. Huston instructed his secretary to break down Hammett’s novel into scenes, leaving everything unchanged. By a curious twist of fate the studio mogul when Huston was away managed get his hands on what he thought was a script in progress. He was impressed. When Huston returned Jack Warner assured him that the production was ready to roll and the script was fine.
Huston had every reason to thank his lucky stars that such a mistake could pave the way for a thundering commercial success. What was more he won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for what was supposed to be a beginning outline. He never looked back with that kind of a success.
Even a runaway success on a fluke must have nuts and bolts to nail it to Cinema Hall of Fame. Apart from Huston’s solid knowledge derived from his screenplay days that gave him a nose for selecting stories that worked well on screen he had Humphrey Bogart in the role of San Francisco detective Sam Spade. Bogart had previously worked in High Sierra, which he wrote prior to his directing debut. In that film Bogart played a tough, no nonsense criminal Roy Earle.
In The Maltese Falcon Bogart as Sam Spade operated within the law. Huston as a writer tagged early on in the film the credo that struck a sympathetic chord in the viewers mind of the detective who was the protagonist: after his partner, someone he strongly dislikes, is waylaid and shot to death in the evening San Francisco fog Bogart lisps that when one’s partner is killed one is expected to do something about it.

Secondly he assembled a motley crew of offbeat criminals who stood out whether it was Sydney Greenstreet in girth or Pierre Lorre in his oily epicene crookedness. Then there was Elisha Cook Jr. who would appear in numerous films once again casting with Bogart in Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep.
Sydney Greenstreet at 61 made his film debut after appearing on Broadway for years playing butlers. (He again teams up with Bogart in Casablanca). Unlike most film-noir that feature criminals in unrelieved sinister cast (such as Neville Brand in D.O.A. or Mike Mazurki in Murder, My Sweet), the criminal trio pursuing the expensive and elusive Maltese Falcon are all too human: when Greenstreet attempts to be archly clever, putting one past street smart Bogart he shows he is only clever by half( In the hotel suite Spade Bogart playacting has Guttman bewildered; only when the detective storms out of the suite the close-up reveals him grinning with satisfaction and we realize the truth) ; the ilk of Cook or Cairo with his baby face are no match for Spade who takes particular delight in slapping the latter around.
Lastly the twist to the usual and predictable romance angle. Instead of the hero realizing his love or losing as often the case is, in this dark movie we have Bogart turning the woman for whom he was willing to fall like a load of bricks, over to the police. With that he resolves the conflict of interests: Mary Astor as Brigid O’Shaughnessy comes to Bogart as a client at the beginning. Like Rick Blain he may be earning a living in a murky world of man’s darkest passions and yet he has his own personal morality code; love plays no role in keeping its nose clean. He has fulfilled his promise to his partner whom he may not particularly care for. Yes when your partner is killed you are expected to do something about it.
The plot revolves around the Maltese Falcon a statuette. According to the legend In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels-----but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day. ‘Huston seized on the sheer fabulousness of the gilded bird of the title, a virtual throwaway in the book. He made its journeys through centuries and across continents a wild offscreen picaresque, a spider’s web of intrigue from out of the near as well as the distant past that always threatens to snare Spade just as it has snared the three demented conspirators. These three -- "Gutman" (Sidney Greenstreet) "Miss Wonderly/O’Shaughnessy" (Mary Astor) and "Joel Cairo" (Peter Lorre) became, in Huston’s hands, lovable gargoyles, creatures as improbable as the Falcon, and each as corroded with greed as the once-shimmering Falcon is coated with cheap enamel’(NY State writer’s Institute.)
Sam Spade is a gumshoe and he has his office complete with a partner and a girl Friday. When he and his partner Archer are hired to tail a rich eccentric by a woman who claims her sister is being unwittingly kept separated from her it seems like just another case. But when Archer is gunned down whilst tailing the eccentric the police are after him. The girl who asked him to follow the man turns out not to be who she says she is, and Spade is already well into a web of deception, in the middle of which stands 'the Maltese Falcon'.
Cast:

Humphrey Bogart ... Sam Spade
Mary Astor ... Brigid O'Shaughnessy
Gladys George ... Iva Archer

Peter Lorre ... Joel Cairo
Barton MacLane ... Det. Lt. Dundy
Lee Patrick ... Effie Perine

Sydney Greenstreet ... Kasper Gutman
Ward Bond ... Det. Tom Polhaus
Jerome Cowan ... Miles Archer
Elisha Cook Jr. ... Wilmer Cook
James Burke ... Luke
Murray Alper ... Frank Richman
John Hamilton ... District Attorney Bryan
Produced by
Henry Blanke .... associate producer
Hal B. Wallis .... executive producer
Directed by John Huston
Screenplay: John Huston
Novel: Dashiel Hammett

Original Music by
Adolph Deutsch

Cinematography by
Arthur Edeson (director of photography)


Memorable Quotes:
Sam Spade:If you kill me, how are you gonna get the bird? And if I know you can't afford to kill me, how are you gonna scare me into giving it to you?

Sam Spade: I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble.
Joel Cairo: Look what you did to my shirt.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: I haven't lived a good life. I've been bad, worse than you could know.
Sam Spade: You know, that's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere.
Wilmer Cook: Keep on riding me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver.
Sam Spade: The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter, eh?
Sam Spade: Ten thousand? We were talking about a lot more money than this.
Kasper Gutman: Yes, sir, we were, but this is genuine coin of the realm. With a dollar of this, you can buy ten dollars of talk.
Kasper Gutman: I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.
Sam Spade: Haven't you tried to buy my loyalty with money and nothing else?
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: What else is there I can buy you with?
Kasper Gutman: Here's to plain speaking and clear understanding.
Spade: When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. And it happens we're in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed, it's-it's bad business to let the killer get away with it, bad all around, bad for every detective everywhere.
Spade: We didn't exactly believe your story, Miss O'Shaughnessy, we believed your 200 dollars. I mean you paid us more than if you had been telling us the truth, and enough more to make it alright.
Bryan: Who killed Thursby?
Sam Spade: I don't know.
Bryan: Perhaps you don't, but you could make an excellent guess.
Sam Spade: My guess might be excellent or it might be crummy, but Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children dippy enough to make guesses in front of a district attorney, and an assistant district attorney and a stenographer.
Bryan: Why shouldn't you, if you have nothing to conceal?
Sam Spade: Everybody has something to conceal.
Bryan: I'm a sworn officer of the law, 24 hours a day, and neither formality nor informality justifies you withholding evidence of crime from me. Except, of course, on constitutional grounds.
Sam Spade: [ranting] Now, both you and the police have as much as accused me of being mixed up in the other night's murders. Well, I've had trouble with both of you before. And as far as I can see my best chance of clearing myself of the trouble you're trying to make for me, is by bringing in the murderers all tied up. And the only chance I've got of catching them, and tying them up, and bringing them in, is by staying as far away as possible from you and the police, because you'd only gum up the works.
[turns to stenographer]
Sam Spade: You getting this alright, son, or am i goin' too fast for ya?
Stenographer: No sir, I'm getting it alright.
Sam Spade: Good work.
Kasper Gutman: You're a close-mouthed man?
Sam Spade: Nah, I like to talk.
Kasper Gutman: Better and better. I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously, unless you keep in practice.
[sits back]
Kasper Gutman: Now, sir. We'll talk, if you like. I'll tell you right out, I am a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk.
Sam Spade: Swell. Will we talk about the black bird?
Sam Spade: [impatiently] Now, let's *talk* about the black bird.
Kasper Gutman: Let's. Mr. Spade, have you any conception of how much money can be got for that black bird?
Sam Spade: No.
Kasper Gutman: Well, sir, if I told you... If I told you *half*... you'd call me a liar.
Sam Spade: No, not even if I thought so.
Sam Spade: If you kill me, how are you gonna get the bird? And if I know you can't afford to kill me, how are you gonna scare me into giving it to you?
Sam Spade: When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it.
Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation...
Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?
Kasper Gutman: I distrust a man who says "when." If he's got to be careful not to drink too much, it's because he's not to be trusted when he does.
Sam Spade: You're good. You're very good.
Spade: I hope you're not letting yourself be influenced by the guns these pocket edition desperados are waving around, because I've practiced taking guns from these boys before so we'll have no trouble there.
Joel Cairo: You... you bungled it. You and your stupid attempt to buy it. Kemedov found out how valuable it was, no wonder we had such an easy time stealing it. You... you imbecile. You bloated idiot. You stupid fat-head you.
[cries]
Sam Spade: You killed Miles and you're going over for it.
[last lines]
Detective Tom Polhaus: [picks up the falcon] Heavy. What is it?
Sam Spade: The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.
Detective Tom Polhaus: Huh?
Kasper Gutman: The best goodbyes are short. Adieu.
Kasper Gutman: By Gad, sir, you are a character. There's never any telling what you'll say or do next, except that it's bound to be something astonishing.
Sam Spade: I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you.
Kasper Gutman: These are facts, historical facts, not schoolbook history, not Mr. Well's history, but history nevertheless.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: He has a wife and three children in England.
Sam Spade: They usually do, though not always in England.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: Mr. Archer was so alive yesterday, so solid and hearty...
Sam Spade: Stop it. He knew what he was doing. Those are the chances we take.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: Was he married?
Sam Spade: Yeah, with ten thousand insurance, no children, and a wife that didn't like him.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: Help me.
Sam Spade: You won't need much of anybody's help. You're good. Chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.'
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: I deserve that. But the lie was in the way I said it, not at all in what I said. It's my own fault if you can't believe me now.
Sam Spade: Ah, now you are dangerous.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: I do know he always went heavily armed, and that he never went to sleep without covering the floor around his bed with crumpled newspapers, so that nobody could come silently into his room.
Sam Spade: You picked a nice sort of a playmate.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: Only that sort could have helped me, if he'd been loyal.
Joel Cairo: I am prepared to pay five thousand dollars for the figure's return. Do you have it?
Sam Spade: No.
Joel Cairo: But if it isn't here, why did you risk serious injury to prevent my searching for it?
Sam Spade: Why should I sit around here and let people come in and stick me up?
Joel Cairo: But certainly it is only natural that I try to save the owner such a considerable expense if possible.
Sam Spade: People lose teeth talking like that. If you want to hang around, you'll be polite.
Joel Cairo: I certainly wish you would have invented a more reasonable story. I felt distinctly like an idiot repeating it.
Sam Spade: Don't worry about the story's goofiness. A sensible one would have had us all in the cooler.
Sam Spade: All we've got is that maybe you love me and maybe I love you.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: You know whether you love me or not.
Sam Spade: Maybe I do. I'll have some rotten nights after I've sent you over, but that'll pass.
Joel Cairo: Might I remind you Mr. Spade that you may have the falcon, but we certainly have you.
Sam Spade: You're a good man, sister.
Sam Spade: Haven't you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions?
Lt. Dundy: And gettin' a lot of lyin' answers!
Sam Spade: Take it easy.
Sam Spade: Here.
[hands him Wilmer's guns]
Sam Spade: You shouldn't let him go around with these on him, he might get himself hurt.
Kasper Gutman: Well, well, what's this?
Sam Spade: A crippled newsie took 'em away from him. I made him give 'em back.
[to Spade]
Joel Cairo: No, no. Our private conversations have not been such that I am anxious to continue them. Forgive me for speaking so bluntly, but it is the truth.
Sam Spade: You gotta convince me that you know what this is all about, that you aren't just fiddling around hoping it'll all... come out right in the end!
Sam Spade: [after disarming Wilmer] This'll put you in solid with your boss.
Kasper Gutman: Well, sir, what do you suggest? We stand here and shed tears and call each other names... or shall we go to Istanbul?
Joel Cairo: Are you going?
Kasper Gutman: Seventeen years I've wanted that little item and I've been trying to get it. If we must spend another year on the quest... well, sir, it will be an additional expenditure in time of only... five and fifteen seventeenths percent.
Sam Spade: [to Brigid] Don't be too sure I'm as crooked as I'm supposed to be!
(ack:imdb,William Hare, NY State Writer’s Institute)
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