Otto Penzler ranks, analyzes, & celebrates the 106 greatest crime films of all-time. Catch up on the series and find new installments daily here.
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The Maltese Falcon (1941)
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TYPE OF FILM: Detective
STUDIO: Warner Brothers
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Henry Blanke
PRODUCER: Hal B. Wallis
DIRECTOR: John Huston
SCREENWRITER: John Huston
SOURCE: The Maltese Falcon, novel by Dashiell Hammett
RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes
PRINCIPAL PLAYERS:
Humphrey Bogart……………………………………….………………………………Sam Spade
Mary Astor……………………………………..Ruth Wonderley/Brigid O’Shaughnessy
Peter Lorre………………………………………………………………………….……Joel Cairo
Sydney Greenstreet…………………………..……Casper Gutman—The Fat Man
Ward Bond……………………………………………………….Detective Sergeant Tom Polhaus
Gladys George……………………………………………………………………….….Iva Archer
Barton MacLane………………………………………………………Detective Lieutenant Dundy
Elisha Cook, Jr……………………………………………………………………….Wilmer Cook
Lee Patrick…………………………………………………………………………..…Effie Perine
Jerome Cowan……………………………………………………………………..…Miles Archer
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DID YOU KNOW?
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John Huston, one of the top writers at Warner Brothers, made his directorial debut with this, the third film version of Dashiell Hammett’s detective novel. Because he was a first-time director, and because the film was a remake, Huston’s first choice for the role of Sam Spade, George Raft, turned it down. Humphrey Bogart, who had been playing villains in B movies, accepted the role and became a huge star.
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THE STORY
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Ruth Wonderley comes to the office of Spade & Archer for an ambiguous reason and hires Spade. She soon admits that her real name is Brigid O’Shaughnessy and that she hadn’t told the truth about her plight. Bogart reassures her, saying that he hadn’t believed her—he had believed her two hundred dollars. Archer is later shot and killed in an alley, and Spade, although he hates his partner and is having an affair with his wife, vows to find the killer. He is successful, saying, “When a man’s partner is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it.”
Spade learns that the lovely O’Shaughnessy is involved with a gang of strange and shady characters led by Casper Gutman, a fat man who has spent seventeen years of his life in pursuit of a legendary artifact worth a fortune: a statue of a falcon encrusted with jewels. His employees are Joel Cairo and Wilmer Cook.
When a mortally wounded sea captain carrying a parcel falls through Spade’s door, Spade unexpectedly has possession of the treasure, which he persists in calling the “dingus.” Spade, under suspicion by the police for the murder of Archer, must prove his innocence while hunting for the real killer and working out a deal with the unflappable Gutman for a share of the fortune.
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The Maltese Falcon is the most famous American detective novel, and it may be the greatest American detective film. The 1941 version remains the perfect film more than half a century after it was made, and the cast stays fixed in the memory forever once its been seen.
Interestingly, Hammett had worked as a Pinkerton detective, and all the supporting cast were based on real-life characters he’d encountered as a private operative. Gutman’s original was suspected of being a German spy, and after Hammett followed him for many days, he said, “I never remember shadowing a man who bored me so much.” He’d picked up the Cairo character on a forgery charge. The prototype for Effie, the good-girl secretary, suggested that he go into the narcotics-smuggling business with her. Wilmer, the gunsel, was a twenty-one-year-old with a smooth face and quiet manner who took pride in being called “The Midget Bandit” by the newspapers.
The famed actor Walter Huston agreed to do a small scene for his son John, the director, and played the murdered sea captain, Jacobi. As a joke, John Huston forced his father to do retake after retake, falling down again and again, getting more and more bruised after each take.
Oscar nominations went to the film for Best Picture and to Sydney Greenstreet (in his first film) for Best Supporting Actor.
The first film version of The Maltese Falcon (1931) was a well-made film starring Ricardo Cortez as Spade and Bebe Daniels as Ruth Wonderley/Brigid O’Shaughnessy. A second version, titled, Santa Met a Lady (1936), was much lighter and did not enjoy much success, with Bette Davis in the Brigid O’Shaughnessy role, Alison Skipworth as Gutman, and Warren William (as Ted Shayne).
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BEST LINE
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When all the suspects have been gathered and arrested, Lt. Polhaus picks up the falcon and asks Spade what it is. The detective replies, “The stuff that dreams are made of.”
