The Maltese Falcon (Humphrey Bogart)

User Comments: A great, smart noir who's pace covers the plot holes and is based on some great performances

User Rating: 8.4/10 (22,994 votes) top 250: #53

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A great, smart noir who's pace covers the plot holes and is based on some great performances, 2 May 2004
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK
 

Private detectives Sam Spade and Miles Archer are hired to follow a man called Thursby for a woman. When Archer is murdered and Thursby gunned down, the police and Spade are keen to get answers. When the woman reveals she was lying about her motivations and her identity (she is really Bridget O'Shaughnessy), Sam finds out that she and Thursby were hiding a valuable statute of a falcon. The situation gets more complex when Bridget and Sam come under pressure form other sources that also want the falcon for themselves - namely the pompous Kasper Gutman and the weasely Joel Cairo.

The fact that this film is considered a classic almost makes it difficult to come to this with an objective view, but I did the best I could when I came to see it again for the first time in quite a few years. The film is pretty much a classic that deserves it reputation and stands out as a great bit of hardboiled detective stories from the period. The plot is a little complex at the start as the characters are introduced, but it quickly settles down to be a film with a solid plot that is enjoyable despite the fact that it falls down occasionally. The plot details are too often blurred or just forgotten about - giving the impression of a plot that is more complex than it actually is. However this isn't a problem as the film has enough pace and tough energy to cover these weaknesses and never let you linger for very long on them. The direction from Huston is very good, using almost totally interior shots to increase the tension and the feeling - amazingly this was his first film as director, but you wouldn't know it to watch it. Of course, needless to say, the writing (both source and screenplay) is top notch and is one of the big selling points of the film.

The dialogue is really tough and full of memorable lines, `When you're slapped you'll take it and like it' probably being the one that everybody remembers. A big reason that the dialogue works as well as it does is down to the fantastic performances from all the cast, although having said that it is dominated by the lead. Bogart summed up his most famous roles for future generations in this one film. He is a complex guy who we're never sure is straight of crooked, he is tough and violent - sleeping with his partner's wife and unafraid of anything. The dialogue fits him like a glove and this is one of my favourite of his performances as it is the one of the ones where he seems to have got everything bang on. Astor is good because, for me, she doesn't fit into the usual role of femme fatale - she is quite needy and demur and that is even more dangerous than the women who are overtly sexual and manipulative, as they were frequently in the later noirs. Lorre is the wonderful, weedy, snivelling character than he does so well and is remembered for. Likewise Greenstreet is a great actor and manages to be overblown without being silly. Cook has a small role but shows his talents in little ways - his reaction when he realises how expendable he is to Gutman is great.

Overall this is a classic film that will please all fans of detective stories and the noir genre. It has a flawed plot but it's dialogue and tough energy cover those up enough to keep things moving all the time. The characters are complex, none more so than Spade himself who is as smart as he is gullible and as cold as he is loving , and they are brought to life by a series of great performances. On top of all this, the film is dominated by a Bogart performance that acts as a perfect example of his most famous work.