The legendary John Huston’s first film as a director not only
became one of the classic films of the 1940s, but it was, ironically, a remake.
The Maltese Falcon starred Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade, who gets a
new client one fine day in his San Francisco office. She’s Mrs. Wonderly (Mary
Astor), a woman who’s concerned about her sister, Corrine, who ran off with a
man named Thursby. Wonderly is very anxious about this situation, because she
claims that Thursby is very dangerous. Sam’s partner, Miles Archer, agrees to
tail Thursby to see if he can find Wonderly’s sister. But Archer winds up
getting shot and killed by an unknown assailant. When Sam learns about his
partner’s death, he also discovers that Thursby was shot dead as well, and that
the police are looking hard at him for the death of Thursby as a revenge killing.
Yet Archer was shot with a Webley pistol, while Thursby was known to have
favored a Lugar. So if Thursby didn’t kill Sam’s partner, then who did? And why?
And just when things couldn’t get anymore interesting, Sam gets a visit in his
office from a Mr. Cairo (the always-great Peter Lorre), who’s willing to
offer him $5,000 (which, in 1941 dollars, is a lot of money) in exchange for the
whereabouts of a certain Maltese Falcon. When Cairo abruptly pulls out a gun,
Sam realizes that he really means business. Long before films like Pulp Fiction
made anti-heroes cool, Humphrey Bogart played Sam Spade as a tough, cynical son
of a bitch who knew all the angles, and then some. No sooner is his partner dead
then he orders Effie, his secretary, to remove Archer’s desk from the office, as
well as have his name taken down from the door and windows.
The second remake of Dashiell Hammett’s novel, the 1941 Maltese Falcon proved
that the third time was indeed the charm as the film became both a critical and
commercial success, as well as a classic that has stood the test of time. The
main difference between this film and its two lesser predecessors is that Huston
staged it to be as realistic as possible, while still remaining faithful to the
book--to the point where he used dialogue directly from Hammett’s novel. And the
cast is simply marvelous! Bogart as Spade; Astor as the mysterious femme fatale;
Peter Lorre as Cairo; Sydney Greenstreet as Gutman and Elisha Cook Jr. as
Wilmer, Gutman’s right hand man--all working from a smart script with crackling
dialogue and more twists than you can shake a red herring at, this is truly the
stuff that dreams are made of.
Warner Home Video has re-released The Maltese Falcon in a special three disc set
that also contains the previous two films, The Maltese Falcon (1931), and Satan Met A
Lady (1936). While both previous versions are so bland they're forgettable, they
are interesting to watch for film buffs in light of the successful adapation of
Hammett's book that Huston pulled off with his version. Think of the earlier
versions of MF of how NOT to adapt a novel. Also, Satan Met A Lady--which is a
really awful comedy--still has Bette Davis in the Mary Astor role. There’s also
a new 36 minute retrospective documentary: The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird, a series of
trailers features Bogart, and a commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax, plus
much more. The print used for the ’41 version is gorgeous! Both the picture and
sound are in great, pristine shape. You also have the fun option of watching
the Maltese Falcon as it would have been seen in theaters in 1941, with trailers,
newsreels and shorts and a couple of cartoons: one with Bugs Bunny, and the
second featuring Porky Pig. There's also a great 12 minute blooper reel, featuring
the stars of films released in 1941 fouling up their lines. All in all, this DVD
of the Maltese Falcon is truly a dream to own.
--SF
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