The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

4/10

Starring

Humphrey Bogart

Mary Astor

Gladys George

Peter Lorre

Barton MacLane

Directed by John Huston

Why this movie is regarded as a classic is beyond me, other than the nice cinematography I felt the musical score and the plot itself were off. Some of the characters were absurd their acting was ok, but their roles weren’t.

What is the love relationship between Spade and O'Shaughnessy? It seemed like it was a checklist that the studio needed to be done and not in the initial plan. I couldn’t get how they fell for each other, it was played out on film like an after thought.

I have seem Humphrey Bogart in other films and they are quite enjoyable, but this one had his character like a lady killer with no control over his aura. He was also good a puncher that one punch is all he needs to knock people out.

Well, from when the Maltese Falcon lands at Spade’s feet and the reason the fat man took a knife to it with no care at all, I will leave for you the viewer to make sense of it in context with the general plot. The suspense in this movie is just muddled up in the writing, while trying to add too much suspense it ended up being too weak in the thrill and if I did not have control over the screen while watching this movie I probably would have slept off.

The movie plot introduces us to Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) a private detective who has a chip on his shoulder. His wise guy actions can come off annoying and reckless when faced with a gun or being interrogated by the police. He gets a visit from a woman named O'Shaughnessy who asks for his help to help locate her sister. Which was a lie, but that lie leads us down the path where Spade’s partner gets killed. Now the man (Thursby) she claims ran off with her sister was also killed that night.

The police thinks it was Spade that killed Thursby in revenge for his partner’s death, but things get awkward when they discover there was something going on between Spade and his partner’s wife.

O'Shaughnessy ended up not being truthful and Spade learns there is more going on with this lady than he can lay his finger on.

Then he meets another man named Cairo who pulls a gun on him offering him money (five thousand) if he can help them find the Maltese Falcon, which is a priceless item. Soon we learn that, Cairo knows O'Shaughnessy and there was another player in the mix. Well, the main plate on the table for the plot in this movie is the locating Maltese Falcon and solving who killed Spade’s partner.

The movie was written and directed by John Huston on his directorial debut. It was said that Huston was meticulous about the screenplay which was based on a book of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. His planning of the screenplay made shooting the movie, easy and on time never overshooting the budget. If you are down with the classics many have said this is one of them, I do not agree though.