Maltese Falcon was at forefront of film noir
Thanks to everyone who came out today to Southern Oaks Library to hear me talk about “The Maltese Falcon,” the 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart and the Dashiell Hammett novel from which it was adapted. For Nerdage readers who couldn’t make it, here’s what was said:
appears. Hammett also wrote about Spade in a handful of short stories, and while Spade the character appeared in a series of radio adventures and comic strips, Hammett had little to do with those stories besides, as he said, “cashing the checks.”
The Maltese Falcon was serialized in the pulp Black Mask in 1929. It followed Hammett’s popular “Continental Op” detective stories, but Sam Spade took things a step further.
About Spade, Hammett said:
“Spade had no original. He is a dream man in the same sense that he is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been and what quite a few of them in their cockier moments thought they approached … a hard and shifty fellow, able to take care of himself in any situation.”
Dashiell Hammett’s own life inspired his writing. He worked as a detective for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency from 1915 to 1921, with time off to serve in World War I. During the war, Hammett contracted Spanish flu, which later led to tuberculosis. His health concerns led him to give up detective work, where he was considered one of the best “shadows” in the business, to concentrate on writing.
Film Noir literally means “black film,” and was born out of the popularity of the pulp writing style. Hollywood’s classic film noir period is went from the early 1940s to the late 1950s, though it was only 
assigned the title in retrospect. The heavy blacks in the visual style were influenced by German Expressionist cinematography.
In the 1941 “Maltese Falcon,” which will be shown today, Bogart plays Sam Spade, a hard-boiled detective who is hired by Miss Wonderly, played by Mary Astor, to, he believes, find her missing sister. But that’s just the first of many not-quite truthful things Spade will be told as he’s drawn into the hunt for the Maltese Falcon, a priceless relic of the Crusades.
Contrasting this “Maltese Falcon” with the 1931 version, Bogart’s Sam Spade has a sense of humor, but it’s a dark one. He’s a flawed, jaded hero who follows a moral code he’s not even sure he quite understands.
Directed by John Huston, the 1941 Maltese Falcon is a close adaptation of Hammett’s original, maintaining most of the scenes and much of the dialogue.
Joining Bogart are the hoods: Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Elisha Cook Jr. Each were successful actors of the time. Lorre and Greenstreet would again be seen with Bogart in the classic Casablanca, again playing characters of questionable morality. Cook would again join Bogart in film noir “The Big Sleep,” based on Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.
The Maltese Falcon marked Huston’s first directorial work with Bogart, though Huston had written the script for High Sierra, a film which helped spur Bogart’s career. The two were friends and drinking buddies, and after The Maltese Falcon would work together several more times. Bogart’s roles in both High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon were turned down by George Raft. Bogart’s portrayal of these roles helped to cement him as a top star at Warner Bros.
- Matthew Price
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