History Film / TheMalteseFalcon

* TakingTheHeat: Spade demands that one of Gutman's minions takes the heat for the three murders. Spade is innocent of the murders, but the cops would blame him for them anyway. Therefore, part of the price he demands for the Falcon is a 'fall guy' to take the heat.

* DetectivePatsy: [[spoiler:Brigid initially went to Spade and Archer on a pretense to get Thursby into a fight, thereby either getting him killed or slapping him with murder]].

'''''The Maltese Falcon''''' (1941) is a Creator/WarnerBros film based on [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon the novel of the same name]] by Creator/DashiellHammett, starring Creator/HumphreyBogart as HardboiledDetective Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his FemmeFatale client, Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut, and Creator/PeterLorre and Elisha Cook, Jr. as his AmbiguouslyGay sidekicks. The story concerns a private detective's dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers who compete to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon.

* TheCameo: Walter Huston, John Huston's father and a big movie star, appears here as Capt. Jacobi, the AlmostDeadGuy.

* BittersweetEnding: The bad guys are exposed and rounded up, but Spade turns over O'Shaughnessy, with whom he's fallen in love, over to the cops to avenge his partner. And it wasn't even the real Falcon to begin with.

** Kasper Gutman.

* TrueCompanions: If you are a private detective, a killed partner must be avenged. It's like a rule. According to Spade, this is true even if you didn't like your partner.
-->'''Sam Spade:''' When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. And it happens we're in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed, it's-it's bad business to let the killer get away with it, bad all around, bad for every detective everywhere.

** Gutman (Greenstreet) has one himself, even when he doesn't say anything: he only keeps stabbing the bird once and again, trying to find the gold and jewels below the lead. When it's obvious to everyone the falcon is false, he only collapses into a chair, like he is having a heart attack.

* DawsonCasting: Elisha Cook Jr. was 37 when the film came out, playing the "boy" Wilmer, who is described as "about twenty."

* DetectivePatsy
* TheDeterminator: Kasper Gutman is chasing the Falcon for 17 odd years; after he finds out that the bird they've stolen is a fake, he's ready in an instant to go back to Istambul to restart the search all over again

* FatalAttraction: Contender for the UrExample.

* {{Gayngster}}: {{Gayngster}}s and FilmNoir went together like... [[ShapedLikeItself two things that go together really well]]. Of course, 1941 being the height of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, they couldn't be [[IncrediblyLamePun explicit]] about it, but see GettingCrapPastTheRadar below.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Spade refers derogatorily to Wilmer as "the gunsel", both in the movie and in the book. "Gunsel" was Yiddish slang for a a male passive sexual partner, but not many people knew that. As the slang was all but forgotten, it was re-imagined as slang for a gunslinger or a gun-toting hitman.
** In Yiddish, the suffix ''-el'' or ''-eleh'' is diminutive, so the new definition of "gunsel" may have been thought to be Spade insulting Wilmer's prowess as a gunman.
* TheGhost: General Kemidov, the ''real'' MagnificentBastard of the story.
** ..or so Gutman wants to believe, or else the dream he's been chasing for 17 years would crumble. It could be that the General replaced the real bird or maybe there wasn't any genuine bird from the start. We'll never know for sure, but Spade's closing description of the Falcon as "the stuff that dreams are made of" kind of suggests the latter.

* GunsAkimbo: Wilmer in the 1941 film

* HardboiledDetective: One of the codifiers.
* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: Capt Jacobi

** Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo. Or, you know... in general.
** And there is Wilmer. Man, even in this trope he gets no respect. Though Wilmer is actually quite deadly and destructive, it is mostly off-screen. When he deals with Sam, he's basically a ButtMonkey that's PlayedForDrama.

* SissyVillain: Three of them, actually -- Joel Cairo, Kasper Gutman, and Wilmer. The novel, in particular, devotes quite a bit of text to disgustedly describing what a [[{{Gayngster}} mincing little "fairy"]] Cairo is.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: General Kemidov is TheGhost, but even before the story begins, when Gutman wanted to buy the McGuffin, he realized that it would be important and replaced it with a MockGuffin that the gang found very easy to steal.

* PrettyInMink: Brigid wears at leas four furs in the movie: a silver fox wrap, a Persian lamb coat, a stole of sables, and a mink coat.

* PunnyName[=/=]MeaningfulName: "Gutman" is fat (but also "good man" in German, which he isn't), "Cairo" is from abroad, and "Spade" never stops digging for the truth.
* TheRemake: The 1941 movie is the third adaptation of the novel to see the silver screen, proof that [[TropesAreNotBad Remakes Are Not Bad]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Spade refers derogatorily to Wilmer as "the gunsel", both in the movie and in the book. "Gunsel" was [[strike:prison]] Yiddish slang for a a male passive sexual partner, but not many people knew that. As the slang was all but forgotten, it was re-imagined as slang for a gunslinger or a gun-toting hitman.

* DeadHandShot: Archer is dispatched by a glove-clad, gun-toting hand.

''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) is a Creator/WarnerBros film based on [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon the novel of the same name]] by Creator/DashiellHammett, starring Creator/HumphreyBogart as HardboiledDetective Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his FemmeFatale client, Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut, and Creator/PeterLorre and Elisha Cook, Jr. as his AmbiguouslyGay sidekicks. The story concerns a private detective's dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers who compete to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon.

* DecoyProtagonist: One would believe that Archer, Spade's associate, will accompany him on the adventure, probably playing a Watson to Spade's Holmes. Then the character is matter-of-factly killed in the very next scene.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Joel Cairo. It's rather less ambiguous in the original novel and in the pre-HaysCode film adaptation (in the 1941 version, you could tell he was gay because he wore white gloves and smelled of lavender, not to mention Hammett's references to Wilmer as the 'gunsel', which is ''not'' slang for a gun-toting criminal).

* AlmostDeadGuy: Captain Jacobi, played by Walter Huston (the director's father) in a [[TheCameo cameo]].

* BeamMeUpScotty: Done by Spade himself. He was paraphrasing a line from ''Theatre/TheTempest'', "Such stuff as dreams are made on."
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The bad guys are exposed and rounded up, but Spade turns over O'Shaughnessy, with whom he's fallen in love, over to the cops to avenge his partner. And it wasn't even the real Falcon to begin with.]]

* HeyItsThatGuy: In addition to three cast members of Film/{{Casablanca}}, Lt. Dundy is actually [[Series/IDreamOfJeannie General Peterson]].

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: [[spoiler:The bad guys take the Falcon. It's fake.]]
* MockGuffin: [[spoiler:The eponymous statue.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: General Kemidov is TheGhost, but even before the story begins, [[spoiler: when Gutman wanted to buy the McGuffin, he realized that it would be important and replaced it with a MockGuffin that the gang found very easy to steal.]]
* [[spoiler: StolenMacGuffinReveal]]: This is one of the interpretations. The other is that the Falcon was a [[spoiler: MockGuffin]] since the very beginning. Notice that Gutman, Cairo and O'Shaugenessy immediately bought the first version, [[ArtifactOfAttraction such is the power of the falcon over them]].

''The Maltese Falcon'' has been named as one of the greatest films of all time by Creator/RogerEbert, and ''Entertainment Weekly'', and was cited by ''Panorama du Film Noir Américain'' as the first major work of FilmNoir. (Though today, movie historians generally consider the first noir to be ''Stranger on the Third Floor'', released one year earlier.) The film was JohnHuston's directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Joel Cairo. It's rather less ambiguous in the original novel and in the pre-HaysCode film adaptation (in the 1941 version, you could tell he was gay because he wore white gloves and smelled of lavendar, not to mention Hammett's references to Wilmer as the 'gunsel', which is ''not'' slang for a gun-toting criminal).

* TheDanza: Wilmer Cook is played by Elisha Cook, Junior.

* NonDescriptlyForeign: Joel Cairo has three different passports (which are probably all fake), a generic name (alias?) which doesn't betray his ultimate origins, and [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent a bizarre accent]] which swings between French, Russian, German, and whatnot.

''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) is a Creator/WarnerBros film based on [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon the novel of the same name]] by Creator/DashiellHammett, starring Creator/HumphreyBogart as HardboiledDetective Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his FemmeFatale client, Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut, and Creator/PeterLorre and Elisha Cooke Jr. as his AmbiguouslyGay sidekicks. The story concerns a private detective's dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers who compete to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon.

** Gutman (Greenstreet) has one himself, even when he doesn't say anything: he only keeps stabbing the bird once and again, trying to find the gold and jewels below the lead. When it's obvious to everyone the falcon is false, he only collapses into a chair, like he is having a hearth attack.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Joel Cairo. (It's rather less ambiguous in the original novel. Not to mention Hammett's references to Wilmer as the 'gunsel', which is ''not'' slang for a gun-toting criminal)
* AntiHero: It's up in the air for much of the story exactly which side of 'right' vs 'wrong' Sam Spade will ultimately fall upon. It's ultimately on the side of 'right'; turns out you don't kill a private detective's partner, even if the private detective didn't like the partner.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Spade refers derogatorily to Wilmer as "the gunsel", both in the movie and in the book. "Gunsel" was [[strike:prison]] ''Yiddish'' slang for a passive partner, but not many people knew that. As the slang was all but forgotten, it was re-imagined as slang for a gunslinger.
** In Yiddish, the suffix ''-el'' or ''-eleh'' is diminutive, so it may have been thought that Spade was insulting Wilmer's prowess as a gunman.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Joel Cairo. (It's rather less ambiguous in the original novel. Not to mention Hammett's references to Wilmer as the 'gunsel', which is also slang for something completely different...)

* DoubleStandard: Brigid is terribly shocked by Sam's betrayal, but she fails to see the [[{{Irony}} hypocrisy]] that it was also her modus operandi to string men along from the get go.

''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) is a Creator/WarnerBrothers film based on [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon the novel of the same name]] by Creator/DashiellHammett, starring Creator/HumphreyBogart as HardboiledDetective Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his FemmeFatale client, Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut, and Creator/PeterLorre and Elisha Cooke Jr. as his AmbiguouslyGay sidekicks. The story concerns a private detective's dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers who compete to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon.

* {{Gayngster}}: {{Gayngster}}s and FilmNoir went together like... [[ShapedLikeItself two things that go together really well]]. Of course, 1941 being the height of the HaysCode, they couldn't be [[IncrediblyLamePun explicit]] about it, but see GettingCrapPastTheRadar below.