The Maltese Falcon (1941) is a Warner Brothers film based on the novel of the same name by
Dashiell Hammett, starring Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his
Femme Fatale client, Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut, and
Peter Lorre. The story concerns a private detective's dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers who compete to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon.
The Maltese Falcon has been named as one of the greatest films of all time by Roger Ebert, and
Entertainment Weekly, and was cited by Panorama du Film Noir Américain, the first major work on film noir, as the first film of that genre, as there is some debate as to whether the earlier
M can be considered noir or proto-noir. The film was John Huston's directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards.
This movie contains examples of:
- Adaptation Displacement: There were another two film adaptations of the novel before this.
- Almost Dead Guy: Captain Jacobi.
- Ambiguously Gay: Joel Cairo.
- Rather less ambiguous in the original novel.
- Beam Me Up Scotty: The actual quote is, "The stuff that dreams are made of."
- Better Than It Sounds Literature
- Defensive Failure
- Detective Patsy
- Fatal Attraction: Contender for the Ur Example.
- Gayngster: Gayngsters and Film Noir went together like... two things that go together really well.
- Getting Crap Past The Radar: Spade refers derogatorily to Wilmer as "the gunsel", both in the movie and in the book. "Gunsel" was prison slang for a passive partner, but not many people knew that.
- The Ghost: General Kemidov, the real Magnificent Bastard.
- Golden Helmet Of Mambrino: The titular statue.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo. Or, you know... in general.
- Hey, don't forget Wilmer. Man, even in this trope he gets no respect...
- It Must Be Mine: Most of the characters will go to any lengths to get it.
- It Was His Sled: The Falcon is a fake.
- Karma Houdini: Although they don't get the Falcon, Cairo and Gutman escape scot-free.
- The Knights Hospitallers: The original owners of the fabled bird.
- Mac Guffin: Take a wild guess.
- Nakama: If you are a private detective, a killed partner must be avenged. It's like a rule.
- Private Detective: One of the codifiers.
- Seinfeld Is Unfunny
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Sam is leaning in and kissing Brigid in the window, suddenly it's the next morning and the curtains in the window are blowing gently in the sunlight.
- Sissy Villain: 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 mincing little "fairy" Cairo is.
- Taking The Heat: Sam Spade demands that one of Mr. 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.
- Terrible Trio: Cairo, Gutman, and Wilmer.
- The Remake: The 1941 movie is the third adaptation of this novel to see the silver screen, proof that Remakes Are Not Bad.
- Villainous Glutton: Gutman.
- Vindicated By History
