History Film / TheMalteseFalcon

There are three film adaptations of ''Literature/TheMalteseFalcon'' on this wiki:

* ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon1931'', directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels
* ''Film/SatanMetALady'', directed by William Dieterle, starring Warren William and Bette Davis
* ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941'', directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor

Please change any link to point to the appropriate page.
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* ''Film/TheMalteseFaction1931'', directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels

[[redirect:Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941]]

''The Maltese Falcon'' can refer to the following works:

* ''Literature/TheMalteseFalcon'', the source novel by Creator/DashiellHammett
* ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1931}}'', the earlier 1931 film version.
* ''Film/SatanMetALady'', the loose 1936 adaptation starring Creator/BetteDavis.
* ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'', the iconic 1941 masterpiece starring Creator/HumphreyBogart.

If a direct link led you to this page, please correct it so that it points to the proper wick above.
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* If you're looking for the iconic 1941 masterpiece starring Creator/HumphreyBogart, go ''[[Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941 here]]''.
* If you're curious for the earlier 1931 version, go ''[[Film/TheMalteseFalcon1931 here]]''.
* If you're looking for the loose 1936 adaptation starring Creator/BetteDavis, go ''[[Film/SatanMetALady here]]''
* If you're looking for the source novel, go [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon here]].

* If you're looking for the loose 1936 adaptation starring Creator/BetteDavis, go ''[[Film/SatanMetALady here]]''

* If you're looking for the icon 1941 masterpiece starring Creator/HumphreyBogart, go ''[[Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941 here]]''.

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maltese_falcon6.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The...uh...stuff that dreams are made of.]]

''The Maltese Falcon'' is a 1941 Creator/WarnerBros film directed by Creator/JohnHuston and based on the [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon novel of the same name]] by Creator/DashiellHammett. It stars Creator/HumphreyBogart as HardboiledDetective Sam Spade, Creator/MaryAstor as his FemmeFatale client, Sydney Greenstreet (in his film debut) as the sinister "fat man" Kasper Gutman, and Creator/PeterLorre and Creator/ElishaCookJr as Gutman's 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.

''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 Creator/JohnHuston's directorial debut and was nominated for three UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s. It was actually the third version of Hammett's novel, having been made in 1931 as ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1931}}'' and more loosely in 1936 as ''Film/SatanMetALady''.

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!! This movie contains examples of:

* AdaptationalDyeJob: Spade is blonde in the novel.
* AdaptationalHeroism: Spade is less morally ambiguous in the film than in the book. He doesn't strip Brigid to search for the missing money. In general, he's less aggressive and cruel in actions and speech.
* AdaptedOut: Rhea Gutman, Mr Gutman's daughter, and the famous Flitcraft Parable, which is one of the most oft-quoted parts of the text.
* AffablyEvil:
** Kasper Gutman is almost always cheerful and polite. He's so amiable and good-humored that you almost don't notice that he's a total sociopath.
** Joel Cairo as well. He even asks Sam to "please" keep his hands on the back of his head while holding him at gunpoint.
* AgentPeacock: For a strongly implied gay man in a pre-gay age and a central antagonist, Cairo is quite [[TheDandy fabulous]].
* AlliterativeName: Sam Spade.
* AlmostDeadGuy: Captain Jacobi, who comes staggering into Spade's office with the Falcon before expiring.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Joel Cairo. It's rather less ambiguous in the original novel and in the pre-[[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode Hays Code]] film adaptation (in the 1941 version, you could tell he was gay because he wore white gloves and smelled of gardenia, 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.
-->'''Sam:''' When a man's partner's 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.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The opening crawl states that the Knights Templar of Malta created the falcon in 1539. The Knights Templar were dissolved in 1312. (The director had probably confused the Knights ''Templar'' with the Knights of ''Malta'', a separate organization that is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_malta still around today]].)
* AssholeVictim: Wilmer is set to be the fall guy by the other crooks. He was a JerkAss the entire time.
* BadassInANiceSuit: Spade.
* BittersweetEnding: The bad guys are exposed and rounded up, but Spade turns over O'Shaughnessy, with whom he's fallen in love, to the cops to avenge his partner. And it wasn't even the real Falcon to begin with.
* TheCameo: Creator/WalterHuston, John Huston's father and a big movie star, appears here as Capt. Jacobi, the AlmostDeadGuy who delivers the Falcon.
* CampGay: Joel Cairo.
* CentralTheme: Can matters of the heart override one's sense of justice?
* CutHimselfShaving: Mockingly offered by Spade to Dundy as a possible reason for a cut on Cairo's head.
* DeadPartner: Spade notes that one has to avenge one's dead partner, regardless of one's personal feelings towards the partner.
* DecoyDamsel: Brigid O'Shaughnessy.
* DefensiveFailure
* DetectivePatsy: 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.
* {{Determinator}}: Kasper Gutman has been 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 Istanbul to start the search all over again.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: Though he has fallen in love with Brigid, Spade turns her over to the police for murdering Archer, his partner.
* EveryManHasHisPrice:
-->'''Sam:''' Don't be too sure I'm as crooked as I'm supposed to be. That sort of reputation might be good business, bringing high-priced jobs and making it easier to deal with the enemy, but a lot more money would have been one more item on your side of the scale.
* FallGuy: Sam Spade turns the criminals against each other by only agreeing to hand over the Falcon if Wilmer takes the fall for the murder of Sam's partner.
* FatAndSkinny: Kasper Gutman and Joel Cairo.
* FatBastard: Kasper Gutman. Bonus points for his being referred to "The Fat Man".
* FatalAttraction: Spade is in love with Brigid in spite of the fact that she's been murdering and manipulating everyone around her.
* FemmeFatale: Brigid. It doesn't work on Spade though.
* FriendOnTheForce: Sgt. Polhaus is this, in contrast to Lt. Dundy.
* {{Gayngster}}: Implied with Wilmer and Cairo, though more subtly than in the book. this trope is quite common in FilmNoir.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The film dodges UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode by only subtly implying the homosexuality of Wilmer and Cairo. 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.[[note]]In Yiddish, the suffix ''-el'' is also a diminutive, so given Elisha Cook Jr.'s unprepossessing stature, it's easy to think Spade's calling him a "little gun".[[/note]]
* TheGhost:
** General Kemidov, from whom the Maltese Falcon was stolen.
** Floyd Thursby, one of the thieves after the Maltese Falcon, who was originally Brigid's conspirator and is killed offscreen after the first scene before he ever makes an appearance. A decent amount of time is spent unraveling what happened to him.
* GirlFriday: Spade's secretary Effie Perine.
* GuileHero: Sam Spade.
* GunsAkimbo: Wilmer has two guns and occasionally has one in each hand.
* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom: Captain Jacobi shows up at Spade's office, having been shot multiple times but still carrying the Falcon, and he is only able to mumble a vague explanation before dying. It isn't long before his killer and the men for whom he is working catch up with Spade.
* HardboiledDetective: Sam Spade is one of the codifiers. He is cynical but determined, has a prickly relationship with law enforcement, keeps his cards close to his chest regarding whose side he is really on in the [[BlackAndGrayMorality conflict over the Falcon]], and is seldom seen without a cigar or cigarette in his mouth and a drink in his hand.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Floyd Thursby, the murder victim.
* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: Capt Jacobi stumbles into Spade's office with the Falcon.
* IneffectualSympatheticVillain:
** Joel Cairo spends most of the movie getting roughed up. He barely does anything of use.
** Wilmer is insulted, humiliated and beaten up throughout the film. Offscreen, though, he's a killer.
* InsistentTerminology: Spade repeatedly refers to the Falcon as "the dingus".
* InspectorJavert: Lt. Dundy is fairly close in his desire to take Spade down.
* IRejectYourReality: Gutman and Cairo would rather believe Kemidov is a MagnificentBastard than think that the Falcon is nothing more than a worthless dingus that they have spent their entire lives (and lots of money, and many dastardly acts) getting. The movie leaves open whether or not this is the actual reality.
* ItMustBeMine: Most of the characters will go to any lengths, including murder, to get the Falcon.
* IWillWaitForYou: At the end, Spade promises to wait for [[spoiler:Brigid]].
* KnightInSourArmour: Spade.
* LikeASonToMe: Subverted. Gutman treats Wilmer as such, even stating "I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son." [[SubvertedTrope What follows has to be one of the coldest lines in movie history.]]
-->But, well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.
* {{MacGuffin}}: The Falcon, which has little use in the story other than to be something valuable enough to drive the plot.
* AMacGuffinFullOfMoney: The Maltese Falcon looks like an ordinary statue, but only a few people know that it holds gems under its skin.
* MacGuffinTitle: The film is named for the statuette the characters are pursuing, which only actually appears at the end of the film (and isn't even the genuine article).
* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:Brigid O'Shaughnessy]]. As Sam Spade says at the end of the film, he wants more than anything else to believe her version of events, and that's why he doesn't.
* MeaningfulName: "Gutman" is fat, "Cairo" is from abroad, and "Spade" never stops digging for the truth.
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: The bad guys take the Falcon. It's fake.
* MockGuffin: The eponymous statue. It's not the real Maltese Falcon (if, indeed, there ever was a real Maltese Falcon), but a copy made of lead.
* NiceHat: It's a Film Noir, and it stars Creator/HumphreyBogart. Nice Hats are guaranteed.
* NoMacGuffinNoWinner: The bad guys get hold of the Falcon, but it turns out to be a fake. It's left open whether it was fake all along, or there's still a real Falcon out there somewhere.
* NonSpecificallyForeign: 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.
* PlotTriggeringDeath: The murder of Spade's partner Archer sets the plot in motion.
* PragmaticAdaptation: Spade does not strip Brigid to search for the missing bill, since this scene could not be filmed with UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode.
* PretenderDiss: Sam Spade has venomous contempt for wannabe tough-guy and "gunsel", Wilmer.
* 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.
** Mrs. Archer wears a black fox muff and a black fox hat with a veil, as part of her mourning clothes.
* RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear: Used in several of Spade's phone conversations.
* RiddleForTheAges: We never do find out what happened to the original falcon, or if it even existed in the first place.
* SchiffOneLiner: "The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of."
* SexyDiscretionShot: 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.
* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Spade's last line, which provides the photo caption, is a slightly mangled quote from ''Theatre/TheTempest''.
-->"We are such stuff as dreams are made on."
* SissyVillain: All members of the villain trio have this going to some degree, but Cairo is particularly effeminate.
* SlippingAMickey: Gutman does this to Spade during their second meeting.
* SmokingIsCool: As in the book, Spade is seen rolling a cigarette in nearly every scene in which he appears (including his very first scene), and the half-smoked cigarette dangling from his lips is one of the defining parts of his image as the classic HardboiledDetective.
* StolenMacGuffinReveal: This is one of the interpretations. The other is that the Falcon was a MockGuffin since the very beginning. Notice that Gutman, Cairo and O'Shaughnessy immediately bought the first version, [[ArtifactOfAttraction such is the power of the falcon over them]].
* TerribleTrio: Gutman is the leader of the three crooks, and Cairo and Wilmer are his enforcers. Cairo is implied to be the smarter of the two, but Wilmer is the one who actually kills two people during the events of the story.
* TrueCompanions: If you're a detective, it doesn't matter that you hated your partner and were sleeping with his wife — he's your partner, and if he's killed you have to do something about it.
* VillainousBreakdown:
** When Gutman shaves off the black enamel of the Falcon and exposes lead, he begins frantically slashing and stabbing the statue in outrage that it's a fake.
--->'''Kasper Gutman:''' ''[scraping the statue more and more frantically]'' Fake. It's a phony! It's lead! It's lead! It's a fake!
** Cairo's outburst upon finding out the statue is fake.
--->'''Joel Cairo:''' ''[to Kasper Gutman]'' '''You!''' You bungled it! You and your ''stupid'' attempt to buy it! Kemidov found out how valuable it was! No wonder we had such an easy time stealing it! You... ''YOU IMBECILE! YOU '''BLOATED IDIOT!!''''' You stupid ''FATHEAD'', you-- ''[breaks down crying]''
* VillainousGlutton: Gutman.
* VisualPun: During the {{Denouement}}, the elevator gate resembles jail cell bars for the FemmeFatale.
* WickedCultured: Gutman.
* WorthlessTreasureTwist: The titular falcon statuette is only a big hunk of lead under the ebony enamel, leading to a moment of VillainousBreakdown. The Trope is played with in that fact that this discovery only makes the bad guys do an "IRejectYourReality" (believing that ''maybe'' it was switched with a replica) and decide to continue their quest.
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''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 Creator/JohnHuston's directorial debut and was nominated for three UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s. It was actually the third version of Hammett's novel, having been made in 1931 as ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1931}}'' and more loosely in 1936 as ''Satan Met a Lady''.

* LikeASonToMe: Subverted. "I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son." [[SubvertedTrope What follows has to be one of the coldest lines in movie history.]]

--> "We are such stuff as dreams are made on."

''The Maltese Falcon'' is a 1941 Creator/WarnerBros film directed by Creator/JohnHuston and based on the [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon novel of the same name]] by Creator/DashiellHammett. It stars Creator/HumphreyBogart as HardboiledDetective Sam Spade, Creator/MaryAstor as his FemmeFatale client, Sydney Greenstreet (in his film debut) as the sinister "fat man" Kasper Gutman, and Creator/PeterLorre and Elisha Cook, Jr. as Gutman's 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.

* AdaptedOut: Rhea Gutman, Mr Gutman's daughter, and from fans of the novel, the famous Flitcraft Parable, which is one of the most oft-quoted parts of the text.

* AdaptedOut: Rhea Gutman, Mr Gutman's daughter.

* CantUnHearIt: Try reading the book after watching the film without hearing Creator/HumphreyBogart, Creator/PeterLorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and Mary Astor in their roles.

* CantUnhearIt: Try reading the book after watching the film without hearing Creator/HumphreyBogart, Creator/PeterLorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and Mary Astor in their roles.

* FatBastard: Kasper Gutman.

* KickTheDog: There's no good reason for Wilmer to [[spoiler:kick the unconscious Spade in the head after Gutman slips him a mickey- except that by then, Spade's made a fool of Wilmer and insulted him several times over.]]

''The Maltese Falcon'' is a 1941 Creator/WarnerBros film directed by Creator/JohnHuston and based on the [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon novel of the same name]] by Creator/DashiellHammett. It stars Creator/HumphreyBogart as HardboiledDetective Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his FemmeFatale client, Sydney Greenstreet (in his film debut) as the sinister "fat man" Kasper Gutman, and Creator/PeterLorre and Elisha Cook, Jr. as Gutman's 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.

* IRejectYourReality: Gutman and Cairo would rather believe Kemidov is a MagnificentBastard than think that the Falcon is nothing more than a worthless dingus that they have spent their entire lives (and lots of money, and many dastardly acts) getting. The movie do leaves open whether or not this is the actual reality.

* RiddleForTheAges: We never do find out what happened to the original falcon.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The film dodges UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode by only subtly implying the homosexuality of Wilmer and Cairo. 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.