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Sam Spade quotes: "My guess might be excellent
or it might be crummy, but Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children
dippy enough to make guesses in front of a district attorney,
and an assistant district attorney, and a stenographer."
"I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble. "
The basic story involves detective Sam Spade
(Bogart), and various characters in pursuit of a priceless bird
statuette, the "stuff that dreams are made of." This
exciting yarn starts out with a private detective, Sam Spade and
his partner, Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) being hired by a woman,
Miss Bridget O'Shaunessey (Mary Astor), to follow a man, a tail
job. When Sam's partner is murdered while following the man, Sam
not only finds himself being hassled by the police, some of whom
would love to arrest him for something, but he also soon discovers
that his new client isn't who she says she is, and is involved
in something having to do with a very valuable gold statue of
a Maltese Falcon. Sam Spade soon is introduced to a variety of
strange, rather sinister people, who all are after this golden
prize, all willing to kill for it. Using his wits, his ability
to put two and two together, and his experience with the criminal
element, he tries to sort it all out, and find the killer of his
partner as well. "When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed
to do something."
The gripping script was by Huston, adapting Dashiell
Hammett's novel. It offers a fascinating study of human greed,
where no one is who he or she claims to be, which adds to the
intriguing plot of the story, as Sam tries to find the truth in
this mass of confusion and lies. There are no perfect, squeaky
clean, good guys in this cynical master work. Though by the end
of the story, Sam Spade remains the hard-boiled hero, whose true
motives are the standard "a man's got to do what a man's
got to do."
The film is a classic, "a superb 1940s-style film,"
because of the wonderful plot, tight pacing, the gifted, dynamic
direction, by John Huston, unusual characters, great acting by
this talented cast and tough Bogart performance. The Maltese Falcon
was the basis for gumshoe movies to follow.
A Hollywood legend has it that no screenplay was written for "Falcon".
Huston had a secretary put the novel into script format. Later,
whether by accident or design, Huston directed the movie from
this "script," which has been praised for remaining
so close to the source novel.
Humphrey Bogart excels
in portraying Sam Spade, a private detective who is gifted at
what he does for a living, though not always a choir boy in his
private life. He effectively created the model for the many private
detective / police films that has come out of Hollywood since.
62 year old Sydney Greenstreet, who was a distinguished
British stage actor for 40 years, was lured into his debut film
performance by John Huston , giving a fine portrayal of the "loquacious,
enigmatic villainous" Kasper Gutman, called "the Fat
Man." He earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor
for this performance.
Peter Lorre entertains the audience with another
great performance portraying the slimy Joel Cairo. His ability
to use facial expressions and his ability to use body language
to help portray / show various feelings of his character, really
adds to his performance.
Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre were two
of the more accomplished character actors of the 40's. They were
both to later appear with Bogart again, in another classic, CASABLANCA
(1942), as well as becoming an odd duo in eight more films together,
three of which are THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS, THE VERDICT, and THREE
STRANGERS. Audiences love the chemistry between Greenstreet and
Lorre, as they tried of out scheme each other.
Character actor, Elisha Cook Jr, known for playing
both sympathetic and vicious characters, gives his most remembered
performance, portraying the Fat Man's psychotic hired gunman /
body guard.
My favorite scene takes place between Greenstreet,
Lore, and Bogart. As Lorre looks on with bug-eyed interest, Greenstreet
tells the history and legends connected with the priceless Maltese
Falcon. We soon realize that the Falcon, and of course food, are
the only real passions the Fat Man has.
Inspired by Shakespeare, Bogie came up with the
line "stuff that dreams are made of."
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