The Maltese Falcon (1941) - John Huston 

   When sitting through countless brilliant films that are of amazing historical significance, you occasionally wonder just how they got that way. Frequently these movies are too serious to be entertaining. Not to say these are always disappointing, but the higher the expectations the higher the inevitable let down. One of these essential, groundbreaking, and important films is also damn entertaining, and worth watching twenty times. Not because it has so much in it, but because you just want to see it. That film is John Hustons the Maltese Falcon.
   The Maltese Falcon is historically significant for not one, or two, but three reasons. The first was that it marked the directorial debut of John Huston. Huston was the son of actor Walter Huston and got his start as a screenwriter. After getting frustrated with the treatment of his work, he decided to do it himself. A big step, considering he had a very prominent career as a director that lasted up until his death several decades later. Second was that it made Humphrey Bogart the biggest star in Hollywood. Bogey was a long running contract player for Warner Bros. and wound up profiting immensely from the fact that most of Hollywoods top stars went off to fight in World War II. Bogey was a veteran of World War I, and he was actually injured there, which is where he got his trademark voice. This breakthrough for Bogey would lead him into Casablanca (1942), To Have and Have Not (1944), and the Big Sleep (1946), as well as Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), and the African Queen (1951) also directed by Huston. The last reason is just as monumental, if not more so, and that was the fact that this film virtually gave birth to film noir.
   This wasnt the first time that the Dashiell Hammet novel was brought to the screen. The original version came out in 1931, and then came Satan Met a Lady (1936), which stared Betty Davis. Both films were quite a bit off from the source, and neither are considered worth sitting through. The reason why Hustons version worked so well was that he didnt try to change the story. The other two films altered quite a bit, including a trumpet instead of the bird in Satan Met a Lady.
   With Hammetts Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) Huston created the definitive noir hero. A rebellious detective, who uses any means necessary to get the job done. The anti-hero that Bogart plays is what helped to make him such an enormous cult star with the counterculture in the 1960s. Bogart falls for the girl Brigid OShaughnessy (Mary Astor) but is more than willing to sacrifice her to do what it right. As he says, I wont play the sap for you. Later spouting unflinchingly that hell be waiting for her, provided they dont hang her By your pretty neck. This stance made Bogey a definitive tough guy, and one that nearly everybody instantly admired if not worshiped.
   Bogarts performance is still top notch. He is still today perhaps the best noir hero, and the model for Ralph Meeker, Sterling Hayden, and even Jack Nicholson and Russell Crowe. They all took note of his method, and even more admiration must be paid, when he hands the police the thousand dollar bill that Casper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), gave him as a bribe. For more historical significance, this was also the screen debut for Greenstreet. The whole time we see that Bogey was looking out for number one, then in the end he does what is right. Not in an overtly dramatic revelation as in too many other films, but in a fast paced manner that will make you dizzy just trying to comprehend it.
   Its all here. The femme fatale (Astor), the crime boss (Greenstreet), the object that everyone is killing for (the falcon), and the private investigator (Bogart). If that wasnt enough, we also are given Peter Lorre, in one of his first American roles. Lorre first made a splash as Fritz Langs demented child killer in M (1931). He would go on to be a regular character actor for Warners, and end his career as a drunk horror actor in too many Roger Corman films. The other two main speaking roles are Spades secretary Iva Archer (Gladys George), and Wilmer Cook (Elisha Cook, Jr.). One of them is the only person that Bogart trusts, and the other the over ambitious young goon of Gutmans. There is also a cameo by Hustons father as Captain Jacobi.
   As with most films of this nature, it may get a little confusing. There are a lot of names to remember, and the faster Spade talks, the harder it is to remember everyone. That right there is enough to try and dissect the film. It truly is wonderful, and still today without a doubt the best noir film ever made. Perhaps its only competition is the neo-noir Chinatown (1974) which starred John Huston. Huston would tackle the genre again with the Asphalt Jungle (1950). Bogey would take a turn as perhaps the most famous detective Phillip Marlowe in Howard Hawks the Big Sleep. Yet neither film could quite match the sure thrill of the Maltese Falcon.

Grade A+