Classic Film Review: The Maltese Falcon
Humphrey Bogart Stars In Director John Huston's Beguiling Noir Mystery with Mary Astor
Apr 26, 2009
P.I. Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) becomes ensconced in a tangle of events involving a client (Mary Astor), mysterious men (Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre) and an expensive, jewel-encrusted Falcon statuette. Spade endeavours to reach the bottom of the conspiracies that stand in his way, but the revelations he unearths go deeper than just the treasure – and it soon becomes a question of who to trust.
Bogart, Astor and Lorre Give Classy Performances
Bogart dominates proceedings here; Sam Spade is, in the vein of previous and future Bogart characters, a sour and emotionless man who will do anything for profit – but for whom doing the right thing will always be the prerogative. The famous actor is at turns sinister, hilarious and sensitive. Mary Astor features here as Brigid, the woman who comes to Sam for help, and who entraps him in the Falcon conspiracies and manipulations. Astor is not the most attractive woman, but she makes up for that here by subtly changing her performance – Brigid is constantly lying to Sam, who sees right through her, and it's a strength of her performance that Astor is so sneaky, so manipulative.
Peter Lorre plays Joel Cairo, a bizarrely eccentric man who seeks the Falcon, and the famous character actor once again presents his distinctive voice and face to the viewer as a man who is prepared to make any deal or tell any lie to get what he wants. Sydney Greenstreet, making his film debut at 62, plays the Fat Man, a rich opportunist by the name of Kasper Gutman, and the veteran stage actor creates an icy, somewhat disturbing persona on-screen as another individual seeking the Falcon.
John Huston's First Film is Taut, Tense
Director John Huston's movie is an example of exemplar film-making; tight, focused scenes oozing with tension and terse, edgy dialogue. Huston was given this film as his first directorial outing, and you really wouldn't think this on watching the movie. He edits the scenes together with skill, Bogart hardly ever seeming to be out of frame and the camera capturing what it needs and nothing more. The actors, all at the top of their game, are presented respectfully onscreen, and Huston's career after this first film is a reflection of the vision he had whilst making this.
As you might expect from a Dashiell Hammett novel, the script is taut, with Bogart and Lorre in particular getting many of the best lines. Bogart's character Sam Spade receives many of the more dialogue-heavy scenes, but they seem to have been perfectly made for the actor's infamous drawl.The music, for what it is, suffices. Being an older film, the symphonic scores were not so popular nor necessary, and whilst this is a factor in the lesser significance of the music to this movie, it still doesn't take away from the dramatic orchestration in the most tense scenes.
Beautiful Monochrome Befits Noir
Filmed in black-and-white (obviously the limitation at the time) the movie makes the most of the monochromatic presentation; bright lights of interiors making the different tones stand out, and the night scenes reflecting the great amount of darkness during the evenings, as well as accentuating the tension.
For an older film, this is a fantastic and taut thriller that still holds up sixty years later – a movie that for all its twists and turns is the Humphrey Bogart show, and the better for it.
