The Maltese Falcon (1941) -- John Huston

An attractive woman, Ruth Wonderly, (Mary Astor), comes to the offices of Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Archer, a private detective agency in San Francisco, with what looks like a routine case--she wants them to locate her sister. Wonderly claims the sister is involved with a man named Thursby, whom she plans to meet that night in an attempt to bribe him to abandoned the girl. Archer volunteers to track Thursby, hoping that he will lead them to the missing girl. When both Archer and Thursby are killed that night, the case takes on an ominous tone, and the next morning Spade is visited by a strange little man looking for a long-lost statue of a falcon. Is there a connection? Spade soon finds himself dealing with three unscrupulous adventurers competing for the priceless falcon as he tries to uncover the truth about the death of his partner.

Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade

Filmed twice before, Director John Huston's version of mystery writer Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, makes the first two efforts pale in comparison. It is simply one of the best films of its genre, and the film that solidified Bogart's stardom. Many consider it one of the first Film Noirs, but I don't classify it as such. Yes, it has a femme fatale, but you never seriously believe that Bogart as the protagonist is in real danger or in trouble. And it lacks the shadowy photography that I associate with the best noirs. Still, it set the bar high for entertaining detective films that followed for the next fifteen years or so.

It's hard to find fault with the film. Precise direction, a genre-defining script, stellar cinematography, and one of the best ensemble casts ever assembled; it's a great story of intrigue. Bogart may star, but the memorable collection of eccentric villains is what makes this so much fun to watch. Sydney Greenstreet (in his first film) plays the rotund Kasper Gutman; Lorre is the effeminate Joel Cairo; and Astor the beautiful femme fatale. A dedicated bunch--Gutman has been chasing the falcon for 17 years--they are more dangerous than they appear. Still, the group seems slightly out of their element, and we can't help but like them for it. Of course, Spade will outwit them all by the end.

The film opens with a screen card that provides the backstory:

In 1539 the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels——but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day——^[

The character of Joel Cairo is a long way from Lorre's infamous child molester, Hans Bekert, in Fritz Lang's 1931's M. This is one of his first American films that became well known. Impeccably dressed and smelling of gardenia, Cairo pulls a gun on Spade, intending to search the detective's office for the Falcon. Spade easily disarms the smaller man, telling him "when you're slapped, you'll take it and like it." It's through Cairo and Miss Wonderly, whom Spade has learned is really Brigid O'Shaughnessy, that we meet the "Fat Man," Kasper Gutman. It is now clear that three people are after the elusive statue, and that O'Shaughnessy's first story was a bogus one. 

Gutman employs an inept underling, Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.), who thinks he is a tough guy. Spade's interaction with this character is one of the joys of the film--he continually gets the upper hand of the punk. Cook is one of those frequent character actors who enhances every film he's in, seemingly without effort. His best decade is the 1940's where roles included Lawrence Tierney's sidekick in the brutal Born to Kill, and again with Bogart in The Big Sleep. But his most memorable performance is as a stubborn Southern homesteader gunned down by Jack Palance in 1953's Shane.  Here he plays Gutman's muscle, and not so subtle "boy." Wilmer does Gutman's dirty work, and is in fact a murderer, but he is no match for a professional like Spade, The detective is dismissive, calling him a gunsel, slang for homosexual.   

The mountainous Kasper Gutman

One of the best scenes in the film occurs when Spade first meets with the mountainous man. Director Huston keeps his camera low when Gutman is on screen to emphasize the man's immense size. (Greenstreet's weight topped 350 pounds). Greenstreet's performance exudes a cultured menace, with a deep guttural laugh and confidence. He and the detective verbally spar with one another, and though Spade doesn't have the whole story, he now understands that the falcon is priceless and worth considerably more than Cairo first intimated. Spade hints that he possesses the bird and storms out of the room when Gutman is evasive. In the hallway outside Spade breaks into a broad smile, pleased with his performance. At this point he also guesses that one of these suspicious characters is responsible for Archer's murder, though he doesn't know which, and because the police consider him a suspect--they know he has had an affair with Archer's wife--Spade hopes to entice the culprit to reveal himself , using the falcon as bait.   

Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo.

At a second meeting Gutman spikes Spade's drink, leaving him unconscious. When he wakes, he finds a newspaper clipping noting the arrival in town of a ship, the La Paloma.  He hurries to the dock but finds the ship ablaze. Back at his office, a dying man staggers in clutching a bundle wrapped in newspaper. It is the falcon and a search of the man's wallet reveals him to be the captain of the La Paloma. The captain is played by the director's father, Walter Huston   

A final confrontation occurs between all the players. Gutman and Cairo have joined forces. In a long tense scene Gutman offers Spade $10,000 for the falcon. Spade agrees, provided they give him a fall guy for the police--he needs someone to pin the murders on to deflect attention from himself. Gutman reluctantly offers up Wilmer. Spade instructs his secretary to bring him the falcon. Upon inspection, it's discovered to be a fake.

The direction in this scene is terrific and a highlight of the film. At nearly twenty minutes it is extraordinarily riveting. Huston lets the camera in turn capture the reaction of each adventurer as a knife reveals nothing beneath its outer coating of black paint; Gutman sputters, looking like he's about to have a stroke as Cairo berates him for letting the real bird slip through their hands. When the two leave to continue their pursuit of the statue, Spade calls the police and tells them where to pick up the pair. He then confronts Brigid, telling her he knows she killed Archer to implicate Thursby, her unwanted accomplice. Brigid, shocked that Spade would turn her over to the police, tries to work her wiles on the up-till-then plaint detective--there is a strong suggestion that the two have become lovers. But Spade follows the private eye's code, telling her "You killed Miles and you're going over for it."


The falcon isn't what it seems. 

Director Huston penned the sharp screenplay. He gives each villain ample screen time to develop their character, and.has paced the film with wonderful dialog. Here's a sample:

Spade: We didn't exactly believe your story, Miss O'Shaughnessy. We believed your $200. I mean, you paid us more than if you had been telling us the truth, and enough more to make it all right.

Wilmer: Keep on riding me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver. 
Spade: The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

Gutman: You're a close-mouthed man?
Spade: Nah, I like to talk.
Gutman: Better and better. I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously, unless you keep in practice.

Spade: I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you.

 

The stuff that dreams are made of.

The film was among the first named to the Library of Congress' National Registry in 1989. Oscar nominations included for Best Picture (it lost to John Ford's How Green Was My Valley), Best Script, and Best Supporting Actor (Greenstreet). As a testament to its popular longevity, it is likely the most famous role of several of its performers: Greenstreet, Lorre, and Astor. As for Bogart, his signature role came just one year later, as Rick in Casablanca, the first film in which he received an Oscar nomination.

Author Hammett says of his character:

Spade has no original. He is a dream man in the sense that he is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been and in their cockier moments thought they approached. For your private detective does not — or did not ten years ago when he was my colleague — want to be an erudite solver of riddles in the Sherlock Holmes manner; he wants to be a hard and shifty fellow, able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with, whether criminal, innocent by-stander or client.

Shane (1953) - George Stevens

Alan Ladd as Shane.

Settling the old West was hard. Among the hazards were competing interests for land. Shane captures the conflict as well as any film, an authentic look at a period and place in American history that lasted but a few years, where ranchers and sod busters knocked heads as civilization and order continued their inevitable march west. You can understand why ranchers who fought Indians and settled the area resented farmers later pouring into the open range. Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer) is the largest cattleman in the area. He hates men like Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), whose little hardscrabble farm threatens his way of life. Ryker offers to buy out the farmers, but when that doesn't work, he's not above a little vandalism, cutting fences, sending his cows to trample wheat, even burning a barn. Starrett is the most stubborn holdout. A proud man determined to make a good home for his family.

Shane (Alan Ladd), a mysterious stranger happens into the smoldering battle when he stops at Starrett's homestead on his way north. He's a weary man, a former gunfighter looking for a more quiet way of life. Lured by Starrett's hospitality, Shane decides to hire on. On a trip to town he is confronted by Chris (Ben Johnson), one of Ryker's men. Shane refuses to fight and is humiliated. An epic fistfight ensues on his next visit, leaving Shane and Starrett bloody but victorious. Ryker now hires a notorious gunslinger, Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), as menacing a figure as ever appeared in a Western. When Wilson first enters Grafton's saloon, a dog instinctively senses danger and slinks out of the room. Later, Wilson and Shane silently take the measure of one another. Wilson mounts his horse very slowly, then backs it up while maintaining constant eye contact. It is a simple shot that more effectively conveys the tension of the encounter than words could.  When the inevitable confrontation between the two takes place later, it is sudden and deadly.

Shane: So you're Jack Wilson.
Wilson: What's that mean to you, Shane?
Shane: I've heard about you.
Wilson: What have you heard, Shane?
Shane: I've heard that you're a low-down Yankee liar.
Wilson: Prove it.

Stonewall goes up against the gunfighter Wilson.

But the most memorable scene involves another farmer. Stonewall (Elisha Cook Jr.) is a little man, too confident for his own good and still fighting the Civil War. Wilson goads him into a fight. The farmer is no match for the gunfighter. Director Stevens placed Stonewall in the muddy street, Wilson above on the wooden walkway. When Wilson insults the Confederacy, Stonewall takes the bait. He barely touches his gun as Wilson's is already out. A brief look of shock clouds Stonewall's face as he realizes he is about to die. Wilson hesitates a moment, smirks, then shoots with a tremendous roar as Stonewall is thrown violently back into the mud. A distant storm thunders in the background. It is a wonderfully directed scene, full of menace and fear.

That slight pause by Wilson is just one of several little touches Stevens drops in the film to add to its style: Stonewall's dog rests a paw on the coffin before his master is lowered into the grave; the farm women look in wonder at a catalog; Wilson's spurs jingle every time he walks; and Joe watches from a swinging gate how Shane dances with his wife, Marian (Jean Arthur). Shane is simply one of the great Westerns, one that helped create the West as myth in American culture.             

The technicolor film's outdoor sequences were shot in the Grand Teton range in Wyoming. The snow-capped mountains rise high above the Starrett farm and valley, signifying better than anything the hazardous frontier and what drew pioneers to the land. One particularly beautiful shot depicts the grand scale of things by framing the cemetery in the foreground, the town down below in the valley, and the majestic mountains in the far distance. Loyal Griggs was the cameraman.    

What Makes Shane Special:

The art direction and location shooting give the film an authenticity rarely seen in Westerns. It is muddy and the homesteaders are generally dirty. The dogs are mangy. The little town consists of just five or six buildings and Grafton's contains all sorts of tools and supplies you'd expect to find in such an outpost. 

Besides the conflict between the farmers and ranchers, there is an important subtext in the film that essentially deals with redemption: the unspoken affection developing between Marian and Shane. At one point Joe even hints to Marian that he understands something may exist between the two. Shane, a good man with a bad past, does too. It must be a tempting enticement. He faces a choice at the end which signifies whether his life will go on honorably.  

This is Alan Ladd's greatest role and the one he is most remembered for. Contrary to the man's real stature, his performance here is anything but slight. It is also Jean Arthur's last film role. Palance and young Brandon DeWilde as little Joey Starrett were nominated for Oscars.   

The score is minimal but the haunting theme stays with you long after the film is over.

The Inside Story:

Ben Johnson was a real cowboy who got his break in films when John Ford made him part of his stock company. He appeared in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Wagon Master, and Rio Grande for Ford. Later he would be one of The Wild Bunch and earn a Supporting Actor Oscar as Sam the Lion in 1971's The Last Picture Show.

Emile Meyer plays a memorable corrupt cop in 1957's Sweet Smell of Success.
 

Major Awards:

Won Oscar for Best B&W Cinematography, and nominated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Palance and De Wilde).

Other films of interest by Stevens:

• I Remember Mama (1948)
• A Place in the Sun (1953)
• Giant (1956)

Other films of interest by Loyal Griggs:

• The  Ten Commandments (1958)
• In Harms' Way (1965)