The Maltese Falcon
Time Out says
Huston's first film displays the hallmarks that were to distinguish his later work: the mocking attitude toward human greed; the cavalier insolence with which plot details are treated almost as asides; the delight in bizarre characterisations, here ranging from the amiably snarling Sam Spade ('When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it') who opened a whole new romantic career for Bogart, to Lorre's petulant, gardenia-scented Joel Cairo, Cook's waspishly effete gunsel, and Greenstreet's monstrously jocular Fat Man ('By gad, sir, you are a character'). What makes it a prototype film noir is the vein of unease missing from the two earlier versions of Hammett's novel. Filmed almost entirely in interiors, it presents a claustrophobic world animated by betrayal, perversion and pain, never - even at its most irresistibly funny, as when Cook listens in outraged disbelief while his fat sugar daddy proposes to sell him down the line - quite losing sight of this central abyss of darkness, ultimately embodied by Mary Astor's sadly duplicitous siren.
Details
Release details
Duration:
100 mins
Cast and crew
Director:
John Huston
Screenwriter:
John Huston
Cast:
Humphrey Bogart
Mary Astor
Sydney Greenstreet
Peter Lorre
Elisha Cook Jr
Barton MacLane
Lee Patrick
Ward Bond
Gladys George
Walter Huston
Mary Astor
Sydney Greenstreet
Peter Lorre
Elisha Cook Jr
Barton MacLane
Lee Patrick
Ward Bond
Gladys George
Walter Huston