The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Tonight I plan on watching the 1941 classic The Maltese Falcon. This film is considered to be a film noir classic. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet. The film is in black and white and is 101 minutes long.

Good film, it has been years since I last saw it.

It's got one thing working against it - it follows a fantastic movie in North by Northwest whereas North by Northwest followed a below average movie in Soylent Green

I just watched it. WOW! Before I write a review, I'm generally not an easy grader on things so I hope the next couple movies I see are bad so that I can prove that.

As for The Maltese Falcon, wikipedia calls it a fine example of a film noir. I've never taken a film class and haven't looked up the meaning of that word, but I'll say this, The Maltese Falcon is the pièce de résistance of the genre as far as I'm concerned. It is also supposedly the first film of the genre.

The movie itself contains a plot which can be read in numerous places so I won't describe the plot. I'll say this though - despite the notable handicap of being in black and white the plot had me hooked right from the get go. It started out good and picked up and became great quickly. I was halfway tired watching this so I probably didn't pick up on a few things. Still, the movie wasn't completely straightforward - there were details that had to be kept straight and it required a little thinking. It wasn't so complex that unless you're sober, wide awake, and of above-average intelligence you had no chance of understanding it, but rather complex enough to where most children probably couldn't follow along.

The movie stars Humphrey Bogart and some other people I've never heard of. Bogart is regarded by the American Film Institute (AFI) as the greatest male actor in history. This is the first time I've ever seen him and I'd say he was excellent in this film. If you like movie quotes, Bogart delivers the famous line "The stuff that dreams are made of" in this film when referring to the falcon. This is a misquote of a line in Shakespeare's The Tempest but I don't read Shakespeare so I can't tell you anything about that line. As for the other people in the movie, they do a pretty good job, too. Rather than explain it in detail I'll stop talking about the acting - a real review can be read all over the place by people that know how to write film reviews.

As I watched the credits roll by I sat and asked myself whether I liked not knowing where, if anywhere, the actual Maltese Falcon is and what became of the two who went looking. I decided that enhanced the plot and leaves something open for interpretation. I want to give this a very high score and say it's one of the best films I've ever seen but after assigning so many high scores lately I wanted to make sure my score was justified...

Roger Ebert and Entertainment Weekly call the film one of the greatest of all-time and the American Film Institute has ranked it as high as 23rd all-time and I can see why. This film is very deserving of a high score and I like it better than Citizen Kane

97/100 A+


UP NEXT: The African Queen. This is supposed to be good (as high as 17th by the AFI) and stars Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn who are regarded by the AFI as the best male and female actors in history respectively so there's a chance I'll give out yet another mid-90s score. If this keeps up I might watch Gone With the Wind sooner rather than later to try to get my average score down.

This is probably the best movie ever made

SoulRat wrote:

This is probably the best movie ever made

So I'm not crazy?!

Do you have a score /100 to give?

no :haha: It's an excellent movie though.

SoulRat wrote:

no :haha: It's an excellent movie though.

In case you haven't noticed we have a movie review database thread type dealy. This movie currently is #1 all-time with a 97.0. It only has 1 vote though.

I have noticed. I haven't seen this movie in a long time, therefor I am not going to rate it other than saying it is very very good... so there

You could always go watch it

Then watch Citizen Kane and A Clockwork Orange.

OR, wait until 1 AM and watch The African Queen - I'll watch it starting at 10 PM my time.

bah no... I just got the 8 Films to Die For from the 2007 Horror Fest, I was going to start watching them last night but got distracted with naughty children.

The African Queen is a favorite of mine. Another one, if you're really into Bogie, is his first full length feature film, Of Human Bondage.
Bogart got the role primarily because Leslie Howard, the actor who plays the love interest of Bette Davis in the film, pretty much insisted that Bogie be given the part. This was Bogie's first big break. In honor of that special friendship, Bogie and Lauren Bacall named their daughter Leslie in honor of Mr. Howard.

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of Bogart or not. The Maltese Falcon is the only film I've seen of his. He was outstanding in that one though so I'm willing to bet he's pretty good. I'll see him again tonight with Katharine Hepburn (who I've never seen either). The next time I see him probably be in Sabrina because my dad is a huge Audrey Hepburn fan and says that's pretty good. Nextly, I'll probably force myself to watch Casablanca after first watching Gone With the Wind (I've never seen Clark Gable either). Lastly, I realize nextly isn't a word but it should be.

When watching Casablanca, remember the time period. It came into theaters a few months before Pearl Harbor. It dealt with some pretty racy issues for 1941...an extramarital affair...and then with all the war spy stuff, it was a pretty substantial story line.

If you want to see a really good post WWII flick, still B&W, check out The Best Years of Our Lives.

I have successfully taped this movie () and will either watch it tomorrow morning or Friday morning (more than likely it'll be Friday). I'll give my score after I watch it.

bobrob2004 wrote:

I have successfully taped this movie () and will either watch it tomorrow morning or Friday morning (more than likely it'll be Friday). I'll give my score after I watch it.

I'm watching it right now. They're right at the end and Bogart is about to deliver some lines I really love

97/100

(I know I already gave it a score, but I'm just reiterating my score - it's that good!)


More thoughts: While rewatching this film and comparing it to the original The Man Who Knew Too Much (which I first saw after seeing this film for the first time) I have to hand it to Peter Lorre. He's great in here and has really developed since his first English-speaking roll. He actually sounds like he speaks English now. This weekend (or so) I'm going to watch M which stars Lorre and is a masterpiece of German cinema.

bobrob2004 wrote:

I have successfully taped this movie () and will either watch it tomorrow morning or Friday morning (more than likely it'll be Friday). I'll give my score after I watch it.

It's Friday afternoon

Oh yeah! I watched this movie today. I would say this about it, I was a little disappointed from reading the high score that catbox gave it. I might have been expecting too much. Parts were confusing and I have a hard time believing that guy survived with a bullet in him. Maybe if I see it more times, it'll make a little more sense. It kept me interested and it did pay off at the end.

Overall, it was good. 88/100 is my score.

That's still a good score. I rewatched this the other day and now that you've seen it I realized I made a huge mistake in my review...

I said I didn't know if I liked how we don't know what happens to Lorre and the fat man at the end. If I would have paid more attention I'd have realized we DO know what happened - Bogart called the cops and they were arrested. This movie was even better the second time but I won't change my score.

With bobrob's 88 this movie is now at 92.5 which knocks it out of first place. The best movie of all-time according to us (and we're the best film critics there are ) is now Citizen Kane.

You guys haven't seen
The Best Years of Our Lives (Best Picture, 1946)

that might change your mind!

More comments.

In general, remakes fall far short of the original. With The Maltese Falcon that's not even close to being true. Most people don't even realize this is a remake (it's actually the 2nd remake!) but it is indeed a remake. This movie is so much better than the first one it isn't even funny. The end of this really seals the detail. Bogart tells of Mary Astor at the end and she's off to jail. We don't need to see her in jail, the elevator bars which look like bars in a jail cell more than suffice.

Is this perfect? Well, no. No movie that I've seen is perfect. This is pretty damn close though.

laprimamirala wrote:

You guys haven't seen
The Best Years of Our Lives (Best Picture, 1946)

that might change your mind!

That's on TCM this Monday. I forgot to tape it and won't be back in time

BUT...my dad has this on DVD. I'm borrowing it.

Animaniacs did a parody of this movie. Check it out here. :haha:

Animaniacs did a parody of everything....

Not sure if that really counts as a parody of The Maltese Falcon. The only thing even close to similar is the fact that a woman hires a PI at his office in the first scene. The exact same thing happens in Chinatown and almost the same thing happens in The Big Sleep. That sculpture isn't exactly a Falcon and the climactic scene is more reminiscent of Satan Met a Lady than The Maltese Falcon. At the end he says "the stuff that dream(works) are made of" which does come close to The Maltese Falcon but it's also a misquote of The Tempest (Shakespeare). They mention Peter Lorre so I guess that could count. The title is a play on This Gun For Hire. I think that's all I can say at the moment.

catbox_9 wrote:

Not sure if that really counts as a parody of The Maltese Falcon. The only thing even close to similar is the fact that a woman hires a PI at his office in the first scene. The exact same thing happens in Chinatown and almost the same thing happens in The Big Sleep. That sculpture isn't exactly a Falcon and the climactic scene is more reminiscent of Satan Met a Lady than The Maltese Falcon. At the end he says "the stuff that dream(works) are made of" which does come close to The Maltese Falcon but it's also a misquote of The Tempest (Shakespeare). They mention Peter Lorre so I guess that could count. The title is a play on This Gun For Hire. I think that's all I can say at the moment.

Yeah, it's probably a combination of several movies instead of just this one. It's actually a pigeon, which is a main character in the show which explains why it doesn't look exactly like a falcon. Peter Lorre, the bird and the last line made me think of this movie though.

bobrob2004 wrote:

Peter Lorre, the bird and the last line made me think of this movie though.

Yeah, I started to type my critique after that first scene was over. I thought maybe you thought it was a parody solely because of the detective for hire, but that's not quite enough.