The Maltese Falcon (1941)
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The Maltese Falcon Movie Review
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 noir film directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. It’s one of the more overrated noir movies.
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“When you’re slapped,
you’ll take it and like it“
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Bogart’s private eye Sam Spade finds himself stalked by a magnificent array of villains as he searches for a mysterious statuette. The movie was based on a book by the famed author Dashiell Hammett. Both the source material and the film are iconic. The film even received three Oscar nominations and is now regarded as a classic of the genre.
Setting all those accolades aside and judging it on my own personal merits and my own enjoyment of it, I have to admit that I still do not care for this movie. I watched it for the first time nine or so years ago and I found it overrated back then. Watching it again, I am still unimpressed. There are many elements here that are genuinely great, but the sum of its parts is less than stellar.
First and foremost, the movie makes the fatal mistake that many noirs make and that is to have an overly abundant number of characters and plot points. It also has too much dialogue, but at least that dialogue is terrific. The problem here remained of not being all that thrilling to begin with. There is a lot of talking and intimidations, but when all is said and done, the statuette remains a mystery. I never got why it was sought after all that much. The storytelling overall felt too book-like and the movie wasn’t cinematic enough.
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The acting is absolutely fantastic. It is by far the biggest strength of the entire film. Humphrey Bogart delivered one of his most iconic turns here in the amazing role of the arrogant and confident Sam Spade. His line delivery is top-notch and he oozes charisma whenever he is on screen.
I also really liked Sydney Greenstreet, deservedly nominated for his performance as Kasper Gutman. Peter Lorre also makes an impact. He was typecast, but it is still always great seeing him at his signature villainy roles. The movie definitely has too many characters, but at least all were very well performed.
Mary Astor is another highlight. I loved her character and she acted out all of her scenes beautifully. The standout scenes are the conversations between her and the protagonist. Their relationship was complex and very interesting. I wish other dynamics and characters were written as well as these two were.
The Maltese Falcon is technically only solid. The direction from John Huston is pretty good, but the film is rarely as cinematic as are some of the other amazing noir pictures of the period. This was my main issue on the first viewing and it has continued to be so during the second one. The cinematography and score are fine, but nothing all that remarkable.
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At the end of the day, the script was the biggest problem here. It simply wasn’t film-worthy. I bet that it works infinitely better in the literary form. The lack of action bothered me as the film is all talk and no proper pay-off is ever given to the audiences. It remained too mysterious and ambiguous.
