Writing a review of a film almost a century old. Who’s going to read it? Who needs it? Modern gadgets have taught us to swallow information on the fly, like a hamburger. It’s still hot. Without chewing. Who cares what was filmed 100 years ago?
Yes, there was a time… 1941. America has just recovered from the Great Depression. But something worse is already coming. The air is saturated with tension, as if someone is slowly tightening a nut on the back of his head.
Director John Huston, the father of the future beautiful Angelica Huston (later the unforgettable Morticia Adams), feels great about this and releases his debut film The Maltese Falcon. And immediately hit the bull’s-eye. Cash. Success. Followers. It’s time for a noir as black as night.
The beginning? These are wide views of San Francisco. Skyscrapers. Bridges. Nicely. Expensive. But soon the space narrows. Narrow corridors and rooms. By the end, it will be one room where we spend almost 20 minutes. This is 1/5 of the whole picture!
The plot? Bird. A statuette. Falcon. Everyone wants her. They lie, they kill, they sell each other. The statuette looks like a Nazi eagle. A symbol? The devil only knows. Greed. Rigidity. Evil. It hangs invisibly over the heroes, and everyone goes to the bottom. Voluntarily.
There are no good guys here. Generally. Not a single one. There are secretaries, taxi drivers, clerks. Background service. They don’t interfere with evil, so they help.
Sam Spade is in charge. Humphrey Bogart. He takes you by the scruff of the neck from the first second and won’t let you go. He’s digging. He’s digging into everyone. Cynical, cold, like a wolf. He doesn’t expect any favors from life. He says, “Get out on your own.”
Mary Astor (started out in silent movies). A femme fatale? In my opinion, not this time. Sensual and dangerous. Interesting.
The “Fat Man– leader is Sidney Greenstreet. A colorful actor. From the theater. This is his film debut. 61 years old – and immediately an Oscar nomination! Then he voiced Nero Wolfe in a radio play, who knows. I heard rumors that “Fat Man” was the name of one of the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki. A coincidence?
Dialogues. Fast, biting. Without them, the film is a corpse. There’s a noose with them.
— I’ll tell you straight out: I’m a person who likes to talk to a person who likes to talk.
“I hope they don’t hang you, darling, for that cute neck.”
“You were like a son to me. But you can have a new son, and the Maltese Falcon is alone.
And of course, the iconic dialogue (14th place in the list of the most memorable quotes in the history of cinema):
– It’s heavy. What is it made of?
– The same stuff that dreams are made of.
Yes. They won’t show that on TV right now. But where would all these pampered actors and actresses be if it weren’t for the guys working in the shadows?
The operator is Arthur Idison. He shot Frankenstein with Boris Karloff, the first film adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” then he will shoot “Casablanca.” The innovator! In this movie, it makes the light look like ashes. Hot, grey. The one that will soon cover the whole world. Wide angle, angle from below. You’re not in the cinema, you’re in a mousetrap.
Music by Adolf Deutsch. No memorable themes. Only short, ear-splitting losses. They’re pushing. They won’t let me go. Just the thing. Then the same guy will write the music for “Some Like It Hot”. Apparently, everyone has a second life.
You should watch this movie in silence. Not in a hurry. Without emotion. He lets you be a cynic for exactly one hour and forty. The atmosphere is like before a thunderstorm. Everyone smokes. A lot. Indoors. They light matches. There’s even a short joke about Russians. By the way, the film was officially shown in Russia in 1996. After 55 years! It’s a good thing, as the man with the heart of a dog used to say.
In 2023, the series “Monsieur Spade” was released. They say it’s not bad. But I didn’t watch it. Because the real Spade is black and white. And the room in this movie is quite enough for me.
I love the reference to this movie in the Fallout I