The Film Review thread

[Guest TheLastBoyscout]

Like the match review thread in WWE, only for movies. Try and keep the same format throughout, and the mods should delete any posts that are not reviews.

 

 

TITLE: THE MALTESE FALCON

YEAR: 1941

DIRECTED BY: JOHN HUSTON

STARRING: HUMPHREY BOGART, MARY ASTOR, PETER LORRE, and SIDNEY GREENSTREET

GENRE: FILM NOIR

 

REVIEW: This film is one of the greatest films ever made. That's not a claim I make lightly, or one that's unwarranted. This is the film that simultaniously heralds it's director and star as giants in their industry. Before TMF, Humphrey Bogart was a talented antagonist for guys like James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, this is the film that made him a star and began one of the greatest careers in Hollywood history. John Huston had been a brilliant screenwriter who had penned the classic Noir film THE KILLERS, and after watching two dismal adaptations of one of the classic American detective novels (one by the same name in 1931, and another called SATAN MET A LADY in 1936), he decided to write and direct one of his own. After big time star George Raft said no to the part, the studios took a chance with Bogart that ended up paying off dividends.

 

To condense the plot in this film would be an exercise in futility. Like it's cousin THE BIG SLEEP, this film is not a "mystery" in the sense that it is a puzzle story. This is a film to be savored; a film in which the act of investigating itself is the real story; the road is far more interesting than where it leads.

 

The first thing to appreciate about this film is the dialogue. The film's structure is basically a series of conversations, with short interludes that become more and more critical as the film progresses. If the conversations aren't interesting, and if they cannot get across the plot in the brief time they are afforded, than the final confrontation between Bogart and Astor lacks any resonance. When we hear about the many men Miss Brigid O'Shaughnessy has (accidentally?) led to their doom, we can Spade begin to regard her diffferently. Though he retain a detachment with her throughout most of the picture, we can sense that these still waters run deep, and his final monologue confirms this.

 

For two men who are essentially red herrings, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are absolutely tremendous. These are characters whose evil is seductive; much the same way Spade finds O'Shaughnessy attractive. Greenstreet's vast knowledge and opulant settings make him a sort of second cousin to the Bond bad guys. There is a definite theatricality to his operations; right down to his homosexual henchman and his repeated phrases about qualities he likes in Spade.

 

And it shouldn't be surprising that the villain has an affinity for Mr. Spade. He may very well be the nastiest hero Hollywood has ever given us. A man who's first thought after finding out his partner is dead is to get his secretary to tell the wife, so he doesn't have to. Bogart rattles off lines like:

 

You won't need much of anybody's help. You're good. Chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.'

 

with such venom that we cannot help but think that a man like this has a reason for being so cold. That his inner darkness exists because the light was stripped from him long ago by necessity. It is for this reason, I think, that the film goer is willing to accept Spade as the hero.

 

If the film has a weakness it is that it is too faithful to it's source matierial. The film could have used a good 15 more minutes to allow the characters to spark off of one another. In particular the relationship between Bogart and Astor could have used pumping up.

 

RATING **** out of *****