05/02/10 - The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon (1941, 101 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870/

Now this is the film noir classic I was talking about in my May Outlook comments. This is one I'd been wanting to see for a really really long time. I'd loved everything I'd seen Humphrey Bogart in and I didn't think this would be an exception. After all, it is "the stuff that dreams are made of."

The film follows Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, a private detective. He quickly gets caught up in the double murder of his detective partner and another man. Eventually we are treated to a magnificent five person confrontation between: Spade; Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor), an untrustworthy client of Spade's; Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), a strange figure at odds with O'Shaughnessy; Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), a wealthy figure also at odds with the above two; and Wilmer Cook (Elisha Cook, Jr.), Gutman's lackey. The three "enemy teams" of Spade are all after the rare Maltese Falcon.

This is one of the classics of the noir genre so it's no surprise that it does a lot right. Though mainly set in offices and apartment rooms and thus not treated to the standard smokey outside environments of a noir, there's still a great contrast between blacks and whites. Further, the principal cast does their best to constantly smoke during every scene so that smokey atmosphere is still present just in a bit different capacity. The next thing is that the mystery is pretty cool itself. The Maltese Falcon is never really a focal point of the movie itself but rather the means to move the movie along. It really is only seen in the final couple minutes of the film which is pretty cool as well. The movie has excellent pacing so this is never really an issue or anything.

The acting is highlighted by Bogart as Spade. First, Bogart is amazing as always. I wish more people from this generation of acting had half as awesome a voice as he did. Next, the character is cool as well. Bogart seems to be excellent at playing the guy that knows how to handle any situation so he's right in his element here. We follow him as he tries to figure out the case but he's always one step ahead of both the viewer and his opponents. I thought Cook, Jr. did a really good job as Wilmer Cook as well, even though that role was pretty minor.

Finally, the best part of The Maltese Falcon is the final confrontation. Here we get the entire main cast crowded into this tiny room. There's hardly any space to breathe (especially after everyone fills it with smoke) and the tension is beyond intense. The mystery is completely solved now in front of us in standard (but excellently acted out) fashion. One bizarre thing about the film is how long this segment of the film is. Serving as the finale it probably takes up a good fifth of the movie which is quite long. It works out well though as this is what the film had been building towards anyway.

Overall, I gave this film an 8/10. I really enjoyed this film quite a lot. Maybe it didn't live up to my incredibly lofty standards but it was still really fun to watch. I can easily see why it's a standard for the noir genre.