Maltese Falcon Movie Review
The art of huston and bogart doesn t come across until a second or third viewing.
Maltese falcon movie review. Tough and gritty the film noir classic the maltese falcon from 1941 has a fantastic cast led by humphrey bogart in the role of hardboiled detective sam spade. 3 1941 warner bros. It put down the foundations for that native american genre of mean streets knife edged heroes dark shadows and tough dames. It had been filmed before hammett practically invented the tough guy so deep in cynicism nobody could hope to put anything past him.
The story unfolds like a crumpled paper. The film nominated for three academy awards has since become a noir classic. Of course film noir was waiting to be born. Like sydney greenstreet offering humphrey bogart the opportunity of a lifetime in the maltese falcon cassidy has quite the intriguing proposition for james.
But the whodunit becomes less important than how we respond to the strong screen presence of bogart and his co stars. The maltese falcon is a great thrilling movie and a prime example of how great stories never fade with age. The maltese falcon is frighteningly good evidence that the british alfred hitchcock carol reed et al have no monopoly on the technique of making mystery films. The maltese falcon directed by john huston in 1941 reprised dashiell hammett s thriller.
Premiered thriller the maltese falcon starring humphrey bogart and mary astor. That s what makes the maltese falcon a classic. A dame played by whoops a woman. Maltese falcon the united states 1941 a movie review by james berardinelli the maltese falcon is among the most important and influential movies to emerge from the hollywood system as significant in some ways as its contemporary citizen kane.
Unlike chinatown whose nudge nudge channeling of prewar shamus stories like the maltese falcon flattered the sorts of film buffs who are fascinated by movies about other movies the parallax view. What he had in classic films like the maltese falcon was a voice that cut through a script like a knife. Movie review archive. We see more and appreciate more each time we watch it.