The Maltese Falcon

This is one of the rare and shining examples of film-making at its absolute finest. As close to perfect as you can get in movies, it's a masterpiece not only of its genre, but of all genres, for all time. The ensemble cast headed by the great Humphrey Bogart is spectacular, as is the flawless direction by John Huston. If you're a classic film fanatic, or just a person who enjoys a good movie, then shame on you if you haven't seen this yet.

The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter. Sam Spade is a tough private detective who gets involved in a murderous hunt for The Maltese Falcon, a legendary statuette thought to contain diamonds. What can I possibly say about this version of The Maltese Falcon that hasn't been said, written and studied by the greatest film critics and industry members before? Well nothing by way of new stuff or a differing slant on the plot, I can merely concur and hopefully jolt prospective first time viewers into believing the reputation afforded this stunning piece of cinema. First off I have to let it…

This is a pretty good movie that ages fairly well, but I do not feel compelled to pour superlatives down over as most reviews do, both critics and regular viewers. The actors look like they are having fun with it and this classic movie is worth watching just because of that. The dialogue, which I like to think is a specialty in my own otherwise unremarkable novels, is excellent. I had trouble with how blasé Sam Spade seems to be with the bad news he received near the beginning, and how he reacted to it. (He redeemed himself a bit at the end in a passionate little speech about partners). And…

Recently re-released in glorious 4K (nope, I couldn't tell the difference, either) but, hey - any excuse to see this wonderful crime noir on a big screen again is OK with me. When "Brigid" (Mary Astor) approaches PI "Sam Spade" (Humphrey Bogart) and his partner "Archer" (Jerome Cowan) with a dodgy sounding story about her sister being kidnapped by her older lover, they don't believe a word of it - but $200 (and a bit of a shine to the lady from "Archer") gets them to go through the motions. Well: they were right about one thing - her story was riddled with holes, but not so many as "Archer"…