Part of Weekend Classics: 1941’s Greatest Hits
One of the most influential film noirs ever made, John Huston’s directorial debut feature stars Humphrey Bogart as the hard-boiled private investigator Sam Spade who falls in with a deadly band of international thieves who will lie, double cross and murder to obtain a small, jewel-encrusted statue known as the Maltese Falcon.
“THE MALTESE FALCON is going to be one of the most profitable and talked about pictures of the year…. It reveals, in startling terms, the unheralded talent of topflight scenarist, John Huston, who, in the dual capacity of writer and director of this picture, is now entitled to take his place among the most important creative artists in the industry.” —The Hollywood Reporter (Sep 20, 1941) “Turns out to be the best mystery thriller of the year, and young Mr. Huston gives promise of becoming one of the smartest directors in the field…. The trick which Mr. Huston has pulled is a combination of American ruggedness with the suavity of the English crime school — a blend of mind and muscle — plus a slight touch of pathos.” —Bosley Crowther, New York Times (Oct 4, 1941) “An almost perfect visual equivalent of the Dashiell Hammett thriller…. It is (and this is rare in American films) a work of entertainment that is yet so skillfully constructed that after many years and many viewings it has the same brittle explosiveness — and even some of the same surprise — that it had in its first run.” —Pauline Kael, New Yorker “To describe the plot in a linear and logical fashion is almost impossible. That doesn’t matter. The movie is essentially a series of conversations punctuated by brief, violent interludes. It’s all style. It isn’t violence or chases, but the way the actors look, move, speak and embody their characters. Under the style is attitude: Hard men, in a hard season, in a society emerging from Depression and heading for war, are motivated by greed and capable of murder.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
