The Maltese Falcon

John Huston’s debut screenplay and direction saw the birth of the Maltese Falcon, a quintessential film in the film noir genre. Released in 1941, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, this movie was a phenomenal success and managed  to rake in $1,772,000 ($30,470,685.17 in 2019) in box office revenues causing it to be a major success for the distributors, Warner Bros at that time. This movie is considered one of the best movies of all time, garnering 2 Academy Award nominations, earning a spot on Roger Ebert’s Great Movies series and even being proclaimed by  Panorama du Film Noir Américain as the first major film noir.

Film noir is a type of film style that was coined by the French, which was predominant after World War 2. The men who had returned from war grew unrest over the fact that women have become more independent and have moved past the domestic setting. In the 1940s, film noir revolved around the male panic of women’s economic and sexual independence whereas in the 1950s it began reinforcing family values and had to have the male protagonist thwart the femme fatale. Thematic elements that are usually featured in film noir are the pessimistic and grim outlook on the world around it. Heavy emphasis on cynicism, fatalistic themes, and criminal motives are presentt in this type of film. All characters are depicted as morally grey, blurred, and having ulterior motives even when they’re supposed to be the “good guy”. The usual standoff between the gritty anti-hero and the femme fatale is a must and is usually what the story will be centered around. Visually, low key lighting is used and there will be a lot of shadows. Besides that, it has influence for German expressionistic traits such as oblique and horizontal lines and the scenes are usually lit for night. Locations that are frequently used range from cramped alleyways, corridors, and city bound areas such as roads, dimly lit interiors and etc.

The Maltese Falcon is the story of Detective Sam Spade, whose partner is killed after a mystery client, gives them a case. Things began to heat up when the person Spade was supposed to be investigating is also murdered and the blame for the murders is being thrown upon Spade by the police and his partner’s widow. Upon further investigation, he discovers that, there is a plot by Ms Shaughnessy and Gutman to retrieve the Maltese falcon and this pursuit is what caused these deaths. Sam Spade then manages to skillfully incriminate Gutman by tipping of the police to his whereabouts and then personally hands the tearful Mrs Shaughnessy over to the police.

The thematic element of film noir in The Maltese Falcon is evident in the lead character Sam Spade, who is the classic archetype of an anti-hero. He is slated to be the good character, but even he has his moments where he is shown to morally grey. He frequently lies and deals with deceit to reach his goals. He lied numerous times to the police and refused cooperation on the case. Spade also was having an affair with his partner’s wife.  This film also features a femme fatale, in the character of Ms Shaughnessy. She is portrayed as a strong, independent, and goal-oriented woman who will do anything to achieve her goals. She lies, deceives, and even resorted to murder of an innocent man to see her plan through. She uses her sexuality and exhibits a dainty persona to win the trust of men she approaches. Film noir also usually boils down to a confrontation with our anti-hero and the femme fatale. This can be seen in the last scene where spade confronts Ms Shaughnessy on her crimes and she tries to beg him to not turn her in. Overall tone of the film can be said is pretty dark, as there are elements of blurred morals and corrupted characters from all the characters, namely Sam Spade, Ms Shaughnessy, Gutman, Cairo, and Wilmer. Criminal motives was also an ever present aspect if this film.

Visually this movie features low-key lighting, which produces a lot of shadows.  The scene where Spade’s and Archer’s detective agency is shown on the floor through shadows is one of the examples of the use of shadows.This is due to the fact that most scene is lit for night time and also the interiors are dimly lit. The Maltese Falcon has the usual location settings that are present in a film noir movie, alleyways, cramped corridors, and city façade. Almost the entirety of the movie was shot within city locations such as office buildings, hotels, police station, and etc. An example of alleyways is where Archer got shot by Ms Shaughnessy. Corridors on the other hand can be seen when Spade was travelling to the hotel to meet Gutman.

All in all its evident that the Maltese has all the common tropes expected for a quintessential film noir. It’s a thematic and visual match in most aspects of the type of film noir. Although the origin of film noir might have been due to the irrationality and fragility of masculinity, but the foundation led by this movement gave birth to the archetype of a femme fatale character and also led to the creation of the subgenre of neo noir. Neo noir is a modern take film noir in a modern setting where the characters, setting, and visuals are very similar to the characters that we saw in the 40s and 50s. It’s very interesting to see how some types of art can stand the test of time and evolve into something even more beautiful.