Based on a Sam Spade-novel written by Dashiell Hammett and directed by John Huston, this is an honest affair: straight lines, quick thinking and talking by Bogart, and funny incidents from Lorre and Greenstreet. The film doesn’t start off with the Falcon, but with a simple tail-job that ends up twisting Bogart’s noggin, to say the least. Excellent direction and noir-feel, exciting and entertaining until the end.

The acting is a bit dated, but the story is still highly entertaining.

My review on Epinions.

This is where film noir began. Bogart’s Sam Spade is the original hard-boiled detective. The film also pairs him with Mary Astor for what would be the start of his career as a romantic lead in years ahead. Great supporting roles for Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, who would appear with Bogie in many, many films to come.

An accompanying feature on the use of trailers to develop Bogart’s screen persona is well worth watching. It traces how Warner Bros. built him up from a co-starring thug in gangster films of the late 1930s to a leading man and accomplished actor in the 40s and 50s.

Yes, Bogie is pretty amazing in this movie. But for me, it’s all about Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo. “Look what you’ve done to my shirt!”

I just watched the Maltese Falcon for about the third time. Even though I know how it will end, this movie keeps me enthralled with each viewing. Bogie is great as Sam Spade – constantly whipping out smart remarks. He is the kind of guy you want on your side. The plot of the movie has several twists and turns. It is no wonder this movie is known as a film noir classic.

This movie has interesting characters, a bit of mystery, a bit of romance and every bit of it has you questioning just who is telling the truth.

Bogart is Sam Spade the original “hardboiled” private eye. In fact, he’s SO hardboiled that you can’t figure out why he doesn’t get “worked over” (in noir parlance) more often. He mouths off in the face of guns…to the cops…to pretty much everyone..including (eventually) the person who had killed his partner. It’s hard to believe he’d be that favoured by the angels.

If you get past that, though, the acting is great (especially Bogart), the dialogue witty, and the action fast-paced. Absolutely deserves its Oscar and its place as one of the greatest flicks ever made.

What more is there to say? This is Humphrey Bogart’s first role as a lead actor, even though he’d been a contract actor for years and had received lots of good press for The Petrified Forest and High Sierra. It was John Huston’s directorial debut. Huston also wrote the screenplay, and was smart enough to keep novelist Dashiell Hammett’s terse and evocative dialogue for his adaptation. (The Maltese falcon had already been adapted for cinema twice before, but Huston made it work, by the way.) In addition to Bogart, the film stars Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre.

It’s got a lot of the elements you expect in noir—the lighting, the camera angles, the hard-boiled detective and the femme fatale. There are witty exchanges, dark city streets, and enough smoking and drinking to make you feel positively decadent just for watching it.

A mere 1 hour, 40 minutes, you’ll wish it were longer.