With its dark, complex plotting, stark black-and-white photography, concentration on the baseness of man, and a cynical mood sustained to its still shockingly grim conclusion, this is the prototypical film noir.
Comment
10/16/07
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
100 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 40
Fresh: 40
Rotten:0
Average Rating: 9/10
Runtime: 4 hrs 12 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Hard-drinking private eye Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) sleuths the backyard of San Francisco in search of an elusive black bird statuette while evading the setups of three disparate miscreants: the duplicitous Brigid, the perfumed Mr.... [More]
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Director: John Huston
Reviews for The Maltese Falcon
Top Critic Filmed almost entirely in interiors, it presents a claustrophobic world animated by betrayal, perversion and pain.
06/24/06
Top Critic
Top Critic The film is made up almost entirely of talk, and yet the performances are so wonderfully flamboyant and focused that conversations become the action of the movie.
08/22/08
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.
06/10/08
This is one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form.
04/08/08
Top Critic
... part of what makes a film great is its power to obliterate whatever preconceptions we bring to it. There is brittle wit and sparkling harm and a very adult sense of fun present in The Maltese Falcon; it still works as a movie
09/09/07
As great as The Maltese Falcon is, the picture has two fairly significant shortcomings that no one really wants to talk about.
07/13/07
...we're caught up in the pulse of the film, pretty much swept along by its deeds, not even particularly saddened or surprised by the pessimism of its ending.
10/09/06
One of the most brilliant directorial debuts in Hollywood's history, this gem of a movie catapulted Humphrey Bogart to major stardom, offering one of his finest roles (with many memorable lines) as detective Sam Spade.
09/07/06
Bogart became Bogart in John Huston's great first film, a trend-setting, brilliantly cast adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's hardboiled novel ... This was the stuff that dreams -- and Hollywood -- was made of.
06/02/06
Latest News for The Maltese Falcon
August 27, 2008:
Certified Fresh Picks from the WB Vault
It's the third-oldest American movie studio: the company that brought us Rin Tin Tin, convinced the world that the talkies were here to stay, and eventually grew into one of the... More...
June 22, 2007:
AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...
April 20, 2006:
Interview With "Brick" Director Rian Johnson
A film noir set at a contemporary high school, "Brick" is a strange, tough little movie, a throwback to the days of Sam Spade that utilizes its young actors to... More...
Related Forums for The Maltese Falcon
In THE MALTESE FALCON, 'Sam Spade' doesn't like guns but ain't averse to slappin'!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/6/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/6/05
In THE MALTESE FALCON, 'Sam Spade' doesn't like guns but ain't averse to slappin'!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/6/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/6/05
In THE MALTESE FALCON, 'Sam Spade' doesn't like guns but ain't averse to slappin'!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/6/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/6/05
In THE MALTESE FALCON, 'Sam Spade' doesn't like guns but ain't averse to slappin'!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/6/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/6/05
Why?
by: Colonel_Kurz 7/5/03
by: Colonel_Kurz 7/5/03
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