Movie Review: The Maltese Falcon (1941) * * * * *

Rating	5 out of 5 stars
Country	USA
Director	John Huston
Publisher
Sub Genre	Private Detective
Website

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 movie adaptation of the 1930 novel by Dashiell Hammett.  The book had previously been adapted in a 1931 movie.

Private Detective Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer are hired by Brigid O'Shaughnessey to retrieve her sister who is supposedly being held against her will.  However, when Archer is killed attempting to bring her sister back Spade uncovers a plot where all the characters are not as they seem and all roads lead to a priceless statuette- The Maltese Falcon.

The film gets five out five stars as, much like the book, it was a genre defining movie.  It cemented film noir and its relationship with the American hard-boiled detective genre so defined by private detectives like Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe.  The film was also defining for being the film that made Humprey Bogart famous.

Cast

	Private Detective Sam Spade	Humphrey Bogart
	Brigid O'Shaugnessey	Mary Astor
	Iva Archer	Gladys George
	Joel Cairo	Peter Lorre
	Kasper Gutman	Sydney Greenstreat

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Reviewed by John Forrester on Jun 15