Today we are going to the movies.

One night I had trouble sleeping so I got up and turned the TV on and selected Turner Classic Movies. Happily, the movie was “The Maltese Falcon,” one of my favorites. It was a 1941 production of Warner Brothers directed by John Huston who also wrote the screenplay. It starred Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor.

The movie is based on the detective novel of the same name written by Dashiel Hammett that was published in 1930. Hammett worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency in San Francisco before turning to writing and said of the main character Detective Sam Spade that “Spade has no original. He is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been, and, in their cockier moments, thought they approached.” In 1931 Warners produced a version of the story starring Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez that followed the novel closely, as does the 1941 version, but being made before the introduction of the Motion Picture Production Code is much more risqué. The 1941 version, in my opinion, is a far better movie.

Originally actor George Raft was offered the part of Sam Spade but fortunately he did not want to work with first time director John Huston. Bogart was absolutely perfect for the part as was Mary Astor who played Brigid O’Shaughnessy alias Ruth Wonderly. Other notables in the cast were Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo, Barton MacLane, who might be remembered for his role as General Peterson in the TV show “I Dream of Jeannie,”  as tough talking police Lieutenant Dundy, Ward Bond, whom some of you may remember from the TV show “Wagon Train,” as his partner Tom Polhaus, Jerome Cowan, who later played Thomas Mara, the unfortunate district attorney who had to prosecute Santa Claus in the original ”Miracle on 34th Street,” was cast as Spades’ partner who was killed early in the movie and 320-pound Sydney Greenstreet, a veteran stage actor appearing in his first movie cast as Kasper Gutman. I also want to mention veteran character actor Elisha Cooke Jr. who played Gutman’s hired gun Wilmer Cooke and appeared in 124 movies and 56 television shows in a career that spanned 58 years from 1930 to 1988.

The film was shot at the Warner studio quickly in just 39 days from June 21 to July 18, 1941, with a budget of only $400,000. During his preparation, Huston planned each second of the film in great detail with shot for shot instructions and sketches of every scene. Except for some outdoor night scenes Houston shot the film in sequence which helped the cast.

For the uninitiated what follows is a brief synopsis of “The Maltese Falcon.”

A woman named Brigid O’Shaughnessy using the alias Ruth Wonderly hires Spade and his partner, Miles Archer, to find her missing sister who she claims is with a man named Floyd Thursby. That evening Archer is murdered while following Thursby, with Thursby found dead soon after. Visited by police detectives Dundy and Polhaus Spade realizes that he is now a suspect in both murders.

We soon find that O’Shaughnessy, along with those other dangerous characters Joel Cairo and Kasper Gutman, are all desperate to find the legendary jewel-encrusted falcon statuette. Spade is pulled into their world as they try to force him to locate the falcon for them all the time wondering if one of the others will make off with the falcon.

Spade realizes now that O’Shaughnessy has been lying about many things, including that Thursby was a partner who would betray her. Spade deduces that O’Shaughnessy murdered Archer to frame Thursby.

To keep Spade out of the way when the falcon arrives in San Francisco Gutman serves him a drink laced with knock-out drops. Reviving, Spade finds that the falcon is on the recently docked freighter La Paloma. Arriving at the dock Spade finds the the vessel is on fire. Later the La Poloma’s captain, played by the director’s father veteran actor Walter Houston, dying from multiple gunshot wounds arrives at Spades office with the falcon which Spade later places in a locker at the bus station.

That night O’Shaughnessy, Cairo, and Gutman arrive at Spade’s Apartment where they wait for Spade’s secretary to deliver the falcon. They quickly realize it is a fake and not the precious stone covered falcon of their dreams. Gutman and Cario are quickly out the door to continue the search. Spade then angrily confronts Brigid saying that he knows she killed Archer. Despite her pleas and the fact that he may have feelings for her, Spade turns her over to the police when they arrive. He says of the statuette, “The stuff that dreams are made of,” a line that has become famous in cinematic history. 

On its release in September 1941, it was critically acclaimed with critic Bosley Crowther calling it the best mystery thriller of the year. The magazine Film Dailey called it “beautifully made,” calling Houston’s direction of his own screenplay was “… as brilliant as any of the jewels which are alleged to incrust the falcon….”

Some years later critic Pauline Kael wrote “It is a work of entertainment that is yet so skillfully constructed that after many viewings it has the same brittle explosiveness even some of the same surprise that it has in its first run.” Having seen it many times I know what she means.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com.