Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel “The Maltese Falcon” had already been made into a movie twice before its most well-known version was created in 1941, becoming an American cinema classic: The Maltese Falcon (1931), directed by Roy Del Ruth, and its tamer remake, Satan Met a Lady (1936) by William Dieterle. The 1941 version marked John Huston's directorial debut, and it made quite an impression on audiences and critics alike.
George Raft, a Warner Bros. contract player, was the studio's first choice to play detective Sam Spade, but he turned down the opportunity because he felt that it was not an important picture. His contract gave him veto power over films that he thought were not worthy of his name. Raft also chafed at the idea of working with a novice director. Humphrey Bogart, who had been on suspension for refusing to appear in Bad Men of Missouri (1941), was drafted into the role instead. He had just scored a hit in High Sierra (1941), another picture Raft turned down. In fact, Raft continued to advance Bogart's career through his own inability to recognize potential hits: the actor reportedly turned down the lead in Casablanca (1942) as well.
Geraldine Fitzgerald was first choice to play Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the role that ended up being immortalized by Mary Astor. Fitzgerald cost a great deal less than Astor, and she was also eight years younger than Astor, whose career at the studio dated back to the silent days when she was a teenage leading lady opposite such heartthrobs as John Barrymore. The only problem was that Fitzgerald had no interest in starring in a low-budget whodunit with a novice director and a B-movie leading man. Having reportedly hailed the script as "a humdinger," Astor did not have to be talked into taking the role. She found the character to be a ripe and juicy role. As she wrote in her memoir, “A Life on Film,” “Brigid was attractive, charming, appealingly feminine and helpless and a complete liar and murderess.”
Huston cast his father, Walter, in an uncredited cameo as the man who staggers into Spade's office with the infamous falcon statue, then dies. John had some fun making his father do the scene over and over again, and that same night Astor called Walter pretending to be John's secretary. She said that John would need him to re-shoot his scene because something had happened to the film in the lab. Walter screamed, "You tell my son to get another actor or go to hell!," as Astor held out the receiver for everyone to hear. Jokes such as this were commonplace on the set. The cast and crew had the feeling they were shooting something exciting and tried to deter any unwanted visitors from coming to the set. The publicity department once brought a group of priests to the set. Before shooting began, Astor looked down at her legs and said, "Hold it a minute, I've got a g**damn run in my stocking," while the publicity man quickly ushered the priests off the set. From that moment on, jokes like that became a way for the cast and crew to amuse themselves and keep unwanted people off the set at the same time.
Everyone involved in The Maltese Falcon were so efficient that they often finished shooting for the day early and went to lunch at the nearby Lakeside Golf Club. On one of these days, Huston (who made detailed plans and sketches for each shot, much like Hitchcock later did) had set aside an entire day to shoot one elaborate moving camera sequence. The sequence lasted about seven minutes, and they nailed it perfectly in one take; the rest of the day was spent at the golf club. It was because of days like this that production finished two days ahead of schedule and $54,000 under budget.
Today, many film scholars refer to The Maltese Falcon as the first official film noir. To Huston's credit, he did not change one line of dialogue, and he only dropped one short scene when he realized he could substitute a phone call instead. Bogart's role in this film elevated him to cult status, and Ingrid Bergman studied him as Sam Spade to judge how to interact with him in Casablanca two years later. About the production, Bogart later said, "It was practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of but that's one." Bogart so respected Huston and the Sam Spade character that he searched until the end of his life for a script that recaptured the excitement he found in The Maltese Falcon. A few years before his death, Bogart revealed that he had purchased a book to be adapted into a film for he and his wife, Lauren Bacall. "We might do it," he told a radio interviewer, "in association with John Huston...It's a little on the order of The Maltese Falcon."
Astor would hyperventilate before shooting for her scenes began in order to achieve that breathless quality she retained throughout the film, the look of a liar. Peter Lorre, as usual, turned in an excellent performance as Joel Cairo, while Sydney Greenstreet earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as Casper Gutman. The 61-year-old actor made his film debut in The Maltese Falcon after a long career as a stage actor. Huston had discovered Greenstreet in a Los Angeles play called “There Shall Be No Night,” co-starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Greenstreet was extremely nervous just before shooting his first scene. "Mary dear, hold my hand, tell me I won't make an ass of meself!," he begged Astor before he began his long monologue telling the history of the statue. Obviously, his fears were unfounded and the entire cast was perfect. Critical acclaim and Oscar nominations followed – Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Greenstreet's nomination solidified the opinion that the film was indeed a great one. To this day, it is considered one of the quintessential detective thrillers and has been exalted as one of the greatest films ever made.
Director: John Huston
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Screenplay: John Huston, based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
Cinematography: Arthur Edeson
Editing: Thomas Richards
Art Direction: Robert Haas
Music: Adolph Deutsch
Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Sam Spade), Mary Astor (Brigid O'Shaughnessy), Peter Lorre (Joel Cairo), Sydney Greenstreet (Casper Gutman), Barton MacLane (Detective Lieutenant Dundy)
BW-101m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.
