I got a great movie to start out with!
The Maltese Falcon, as you’ll remember from my post about the book, was written by Dashiell Hammet. I enjoyed the fact that the controversy and conspiracy in the book were relatively low, while the tension and action were high.
The movie was made in 1941. It was directed by John Husten and stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Gladys George. I’d heard really good things about this movie, and it didn’t disappoint. It really is a classic, isn’t it?
Whenever I watch old movies from the 40s and 50s, I’m always a little sad, because they just don’t make movies like that anymore. Husten meticulously planned out and storyboarded the entire movie before he even started setting up and shooting. This allowed him to see exactly how the movie would look and helped him figure out what he wanted to do and how he could do it the best. And it worked. The film was beautifully shot and staged.
I was also really surprised at how well the movie followed the book. It’s been a few months since I read The Maltese Falcon, but I felt like the screenwriters used a lot of lines directly from the book. The plot, too, was exactly the same. Unlike today, when most movie adaptations of books add or take out elements, The Maltese Falcon seemed to follow the book exactly. I liked that.
Overall, I loved The Maltese Falcon. It was very noir-y and suspenseful and detective-y and perfect. I wish they still made movies like that. And I wish that Humphrey Bogart was still in all of them.
Rating: *****
The Quixotic Reader 