Film #8: Maltese Falcon (1941)

Introduction

The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)

The purpose of this essay is to identify the characteristics of film noir found in the film “Maltese Falcon” by John Huston.

Theory Discussion

According to Tim Dirks, The French film critics labelled film noir as the “black film” genre or that peaked in the year of 1944 to 1955. Nino Frank noticed the trend of “dark”, downbeat and black looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France in theaters following the war, such as Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Laura (1944) and etc.

Film noir movies features a world of criminals of darkness and violence with characters’ central motives are usually greed, lust and ambition, drench in fear. Film noir shows that the society is evil, with a strong undercurrent of moral conflict, purposelessness and sense of injustice. It resembles more of a moral reality. There were rarely happy endings in the film.

Film noir has a lot of dark scenes with lots of shadows, using high contrast lighting. Film noir also has some characteristics of German expressionist film which is oblique vertical and horizontal lines. Filming locations usually are at alleyways, cramped corridors, murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments, rain slicked or mean streets and hotel rooms of big cities.

Everybody in film noir smokes. It is a very important feature in film noir. It suggests a mystery within the scene or the character in the scene. It makes the audience think that there are more what is actually shown on the screen.

The heroes mostly are “hard-boiled” detectives, gangsters, government agents, politicians, criminals or murderers. There were corrupted characters, fatalistic themes, hopeless tones, blurred morals and intellect. Protagonist suffering amnesia was a common used plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent man who fell victim to temptation or was framed. It is the revelations regarding the hero were created to justify the hero’s own cynical perspective on life.

Tim Dirks mentioned that females in film noir were either reliable or trustworthy or, femme fatales that are mysterious, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. When the major character was a detective, he would become trapped in a situation that would lead to evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death. It will bring both of them to downfall. There are always struggle of voices controlling the narrative diegesis, where ultimately, the control of the storytelling ends up controlling the image of the woman. The closure of the film usually ends at a price for any of the characters and guilt is not so easily ascribed to just one character.

Synopsis

John Hutson directed and wrote the film named “The Maltese Falcon” in 1941 as his directorial debut. This film is based on a novel of the same name written by Dashiell Hammett in 1930. Samuel Spade (Humphrey Bogart) works as a private investigator with Miles Archer in a firm called Spade and Archer. Brigid O’ Shaughnessy or Ruth Wonderly (Mary Astor) is Spade’s femme fatale client. When Shaughnessy showed up in the office, trouble follows as Sam’s partner, Miles is murdered and Sam is approached by Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) demanding he locate a valuable statue/falcon. Towards the end, Spade confronts Shaughnessy, telling her that he knows she murdered Miles. She confessed and begs Sam not to turn her in but however, Sam did.

Film Analysis

These are the characteristics of film noir found in the film, “The Maltese Falcon.”

Firstly, the characters. In this film, there is a private investigator, femme fatale and detectives. Samuel Spade as a private investigator, Brigid O’ Shaughnessy as a femme fatale and there are two detectives.

Next, the location. It is mostly shot in hotel rooms. For example, Spade invited Joel Cairo and Brigid to his hotel room to have a deal about a statue. There is another scene where the detectives waited in his hotel room silently with lights turn off. It is also shot in urban night scenes with deep shadows. For example, when Spade sat down in the office with the falcon statue with a cigarette, the shadow behind him is very dark. Then, the wet road was found seen when Spade was dropped off in front of his hotel in a taxi.

Thirdly, smoking. Spade was always smoking in the film, as well as Joel Cairo. For example, Spade’s secretary would light up a cigarette for him in the office. Joel Cairo appeared in Spade’s office, smoking a cigar.

Fourthly, femme fatale. Brigid O’ Shaughnessy is the femme fatale in the film. She was trying to manipulate Sam Spade, convincing him that she did not kill Miles Archer. She failed. Another femme fatale is Iva Archer. She was unreliable and desperate. When her husband, Miles died, she went to his office, and kissed Sam on the lips, saying that he could have her now as her husband has passed away.

Lastly, the storyline. It ended in an unhappy ending. It ended with Brigid being taken in custody when she confessed to Sam that she murdered Miles.

Conclusion

Film noir is a style or genre of cinematographic film. It is thematically cynical, pessimism and dark. Roger Ebert, a movie critic, rated this movie four stars. He said “among the movies we not only love but treasure, “The Maltese Falcon” stands as a great divide.”

References

1)     Dirks, Tim. (n.d.). Film Noir. Retrieved from http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

2)     Hughes, Liam. (2012, October 4) Key features of film noir. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/LiamJamesHughes/key-features-of-film-noir

3)     Ebert, R. (2001, May 13). The Maltese Falcon. Retrieved from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-maltese-falcon-1941