The Maltese Falcon (1931)

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This film begins with a private detective named "Sam Spade" (Ricardo Cortez) interviewing a new client by the name of "Ruth Wonderly" (Bebe Daniels) who asks him to track down her missing sister who has somehow become involved with a dangerous and unseen man known only as Floyd Thursby . As it so happens, Sam's partner "Miles Archer" (Walter Long) arrives at that moment and decides to take over the case personally. That night Miles is shot and killed--and since Sam is having an affair with his partner's wife--he becomes the leading suspect. And then when Thursby is shot and killed hours later he also become the primary suspect in that murder as well. It then becomes apparent that Ms. Wonderly hasn't quite told Sam the entire truth and he soon finds himself involved in a complicated scheme concerning an extremely valuable statuette known as the Maltese Falcon--and the people looking for it will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. Now rather than reveal anymore I will just say that, while I have seen the more famous film by the same title produced in 1941, I didn't realize that there was an older movie that preceded it. That being said, although I found this particular film to be a bit more dated, it was surprisingly more risqué as well. Be that as it may, while it isn't as good as the version with Humphrey Bogart, this one is certainly enjoyable and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

I'll try to be fair in my review of this early version of "The Maltese Falcon", but with Bogart as my favorite actor and the 1941 remake as one of my Top 10 films, it's going to be difficult. Not that this isn't a serviceable story, it is, but if you've seen the Bogey crew in action, there's no comparison, at least for this viewer.I never read the Dashiell Hammett novel, so I don't know which Sam Spade more closely resembles the literary version. I can say though, that I didn't care for the Ricardo Cortez portrayal here all that much. Perhaps it's because he was a flagrant womanizer, or because he didn't trade barbs with Polhaus (J. Farrel MacDonald) and Dundy (Robert Elliott) with the sardonic wit of Bogart's Spade. On the flip side though, the fact that Spade understood Chinese was an interesting idea; it's not till late in the story that we learn that Lee Fu Gow told Spade who killed his partner. So he knew all along, and kept it close to the vest to see how things played out.Character for character match-ups between the two pictures makes it a hands down proposition for the later film. How can you top Greenstreet, Lorre and Elisha Cook, Jr. as the heavies compared to the statue hunters here? As Ruth Wonderly, Bebe Daniels uses only one name in the story compared to Mary Astor's character, and Sam's secretary in this version, portrayed by Una Merkel, gave every indication that she had a past, present or future in the romance department with her boss. Bogart's Spade wisely kept his hands to himself around his secretary, maintaining a professional relationship instead of a lecherous one.I guess there are those who'll see things just the other way around with this pre-code version of The Falcon. There's something to be said for the free wheeling attitude displayed toward sexual innuendo in the story. It helps explain how Miss Wonderly wound up with a woman's kimono in Sam's apartment - it belonged to partner Archer's wife!! I did get a big kick out of one thing that blows by pretty quickly if one is not attentive to it. Listen carefully when Sam Spade makes a call to Effie's home phone - her number is Berkeley, Double O-7! It would be a couple decades before writer Ian Fleming came up with that designation for his secret agent, James Bond! I wonder if he saw this picture.

Maltese Falcon, The (1931) ** 1/2 (out of 4) First version of the famous story has a mysterious woman (Bebe Daniels) hiring Detective Sam Spade (Ricardo Cortez) to investigate the disappearance of her sister but that's just a backdrop for the missing black bird. While it's very difficult not to compare this film to the John Huston one, I think this works somewhat decent on its own. The biggest problem I had with the film were the two leads. Daniels was quite annoying and I never really bought into her in the lead. Cortez didn't quite work out either as I felt he was just too playboy and not enough detective. The supporting cast is very good throughout, although they don't quite reach the excellence of the Huston version. Thelma Todd, Dwight Frye and Dudley Diggs are all watchable. The added pre-code sexuality and the homosexual talk is one benefit over the Huston version.

Ricardo Cortez plays playboy detective Sam Spade, in this first version of novelist Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon". Bebe Daniels (as Ruth Wonderly) is the femme fatale with whom he becomes involved, along with Dudley Digges (as Gutman) and Otto Matieson (as Dr. Cairo); for various reasons, they all seek "The Maltese Falcon". It's an exceptionally rare piece... The production "look" of this early "talkie" is nowhere near as good as "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), which was directed by John Huston, and starred Humphrey Bogart. However, this 1931 version is more enjoyable that you'd expect; it is especially recommended as a viewing addendum to its better known re-make(s). Mr. Cortez and Ms. Daniels liven things up with some sexual play; this was so subdued in the 1941 version, it was almost sexless. Mr. Matieson and Una Merkel (as secretary Effie) are the best supporting performers. In this version, the characters' actions make more sense. There are a few noticeable story differences; for example, this one ends quite differently...***** The Maltese Falcon (5/28/31) Roy Del Ruth ~ Ricardo Cortez, Bebe Daniels, Dudley Digges, Otto Matieson