The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Storyline
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
Directors
Cast
Elisha Cook Jr., Ward Bond, Murray Alper, Lee Patrick, Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Creighton Hale, Walter Huston, Jack Mower, Emory Parnell, Hank Mann, Barton MacLane, William Hopper, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Jerome Cowan, James Burke, John Hamilton, Charles Drake, Robert Homans, Chester Gan
Trailer
Reviews
100
The movie is essentially a series of conversations punctuated by brief, violent interludes. It's all style. It isn't violence or chases, but the way the actors look, move, speak and embody their characters.
100
The Maltese Falcon is an unassailable triumph of script, casting, direction and editing.
100
The film that brought the detective movie into the modern world, complete with novel film-noir techniques (shadows, low-angled shots, anti-heroes and duplicitous dames) and assembled one of the most enjoyable casts ever to play off each other.
100
It's the slickest exercise in cerebration that has hit the screen in many months, and it is also one of the most compelling nervous-laughter provokers yet.
100
On a number of accounts it is distinguished celluloid entertainment, but it is of great interest to the trade because it reveals, in startling terms, the unheralded talent of topflight scenarist, John Huston, who, in the dual capacity of writer and director of this picture, is now entitled to take his place among the most important creative artists in the industry.
