Lots of Maltese Falcons

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The 1941 film of The Maltese Falcon has long been one of my favourite films, sometimes my actual favourite so over the last few weeks I have revisited it, and its original source (Dashiell Hammet’s novel) and some of the other interpretations of that source - here’s some thoughts …

The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet (pub. 1930)

This was the first time I’ve read the book for probably 40 years and in that time I’ve watched the 1941 film many, many times. The most startling thing is how faithful the plot is and how much dialogue was lifted right out of the book and dropped into the film. The book has a few things that most of the adaptations ignore, most notably Gutman’s daughter Rhea who even in the book seems superfluous so is unsurprisingly dropped in most adaptations. 9/10

The Maltese Falcon (Roy Del Ruth, 1931)

Becuase I love the 1941 film so much this seems laboured in comparison. It’s pre-codeness gives us a little more sassiness, and Una Merkel is lovely as Effie, but it doesn’t flow nearly as well. 7/10

Satan Met a Lady (William Dieterle, 1936)

A pretty poor rehash, the characters and plot are tweaked and it’s played for laughs. 4/10

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

This has been one of my favourite films (possibly my actual favourite film) for years. It never gets old - sure the casting doesn’t follow the book so well - Bogart doesn’t look like Spade from the book - although I’m not entirely sure anyone does; and Mary Astor is too old and maybe not stunning enough to sucker people in with her beauty. But, they both work perfectly despite this. And the supporting cast is untouchable - Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook Jr, and Lee Patrick are all perfect. 10/10

The Maltese Falcon (Lux Radio, 1943)

This is an odd one, none of the original cast have been hauled in and it suffers, as do many (all) of these radio plays from lack of rehearsal (did they rehearse at all, or just come in and read it?). But for all that, listening t Edward G. Robinson deliver Bogie’s lines is a treat all the same! 6/10

The Black Bird (David Giler, 1975)

Awful. Just Awful. What did they do to poor Lee Patrick to turn her from excitable, sassy, and cool Effie in 1941, into … this!? Awful! 1/10

The Maltese Falcon (BBC Radio, 1984)

Not too bad, and Peter Vaughan is a pretty good Gutman. Of all the characters in the story surely Sydney Greenstreet must be the hardest act to follow - so Vaughan’s effort is not bad at all. 5/10

The Falcon’s Malteser - Anthony Horowitz (pub. 1986)

I think this only exists because of the pun in the title. The book doesn’t really make use of its Maltese Falcon reference like I felt it should, and ended up just being a convoluted story wrapped up with tiresome wordplay. 3/10