By Gad, Sir, You Are A Character: "The Maltese Falcon" Appreciation Thread

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/59/102859-004-594C854A.jpg

SO classic. My boyfriend's coming over in a bit to watch it...for the first time!

"You always have a pretty smooth answer for everything, don't you?"

"Whaddya want me to do -- learn to stutter?"

"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter, eh?"

i watch it at least once a year.

http://silverstatechronicles.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/maltesefalcon.jpg

"You won't go around straightening things and poking the fire again, will you?"

(mary astor is so great in this.)

When he leaves the apartment and starts laughing after he was in a rage.

I want to watch this again this weekend.

Let's not forget Peter Lorre: "Schtop! You arre horrrting me"

(Sniffs the business card. His eyebrows rise.) "By all means, show him in, precious."

"This is going to be the most astounding thing you've ever heard of. I say this knowing a man of your calibre and your profession must have known some astounding things in his time."

One of the best bits on the Coldcut mix.

who else has seen the two earlier versions?

I'll creep out on a limb and call this the best, most faithful novel-to-film adaptation ever.

I've always wanted to see the pre-Bogie versions. Are they any good?

I seem to remember they're both kinda fascinating but impossible to stop thinking about the Huston version... In Satan Met a Lady, all the chracter names are different (Bette Davis has the Astor part), and the Fat Man role is played by Alison Skipworth! (onetime foil for WC Fields, in the Margaret Dumont - Marie Dressler vein)

Pauline Kael was right that the worst thing about the '41 classic is the score. (and I think she was the one who points out they crucially left out Hammett's last chapter, where Effie realizes Spade is a shit)

I'll creep out on a limb and call this the best, most faithful novel-to-film adaptation ever.

This is often true of Hammett. The Thin Man is a good adaptation, too.

More discussion of this pls.

Greenstreet is just amazing in this. They all are, but he stands out.

I can't believe I've never seen this thread. Gonna watch it again today now, I think. <3

gah jealous.

brought on by the big sleep last night- tho this is better imo they go together for obvious reasons.

godDAMN martha vickers tho. every time.

One of my all-time favourite films, ever. I love the way no-one tells the truth in it. No one. It's just battling wills. Fantastic.

(and I think she was the one who points out they crucially left out Hammett's last chapter, where Effie realizes Spade is a shit)

Also omitted from the movie: the Flitcraft parable, which helps set up Spade's actions at the end of the story.

yeah there's a bit of a jump in spade's action's/motivations- he sems to be wise to astor the whole way through (indeed, playing her assumed hold on him for most of it) then gets all teary at the end while shopping her. it's the only part that doesn't click for me.

if that's further explained in the book, i must get a copy.

One of the striking things about the novel is Hammett's relentlessly external presentation of the characters, including Spade. We see what he sees but are never told or shown what he thinks or feels. The scene where he tells O'Shaughnessy about Flitcraft is pretty much the only gap in the curtain.

carries into the movie too

love it, this is one movie that i must really get around to reading the book of.

The missing Flitcraft parable is great. Always think of it in relationship to the Hawthorne story where the guy goes into hiding and comes back after umpteen years, "Wakefield."

There's almost no reason to read the book if you know the movie: Huston turned the novel into a script and omitted a couple of minor strokes. Hammet's ruthless "externalization" of the characters works in Huston's favor because it allows his actors to fill in motivations, subtext, etc.

Perfection, this.

http://www.fallingbeam.org/beam.htm

Something worth owning (and funny, if you think about how the film itself is about acquiring it--presumably a half-dead Walter Huston shows up at your doorstep to deliver it):

http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Statuette+from+classic+1941+film+Maltese+Falcon+coming/8759130/story.html

unfortuntely i heard some asshole scratched it up with a pocket knife

tomorrow I will watch this for lunch I think

In the Peter Lorre bio of abt 10 years ago, it sez Lorre would duck into Mary Astor's dressing room when it was empty, then come out zipping up his fly when people were passing by.

his gadfly

the cheaper the crook the gaudier the patter eh

Satan Met a Lady isn't good, necessarily, but it is kinda fun. The supporting cast is appealingly colourful and grotesque (Alison Skipworth is a blast, if underutilized).

It's worth pointing out that almost all of the dialogue in the Maltese Falcon movie was lifted straight out of the novel, word-for-word, because John Huston had the good sense to recognize it could not be improved upon.