The Maltese Falcon

[dr_mabeuse]

I just read the book from the library and so I had to rent the movie again. I was amazed at how similar the movie was to Hammett's original novel. Great chunks of dialogue are just lifted entire from the book, including Spade's great line to Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre): "When you're slapped you'll take it and like it!"

It's hard to believe that Hammett didn't write the book specifically for Bogart and Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre (who, by the way, has got to be one of my favorite all-time actors) and even Elisha Cook, Jr., who plays Wilmer the gunsel, and when I read the book it was impossible not to hear them saying the lines. Thing is, in the book Sam Spade is blonde.

Anyhow, that's my book report for the week. Hammett's a great writer. As with so many of the stories you read here on Lit, the first few paragraphs are bad enough to make you roll your eyes, but he pretty quickly gets into the groove, and from then on he's very smooth and clever. He's a master at communicating a character's thoughts and inner states through their gestures, though his action sequences are kind of clumsy.

Bogey still is the definitive noir Private Eye to me, and Peter Lorre the definitive creep. Great book, great flick.

---Zoot

 

[Guest]

All right, if you say so.

 

[cynter]

never read the book, but i agree the movie is a classic!

cyn

 

[shereads]

"When you're slapped you'll take it and like it!"

Great book, great flick.

Great dick.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Zoot,

I first saw The Maltese Falcon (1941) on televison, which may be why it’s not my favorite. I didn’t read the Dashiell Hammett novel, either.

BTW: Has anyone seen the original 1931 version? Did it also follow the novel, closely?

My favorite noirs are I Wake Up Screaming (1941) written by Steve Fisher and Laura (1944) from the Vera Caspary novel. Those two I did read after seeing the films.

If the nominations are still open, I should like to nominate Laird Cregar for Best Noir Villain.

Burley ~

 

[cantdog]

I read it on a trip once. It really is very spooky how much the book and movie with Bogart are verbatim copies.

You can't help but hear the words spoken by those actors. I raved about the experience, too, but so far no one has read the thing on my recommendation in order to have the weird deja entendu experience you describe so clearly.

You can tell people and tell people, but they will never listen to what a fine experience this is.

No!! They pat you on the fuckin head and they say, "that's nice." And then they make fuckin conversation and just have a good time and get on with their lives.

But they're rrreally missin it dude.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Mr. Dog,

From what you say, you haven’t fallen into the worst error.

I would lend a book to someone I wished to read it. Several weeks later, when questioned, they’d reply, “It’s all right,” or some such inconsequentiality. That or they had lost the book before getting around to reading it.

I have had to buy three copies of John Fowles “The Collector,” on that account.

Now, I don’t give books, just opinions.

Burley ~

 

[Guest]

I love The Maltese Falcon and want to point out two bits not yet mentioned.

Detective Tom Polhaus (Ward Bond): What is this?
Sam Spade: The, uh, the stuff that dreams are made of.

The italics is from Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Prospero speaks it in the famous 'cloud capped towers' speech.

And no one's mentioned Mary Astor, the perfect Brigid O'Shaughnessy. I love these lines.

Sam Spade: All we've got is that maybe you love me and maybe I love you.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: You know whether you love me or not.
Sam Spade: Maybe I do. I'll have some rotten nights after I've sent you over, but that'll pass.

And here's a true anti-hero talkin':

Brigid O'Shaughnessy: You're not--
Sam Spade: Yes, angel, I'm going to send you over. But chances are, you'll get off with life. That means, if you're a good girl, you'll be out in twenty years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you.

Perdita

 

[Clare Quilty]

I haven't seen The Maltese Falcon since I was a wee child. I shall have to borrow it from the library. I am a fan of both Bogart and Lorre. My favorite Bogart offerings are the obvious Casablanca, and less ubiquitously The Petrified Forest. I agree that Peter Lorre was the ultimate sycophantic creep. I recently saw Fritz Lang's brilliant M, wherein Mr. Lorre portrays the creepiest character of his long career. Embarrassingly, his emphatically unpolitically-correct "Mr. Moto" movies are also lifelong favorites.

 

[Guest]

Clare, you must see "Mad Love" with Lorre. I won't say more.

Did anyone else recollect Lorre when first seeing Golum portrayed in the first LoTR film? I'd bet a lot the actor had him in mind, even if subconsciously. Those eyes...

The Petrified Forest is a sublime work, Howard, Davis and Bogart are brilliant. It's all poetry.

Perdita

 

[Clare Quilty]

Did anyone else recollect Lorre when first seeing Golum portrayed in the first LoTR film? I'd bet a lot the actor had him in mind, even if subconsciously. Those eyes...

Oh yes, and I don't think there was anything more subconscious than animaniac's "Brain" (of "Pinky & The Brain), a megalomaniacal mouse bent on taking over the world, happening to sound exactly like Orson Welles. It smacks, to me at least, of a cineaste's inside joke.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I haven't seen The Maltese Falcon since I was a wee child. I shall have to borrow it from the library. I am a fan of both Bogart and Lorre. My favorite Bogart offerings are the obvious Casablanca, and less ubiquitously The Petrified Forest. I agree that Peter Lorre was the ultimate sycophantic creep. I recently saw Fritz Lang's brilliant M, wherein Mr. Lorre portrays the creepiest character of his long career. Embarrassingly, his emphatically unpolitically-correct "Mr. Moto" movies are also lifelong favorites.

M was fantastic. Until I saw that I thought Lorre was just a character actor. I didn't know he had this big history in German film behind him.

I believe he was the original "Mad Dr. Mabuse" [sic]. I thought I'd just made up that name, and then I was rereading "On The Road" for the first time since high school and Kerouac mentions seeing Lorre in "The Return of Dr. Mabuse" or some such and I realized that I'd been carrying that name around in my unconscious for years. Never saw the movie...

Until I read the book I hadn't realized what a cynical hardass Spade was. I knew he was screwing his partner's wife, and I knew that he had no qualms about sending Mary Astor up the river, but it just never occurred to me how cold he was when he learned that his partner had been killed. Not a sigh, not a tear,

At the murder site, detetctive Tom Polhaus says to him, "Still, I guess Miles had his good points, huh?"

And Spade replies, "Yeah. I guess he did." Meaning: maybe he did but you couldn;t prove it by me.

---dr.M.

 

[oggbashan]

It's hard to believe that Hammett didn't write the book specifically for Bogart and Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre (who, by the way, has got to be one of my favorite all-time actors) and even Elisha Cook, Jr., who plays Wilmer the gunsel, and when I read the book it was impossible not to hear them saying the lines. Thing is, in the book Sam Spade is blonde.

Bogey still is the definitive noir Private Eye to me, and Peter Lorre the definitive creep. Great book, great flick.

---Zoot

That is how good actors work. Once they have got into character you can't separate their performance from the original author's conception.

Film actors in those days had an extensive experience of acting on stage as well as to a camera. The director had skilled people to work with who could understand how to portray what was wanted and bring their own magic.

Og