The Maltese Falcon

Origin: U.S (First National, Warner Bros.) 1941
Length: 101 minutes
Format: Black & White
Director: John Huston
Producer: Henry Blanke, Hal B. Wallis
Screenplay: John Huston, from novel by Dashiell Hammett
Photography: Arthur Edeson
Music: Adolph Deutsch
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Lee Patrick, Sydney Greenstreet, Ward Bond, Jerome Cowan, Elisha Cook Jr., James Burke, Murray Alper, John Hamilton
Oscar Nominations: Hal B. Wallis(best picture), John Huston(screenplay), Sydney Greenstreet(actor in supporting role)
Links: The Maltese Falcon Trailer, The Maltese Falcon Movie Wiki, The Maltese Falcon Novel Wiki

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By 1941, Dashiell Hammett's great private eye novel had been acceptably filmed twice, under its own title in 1931 with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade and as Satan Met A Lady in 1935 with Warren William as the Spade character(and the falcon McGuffin turned into the Horn of Roland). John Huston, having served an apprenticeship as a writer, selected the book from Warner Brothers' catalogue of properties and was so confident in the strength of his material that his script consists essentially of a transcription of Hammett's dialogue. He was fortunate enough to have a letter-perfect cast down to the smallest bit parts, and the restraint not to go over the top. This debut feature has little of the razzle-dazzle of the same year's Citizen Kane, announcing the arrival not of an enfant terrible but of a consummate professional.