The Maltese Falcon (1931)

Director:

Roy Del Ruth

Writers:

Dashiell Hammett (novel)
Maude Fulton (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

13 June 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Romance

Plot:

A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.

Plot Keywords:

Private Detective | Detective | Statuette | Money | Secretary

Cast

Bebe Daniels	...	Ruth Wonderly
Ricardo Cortez	...	Sam Spade
Dudley Digges	...	Casper Gutman
Una Merkel	...	Effie Perrine
Robert Elliott	...	Police Lt. Dundy
Thelma Todd	...	Iva Archer
Otto Matieson	...	Dr. Joel Cairo
Walter Long	...	Miles Archer
Dwight Frye	...	Wilmer Cook
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Det. Sgt. Tom Polhaus
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Agostino Borgato	...	Capt. John Jacobi (uncredited)
Tiny Jones	...	Jailbird seeking cigarette (uncredited)
Cliff Saum	...	Baggage clerk (uncredited)
Morgan Wallace	...	District Attorney (uncredited)
Lucille Ward	...	Sarah (prison matron) (uncredited)

Directed by
Roy Del Ruth

Writing credits
Dashiell Hammett		(novel)
Maude Fulton		(screenplay) &
Brown Holmes		(screenplay)
Maude Fulton		(dialogue) &
Brown Holmes		(dialogue)
Lucien Hubbard		uncredited

Cinematography by
William Rees		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
George Marks

Art Direction by
Robert M. Haas		(as Robert Haas)

Camera and Electrical Department
Mac Julian	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Earl Luick	....	wardrobe

Music Department
Leo F. Forbstein	....	conductor: Vitaphone Orchestra

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures
• Vitaphone Corporation, The

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1931) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Vitaphone Orchestra  music

Also Known As:

Dangerous Female (USA) (TV title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Norway:16

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

When originally sold to television in the 1950's, the title was changed to ‘Dangerous Female’, in order to avoid confusion with its illustrious remake. After more than fifty years, Turner Classic Movies has finally restored its original title card.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The same prop is used for the suitcase that Spade finds in Miss Wonderly's room and the suitcase which contains the falcon. The travel stickers are identical on each one.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sam Spade: Bye-bye, honey. I'll see you later... Effie!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The X Files: The Pine Bluff Variant (#5.18)" (1998)

The Original Screen Version of The Maltese Falcon

In 1931 Roy Del Ruth became the first director to bring Dashiell Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON to the screen. Although it received favorable reviews and did a brisk business at the box office, like many early talkies it was soon eclipsed by ever-advancing technology and forgotten--until television, with its endless demands for late-late show material, knocked on Hollywood's door. Retitled DANGEROUS FEMALE in order to avoid confusion with the highly celebrated 1941 version, it has haunted the airwaves ever since.

DANGEROUS FEMALE is interesting in several ways, and perhaps most deeply so as an example of the struggle that ensued when sound first roared. What had proved effective on the silent screen suddenly seemed highly mannered when voices were added, and both directors and stars struggled to find new techniques--and DANGEROUS FEMALE offers a very vision of the issues involved.

It is a myth that the advent of sound forced directors to lock down the camera, but it is true that many directors preferred simple camera set-ups in early sound films; it gave them one less thing to worry about. And with this film, Roy Del Ruth is no exception: in a visual sense, DANGEROUS FEMALE is fairly static. The performing decisions made by the various actors are also illustrative and informative, particularly re leads Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. Cortez is still clearly performing in the "silent mode," and he reads as visually loud; Daniels, however, has elected to underplay, and while she is stiff by current standards, her performance must have seemed startlingly innovative at the time. And then there are two performers who are very much of the technology: Una Merkle as Spade's secretary and Thelma Todd as Iva Archer, both of whom seem considerably more comfortable with the new style than either Cortez or Daniels.

The film is also interesting as a "Pre-Code" picture, for it is sexually explicit in ways most viewers will not expect from a 1930s film, and indeed it is surprisingly explicit even in comparison to other pre-code films. Hero Sam Spade is a womanizer who seduces every attractive female who crosses his path--and the film opens with a shot of just such a woman pausing to straighten her stockings before leaving his office. Still later, the dubious Miss Wonderly tempts Spade with her cleavage, lolls in his bed after a thick night, splashes in his bathtub, and finally winds up stripped naked in his kitchen! It is also interesting, of course, to compare DANGEROUS FEMALE to its two remakes. Directed by William Dieterle and starring Warren William and Bette Davis, the 1936 Satan MET A LADY would put Hammett's plot through the wringer--and prove a critical disaster and a box office thud. But then there is the justly celebrated 1941 version starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor under the direction of John Huston.

Both the 1931 and 1941 films lifted great chunks of dialogue from Hammett's novel, and very often the dialogue is line-for-line the same. But two more completely different films could scarcely be imagined. Where the 1931 film strives for an urbane quality, the 1941 film is memorably gritty--and in spite of being hampered by the production, considerably more sexually suggestive as well, implying the homosexuality of several characters much more effectively than the 1931 version dared.

In the final analysis, the 1931 THE MALTESE FALCON (aka DANGEROUS FEMALE) will appeal most to those interested in films that illustrate the transition between silent film and sound, to collectors of "pre-code" movies, and to hardcore FALCON fans who want everything associated with Hammett, his novel, and the various film versions. But I hesitate to recommend it generally; if you don't fall into one of those categories, you're likely to be unimpressed.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon reviewer