The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett -- a review by Elleanore Vance

 

Any fan of film noir has at least heard of The Maltese Falcon. Most aren't aware that the 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet was in fact the third stab at the source material. The first, in 1931, starred Bebe Daniels as Miss Wonderly and Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade and it flopped. The second was called Satan Met a Lady in 1936, and was more of a spoof along today's lines of  "The Naked Gun" movies than a true adaptation. The film starred Warren William and Bette Davis, and it also flopped. Thank heaven Hollywood actually had the sense back then to only remake the films that didn't do well. It gave us one of the greatest film masterpieces of all time, based on one of the world's greatest detective stories.

Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel is considered a quintessential work of crime fiction and a perfect example of the noir sub-genre. Sam Spade is the private eye who keeps his thoughts to himself. Miss Wonderly is the femme fatale with a dozen aliases, and just as many lies, using her feminine charms to get what she wants.  Spade and his partner Archer find it easy enough to believe what she says without any scruples about taking her money.

Joel Cairo is a small, feminine man, gay by dialog in the novel. He is shifty and shady. We know from 'go' he is not to be trusted.  And then there is Caspar Gutmann, the stereotypical evil fat man of the time.

All of our players are after the same 'dingus': our titular Maltese Falcon.  This objet d'art has an intriguing history all its own, the kind only possible in the pulp novels of the 1920's.

The events of this novel take place over the course of five days (December 5-10, 1928) in the heart of San Francisco. I find it all too easy to lose myself in this tale of murder and intrigue.

It is also all too easy for us to look back on this story from a century later and see its flaws -- its racism and homophobia, for a start. That doesn't mean The Maltese Falcon has no value or merit. Sam Spade shows us any number of reasons not to trust the police or the District Attorney. Effie, Spade's "office girl," whom I haven't mentioned yet, shows us loyalty, courage and how to be a good judge of character. 

In short, just because there's dust on the cover, doesn't mean there isn't something wonderful inside 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐5/5