"Out of the Past" is a cool noir. Please consider BODY HEAT...a neo noir film starring Kathleen Turner and WIlliam Hurt (who just passed)....fantastic twists and turns! Love your reactions and your eclectic film choices! Cheers.
Dashiell Hammett's story is one of the best misdirects ever. It's like a magician's trick. All the time you are wrapped up in the mystery of the falcon. But in reality Spade is only involved so he can find out who killed his partner. He seems not to care, but in reality he cares very much. I love it.
But it's Bogart that makes it work. Same with Raymond Chandler w/ Marlowe. Their books a pulpy and crude, and frankly childish. But ironically, thanks to the Hays Code requiring clever filmmaking to convey taboos, along with Bogart's acting, the films rise above the source material.
@@Hexon66 The book isn't crude or childish. The book is quite smart and is such a classic that it was made into 3 different movies with this one being, if I remember correctly, the last of the adaptations.
Yes, this is the 3rd film version, all produced by Warner Bros. studios. The first in 1931 was very racy and Pre-Code. It also featured the deletion of Gutman's daughter, who was the financee of Wilmer Cook. 1936, SATAN MET A LADY, with Bette Davis & Warren William tried to put a THIN MAN comic overlay to the proceedings and changed Gutman to an older woman villianess, with Wilmer being her mentally unstable son. Originally, Jean Negulescu was set to direct, but John Huston pulled a contractual demand, so Negulescu made a series of Technicolor dance films. Walter Huston, John's father appears unbilled as Captain Jacoby. Watch Peter Lorre in his first scenes subtly caressing his cane handle with his lips, which in addition to his curly hair & gardenia perfume told us his character was homosexual.
The iconic line "The stuff that dreams are made of" Humphrey Bogart was such a legend of movies in his time I could watch this movie over and over...and have lol. The African Queen with Katherine Hepburn is another great Bogart film! A must watch! Great reaction Chris as always entertaining!
@@oliverbrownlow5615 Not "partly inspired", it's a direct reference! "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
@@ThreadBomb I think it more accurate to say partly inspired because it has a very different meaning in *The Maltese Falcon* than it has in *The Tempest.* Bogart as Spade is talking about the Falcon and all it represents to the various people who tried to get it. Shakespeare is referring to a company of players. So yes, he's referring to the line from Shakespeare, but repurposing the phrase he borrows completely. However, if you don't like the way I say it, read on, MacDuff, for you'll find as I did to my chagrin that many other people had pointed out this connection in earlier comments, phrasing their various explanations in just about every way imaginable.
If you like watching Peter Lorre, you have to watch his breakout role in Fritz Lang’s “M”. It is a brilliant film, and Lorre is amazingly riveting on screen.
"Crime And Punishment" also, which he did right after! He's also in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (the first version, Hitchcock's breakthrough film). All three of those are great.
This is one of those movies that gives you little gifts on re-watching: the moments of connection and weird comprehension between Guttman and Spade; the tiny smiles from Bogart which let the audience in; the fun by-play from Peter Lorre to Bogart and to Greenstreet (this was Sydney Greenstreet's first movie, and boy does he pass with flying colors!). Of course you've seen both Lorre and Greenstreet in "Casablanca". Mary Astor was a versatile leading actress, a little past her prime here, but captivating in how she understands the twisting pathways of her character here. Elisha Cook, who was Wilmer, often played hitmen and gangsters. Because of his slight build, he was labelled "The world's lightest heavy". "The stuff that dreams are made of" seems to have been inserted by Bogart himself. It's from the epilogue of "The Tempest": "We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep." (Bogart knew his Shakespeare).
sydney greenstreet (gutman) was reportedly the inspiration for jabba the hutt in the star wars franchise. he was also in casablanca, as ferrari, the owner of the blue parrot, the rival cafe to rick's. so was peter lorre, who played ugarte, the black marketeer who killed the couriers carrying the letters of transit. both were under contract with warner bros, and two of the best character actors of the period.
Crackin' foxy = being clever, cunning, wise-acre, quick-witted or tricky. Fast fact: the word "gunsel" has come to mean "a criminal carrying a gun." Dashiell Hammet, author of Maltese Falcon, intended the word to have its original meaning: "a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner." Here, it's Wilmer by Gutman. According to one source, "the novel Maltese Falcon was originally serialized in a magazine, Black Mask, whose editor refused to allow vulgarities. Hammett used the word "gunsel" knowing that the editor would likely misunderstand it as relating to guns, and therefore allow it." The word was later popularized with the new meaning.
"The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of." Such an iconic noir film. This is the stereotypical, textbook example of a noir film. Fun Fact: Three of the statuettes still exist and are conservatively valued at over $1 million each. This makes them some of the most valuable film props ever made; indeed, each is now considerably worth more than what it cost to make.
Dude, If you think this was fast paced you need to check out "His Girl Friday" with Cary Grant. It's a laugh out loud comedy classic and I'd say the film with the fastest dialogue ever.
American speech averages 240 words per minute. His Girl Friday averages 240 words per minute. Where most movies have pauses so the dialog sinks in, this movie has people talking over each other.
I've seen "The Maltese Falcon" easily more than 50 times and it's always fresh, always exciting. Beautifully familiar, but never tired, never old. It is brilliant in it's every aspect, a virtually perfect film with one of the greatest casts ever in any film. Bogart, Academy Awars winner Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Lee Patrick, etc. all at the pinnacle of their craft. Lorre and Greenstreet were so popular together that Warner Bros. paired them in nine films altogether, the best being "The Verdict" and "The Mask Of Dimitrios" which is another excellent noir.
He ends up doing his first dozen films that all stand the test of time in just 5-6 years, too. His next dozen were less memorable, less rewatchable, I find, but that 1941-1946 output is outstanding. He's never The Lead and never The Star, but always is big in the film, even more than his girth.
Neil Sion did a wonderful play that was turned into a movie based on Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. It's called The Cheap Detective and it's hilarious.
The Malteses Falcon was a book by Dashiell Hammett. He was a pioneer of the “hard boiled” genre of detective fiction. He had worked as a detective for the Pinkerton Agency until tuberculosis forced him to quit. He turned to writing and created the kind of detective story that is still common today: a hard nosed PI who has his own code, always in trouble with the police for bending the rules but getting the perp in the end. He also wrote femme fatale characters who used men to get their way. You should watch The Big Sleep with Bogart and Lauren Bacall. It’s a Raymond Chandler story. Chandler followed Hammett’s lead and further developed the “hard boiled” mystery.
The last line of the film is a riff on Prospero’s famous speech in the Tempest: we are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
Great reaction! It can be trying the first few times. As my mother, who grew up with these movies taught me, "You almost have to train your ears to listen in shorthand." 🤭😁Many Noir, as well as slapstick screwball, Howard Hawks type comedies from the 1930s and 40s contain whip fast dialogue, line topping, etc. For lightning fast dialogue in GoldenAge of Hollywood cinema, check out the Cary Grant headlining comedies like HIS GIRL FRIDAY, Arsenic and Old Lace (hilarious) and BRINGING UP BABY. and a myriad of others. Films like this came out in a time post depression era and did phenomenally. Any attempt today wouldn't fly and be viewed as corny or "camp". But these old celluloid gems, the directors behind the lens and the actors in them still educate, entertain and challenge us.
"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter". That's my favorite line, SO happy you singled that one out!! That's some hard-boiled film-noir wisdom for ya, lol./ Great analysis at the end, and I love how you tied it into that scripture, beautifully said. 13:19 - That made me laugh! "I'd like to know one concrete thing for certain!" /This movie is such an archetype! For westerns, it's "Stagecoach", for the film noir/private eye genre, it's this one! The director, John Huston, went on to make many uber-classics, of all genres, from this 1941 debut right through the 1980s: "Moby Dick", "The Man Who Would Be King" "The Asphalt Jungle", "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre", The Misfits", "Prizzi's Honor", "The African Queen", etc......all of those are definite good times, lol. He acts in "Chinatown", which in itself is very much an homage to "The Maltese Falcon"! LOVED this reaction! THANK YOU, CHRIS! Thanks for hitting these older ones. '41 was a great year for movies.
I said the line out loud cause it struck me as funny the way it was said, but as I said it all the meaning clicked and I was like… wow. Thanks so much for watching :)
This was great! An all-time favorite of mine! You NEED to watch LAURA (1944). Epic. Vincent Price plays a very different character from his normal horror characters..... Clifton Webb is fabulous, Gene Tierney is a goddess and Dana Andrews is a good foil to all. Also, Judith Anderson (known for a captivating performance in REBECCA) is fantastic as well.
I *had* a Maltese Falcon statue when I was a kid. (My gramps, who gave it to me, _claimed_ it was an actual prop from the movie. 🤨). It was eventually stolen from me, so that's appropriate.
@@CasualNerdReactions I like to dream that a squirrelly, little, German guy stole it from me...and I'm cool with that. (Prolly not, but dreams are the stuff that...um...other stuff is made from. Yeah. What I said.)
Excellent choice! I agree, the film is filled with so much great dialogue that it is hard to do a reaction video to it without talking over some of it. But you did quite well under the circumstances. And it's a film that (I think at least) can be watched over and over again, without ever losing its zest.
One of the greats! As far as Film Noir is concerned, D.O.A. (1949) is well worth a watch. A man is poisoned and races against time to solve his own murder before he dies.
Thank you ! As I previously noted, one of my favorite films (especially the character of Joel Cairo, who, shall we say, had to be "muted" to appear on film). The noir films were heavily influenced by German impressionism (witness Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt (Colonel Strasser in Casablanca), both rabid anti-Nazis), the Depression and WWII. For a follow-up dive into noir I suggest (as has previously been suggested) Double Indemnity (1944).
Sam Spade is amazing, he keeps you guessing the whole time, and he lies so easily, but he’s never once really on the “dark side.” He’s the Neutral Good D&D rogue done perfectly well.
Excellent analysis of the closing line! The Big Sleep is another excellent noir, with Bogart and a beautiful young Lauren Bacall. Or if you want an underseen and underrated neo-noir, try Night Moves starring Gene Hackman and a 16-year-old Melanie Griffith.
The Big Sleep is a confusing mash. The Maltese Falcon’s script is tight. But the Big Sleep has the AMAZING Lauren Bacall. 🎶 🎶 🐺 (That’s my wolf whistle). The Big Sleep is carried by Boggie’s and Bacall’s chemistry. My favorite Bogart performance is in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Casablanca might be my favorite Bogart movie, but as far as really showing his acting chops, the Fred C. Dobbs character in Treasure of the Sierra Madre is unsurpassed.
@@MarcosElMalo2 I don't think it's all that confusing, except they just kind of forgot about the whole Rusty Regan plotline, if I recall correctly. Then again, I've read the novel a few times, so my subconscious might just be filling in the film's plot holes on the sly.
Your analysis was spot on. You may have noticed two supporting actors also in Casablanca, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. They did a number of film noir movies together, one in particular to watch someday as it's reminiscent of Maltese Falcon, "Three Strangers" (1946). But two more must do Bogart films are "To Have and Have Not" (1944) a WWII film where Bogart stars with his future wife Lauren Bacall and her screen debut, and "Key Largo" (1948) starring Bogart & Bacall and the legendary Edward G. Robinson.
More Lorre and Greenstreet movies. Background to Danger (1943) Passage to Marseille (1944 also with Bogart) The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) The Conspirators (1944) Hollywood Canteen (1944) The Verdict (1946)
@@creech54 Haven't seen Hollywood Canteen, but I highly second the others you suggested and have seen them all several times. 👍 Two other good Bogart war era movies "Action in the North Atlantic", and "Across the Pacific" which has the most interesting blooper and ironic title of any of Bogie's flicks. (He didn't do the blooper! 😁)
HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN is a cameo-a-thon war-bond extravaganza, with a host of Hollywood stars paraded across the screen in a thin plot but just to make sure folks could buy a movie ticket and see so many stars in one sitting. And raise money and portray the movie-studio as a war-bond supporter.
Sam's last line - an ad lib by Humphery Bogart - was from Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST - "We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with sleep," refering to the illusion of theatre implying that sometimes dreams are based on things that are not real.
Bogart's worth a decade of film-watching himself. DARK PASSAGE is a favorite, with one of my most despised characters spewed out marvellously by Agnes Moorehead. Agnes usually plays despicable characters, too, yet for me her saving grace and 'turnaround role' is in JOHNNY BELINDA where she's still a nasty vipress, but she's OURS and is on the Good Side. Amazingly so. She's also in a one-woman-show of a TWILIGHT ZONE episode that ranks as one of my favorites, too.
I'm a huge film noir fan, so many brilliant movies. I hope to see more classic noir movies reated. Just a thing: back then, you'll hear a lot 'don't get excited' in situations like that but it's just a 'calm down' sort of response. Better it out the noir dictionary and the common slangs and ''street' language during 40s-50s haha, "Kid", "Dame". Plus, in Noir movies, trust nobody, things and characters are morally ambiguous.
Somehow I've never noticed until today that the ship's captain that stumbles in and dies when he drops off the Falcon is Walter Huston, the director's father and a fairly famous actor of the time.
I just love Bogie. A movie series you may enjoy (be sure to watch them in order), is The Thin Man. Detective noir and fun mixed together. Enjoyed watching with you. It's terrific to see someone enjoying the oldies. (For laughs, be sure to check out, in order, The Road to movies starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.) Looking forward to watching more with you.
The line 'The stuff dreams are made of.' is a slight re-wording of a line from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. It was originally: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." Joel Cairo was played by Peter Lorre who was also in 'Casablanca' as Ugarte the man who was arrested for the murder of the two German couriers...and stole the letters of transit. The character of 'Gutman' was played by Sydney Greenstreet. The Maltese Falcon was his film debut. He was 62 years of age at the time. He was also in Casablanca as Signor Ferrari.
He figured Ciaro would have assumed by their exchange that Spade didn't have the bird. And he got out of it "unscathed" because he just demonstrated how easy Ciaro was to disarm and posed no threat.
Bogart is still the greatest. Check out The Big Sleep, High Sierra, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Caine Mutiny, In A Lonely Place, and The Petrified Forest.
Nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Picture but lost to How Green Was My Valley. This was John Huston's first film and his first with Humphrey Bogart. They did 5 more films together: Across The Pacific in 1942 The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre in 1947 Key Largo in 1948 The African Queen in 1951 Beat the Devil in 1953
BEAT THE DEVIL is not well-received and there are Zero good prints of it, however I think it's pretty clever and funny throughout. Robert Morley plays a decent Greenstreet substitute (Sydney in Jan 1954). This is Truman Capote's first big-screen effort as a script writer and I think that's one of the weaker points. Maybe Morley is, and Bogart doesn't have too many years left in him, either. I think "low enthusiasm" shows in this screen. I'm not sure why I have lowly rated this film but when I see it, it's always rather surprising and fun.
I took a friend who's an old movie buff to historic John's Grill for lunch. I had the oyster Wellington, and she had the Sam Spade's Lamb Chops, and we went upstairs to see their Maltese Falcon statue. In 2007, somebody stole the falcon, and despite $25,000 a reward offered for its return, it was never recovered. Fortunately, the Academy of Art created a replica to replace the stolen one.
Wise analysis, and insight about "the stuff dreams are made of", Chris. I always try to be, as Paul, content in any situation. But, my sin-nature comes in, and I compare myself to others. But, I do work at counting every blessing our Good Lord provides. On another note, I have never seen a bad Humphrey Bogart movie. All are fantastic, because in all, he disappears into each character. I think you would love "Key Largo". Absolutely fantastic movie.
You hit the Truth on the Head with the Last Line... Dreams of Wealth are Universally "Pipe Dreams" that are Proven Pure Fantasy... No matter what We Believe...
"Passage to Marseille" also features Bogart and Greenstreet and is another little gem of a movie. On a different note, yuo might also like "The Hill" with Sean Connery.
This was Sidney Greenstreet’s (Gutman) first film role. He had done a ton of stage work, but he was so nervous about being in a movie that he thought he was going to faint.
I recall from one of my film classes that Humphrey Bogart started out as villains. By The Maltese Falcon, he had progressed to an antihero, and then by Casablanca, he was a reluctant hero. Over a decade and a half, he'd transformed from bad guy to good guy. I find it very interesting that the sets have ceilings instead of the usual movie walls that have molding way up the wall to imply a ceiling, but the wall actually continues on up high way out of sight because ceilings would interfere with the lights, rigging, etc. Very interesting! Fun trivia: the man who let Spade into the fat man's place played Captain Kirk's lawyer in "Court Martial."
In this movie you need to remember that 'I am as fond of him as if he were my own son' is code 'for we are lovers'. 'If you lose a son you can always get another, but there is only one Maltese Falcon' makes more sense when you read it that way.
John Huston’s script is so loyal to Dashiell Hammett’s best-selling novel, it should be a master class in adapting from page to screen. Hammett doesn’t waste words in any of his novels and short stories. It’s all about moving the story forward - everything serves the action and the reader is never assumed to be too slow to keep up.
Fun Fact: In the scene where Sam is standing at the top of the embankment, looking down at the body of his dead partner, on the side of the building behind him is an old, torn and dirty poster for the movie, Swing Your Lady, which was a Bogart film from 1938. He supposedly hated that film.
I am fascinated watching “Wilmer” in this and then seeing the same actor in “The Big Sleep”. Same for the fat man (Casablanca) and Joel Cairo (Casablanca).
played by elisha cook, jr, who was already an 11 year veteran of film acting and 38 years old at the time of the film's release, even though he's described as a "kid."
Elisha Cook, he played Icepick in the older Magnum PI series. They describe him as a "gunsel", which subsequently came to mean a trigger man, a gunman. But until this movie it was a Yiddish word meaning a young male sexual plaything for an older more powerful man. From Wikipedia: "By misunderstanding of the 1929 Maltese Falcon quotation above (which survived in a popular 1941 film adaptation). The novel was originally serialized in a magazine, Black Mask, whose editor refused to allow vulgarities. Hammett used the word gunsel knowing that the editor would likely misunderstand it as relating to gun and therefore allow it."
This is the film I use to counter the often (but not always) correct stance that remakes are never as good as the original. This is the third film adaptation of this story. And it's by far the best. Everything about the movie is perfect. The cast, the direction, the dialogue, the cinematography. Everything. ❤
This and Double Indemnity are my fav. Noirs, actually both are in my top 5 fav. movies ever. The dialogue fir this was pretty much taken from the book, I have read the book, written by Dashiell Hammett. He lived in San Fransico so a let of his books were set in San Fransico. My fav, line is "When you're slapped you'll take it and like it" 😂 You have to watch thus twice to catch everything tbh, its possible, but much better to watch once you understand the ending. I love the fast pace, it never gets boring that way, you just have to stay focused, unless you have already watched it. This was John Huston's first ever film that he directed. He was the old man in "Chinatown" via the 1974-75 movie starring Jack Nicholson, that is a MUST WATCH Neo Noir. Its an awesome movie. Good review. I like it that when its fast paced you understood less talking is more. (better).
@Randy White When I was a kid we only got the Exorcist in town in 74 I was 10, times were different, they showed movies in the larger cities then in the smaller cities like my 5000 person city sometimes a year later. So, I watched it in 75, but I knew it was a 74 movie. Could have been made in 73 for all I know. Hence my weird reply. As a Bama fan I can tell you the scores of games from the 70s, LOL. My brother had a Season Book for 99, it had te scores from every game ever played by Bama, in 79 it had Bama over LSU 30-0, I told him that was BS, I listened to that game on the radio, it wa in a driving Rainstorm with 50-60 MPH winds, we won 3-0 because we fumbled inside the 10 yard line like 3 or 4 times and missed 2 or 3 FG's, my brother was like, BS. they don't get books like that wrong, I said LOOK IT UP.........LOL.........Of course it was 3-0, I sweated through that game, I will never forget it, as a 15 year old my mom says now I would pace the floor on a close game LOL, so these lived experiences bring back fond memories. I still remember the first James Bond Movie I saw, "The Spy Who Loved Me" in an old remolded theatre which had an upper balcony we get not go up to, to dangerous, but I saw it with a hot girl I met, and I was scared as hell, and only 13, but she as sweet on me, so it turned out OK.
Four of my other favorite "Bogey" (Humphrey Bogart) films: "Key Largo", and "To Have and Have Not", with Lauren Bacall,, the incomparable "Casablanca", with Ingrid Bergman, and the later movie, "African Quuen", with Kathryn Hepburn.
If you liked "The Maltese Falcon" you might like a gritty, violent comedy version of it "The Man with Bogarts Face(1980)" or a version of it where the writer Dashiell Hammett steps into the mystery himself with "Hammett(1982)".
John Huston is the most accomplished director in film history. He created film noir with this masterpiece and fully evolved it with another masterwork in 1950. The Asphalt Jungle was the 1st film about the execution of a major crime told entirely from the perspective of the criminals. Bogart, the owner of film's greatest screen presence, and Huston made 6 films together. They reached their zenith in 1948 with Huston's magnificent work of art, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre which is my choice for the greatest American film of all-time. Huston also directed the definitive film version of Melville's great American novel, Moby Dick (1956). BTW, Huston had a hand in all the screenplays of these films.
Humphrey Bogart played the TWO most famous detectives in film noir: The slick, fast-talking Sam Spade in “Maltese Falcon, and the dark, cynical Philip Marlowe in “The Big Sleep”. Most don’t realize they were two different characters.
Great reaction, it was fun watching you sink deeper in the quagmire of lies! "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" is one of the last lines of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play about magic and deceit and love. So original author Hammett is paraphrasing that. The rapid-fire pace is a very Warner Bros thing, you find it all over the studio's thirties output too -- some are even faster than this!
The story was made into a movie in 1936 called Satan Was a Lady. It starred Bette Davis and Warren Williams. The character of Joel Cairo was gay in the story this was based on. There is a couple of scenes that tip this off. First when the secretary brings Sam the business card he sniffs it and says "Gardenias" with a knowing smirk. Later while Peter Lorre was fondling the phallic shape on the top of his cane he stuck it in his mouth. Hollywood would use these subtle clues all the time instead of just saying outright that a character was gay.
@@BuffaloC305 I didn't know that. I looked it up and it has Ricardo Cortez, Thelma Todd, Una Merkel and Dudley Diggs in it. I watch a lot of old movies and I'm familiar with all those actors. I'll have to check it out. Hopefully TCM will play it sometime. That's where I learned about Satan Was a Lady. Thanks for the info.
This is the 3rd movie of this story. 1931 (same name), 1936 (Satan Met a Lady), and 1941 (this). The 1931 version's pretty good but this is the next level. Interesting note Capt. Jacoby was played by Walter Huston, John Huston's (the director and screen writer of this version) father.
Just about every Howard Hawks film uses "lightning fast dialog"... THE THING (1950), HIS GIRL as noted, BRINGING UP BABY, SCARFACE, CRIMINAL CODE, on and on.
Even the filmmakers couldn't describe the story when asked. Like The Big Sleep it doesn't make a lot of sense. There is no moral center, really, it's all about Sam Spade and his world.
Like Poe's story "The Cask of Amontillado" (you read that in school, right?), the title of this (as you've noted in discussing "[t]he stuff that dreams are made of") is about a thing that in fact is never actually in the story! Cool, huh?
Another gresat supporting cast. Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook and especially Mary Astor are fantastic. Next, The Big Sleep. then watch The Big Lebowski by the Coen Bros., which is a reimaginging of the Big Sleep in which the detective smokes pot. -- In the book, there's a pretty "racy" scene where Spade strip searches the woman in the bathroom. -- The man who walks in with the bird wrapped in newspaper is Walter Huston, the director John Huston;'s father and a great actor. He is best known, probably for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, also with Humprhrey Bogart and a great film. -- This is the classic McGuffin movie. The thing that keeps the plot moving really doesn't matter. The Falcon could have been a coffee pot. It's about the characters and the dialogue. -- Thanks for the contentment comment. Couldn't agree more.
If you think that this dialogue is fast please see His Girl Friday with Carey Grant and Rosiland Russel. You won't regret it but you may have to slow the movie down to get the dialogue. Also The Big Sleep is quite excellent (Bogart).
One of the greatest and most influential noirs ever made! Other noir films of the 40s and 50s would build on the groundwork laid by this one. The original 1931 version is pretty good too, and definitely worth a look, but it lacks the atmosphere and polish of this one (it does have a little more sleaze though...)
Excellent reaction! You most definitely must watch "The Caine Mutiny". The characters are so well developed. A classic for Bogart. ...after all he had the keys to the strawberry ice cream...
Great reaction to your first foray into "Film Noir". Two more featuring Bogie include "The Big Sleep" with Lauren Bacall and "Key Largo" with Bacall, Edward G. Robinson and Lionel Barrymore (Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life"). Also directed by John Huston.
Tell me, what is YOUR favorite NOIR FILM?
"Out of the Past" is a cool noir. Please consider BODY HEAT...a neo noir film starring Kathleen Turner and WIlliam Hurt (who just passed)....fantastic twists and turns! Love your reactions and your eclectic film choices! Cheers.
This one, hands down. So iconic.
Sunset Boulevard is a great noir film and well worth a look if you haven’t seen it yet.
Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, Mildred Pierce, The Asphalt Jungle, No Way Out, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Niagara are a few Noir films I like.
The third man with orson welles
Dashiell Hammett's story is one of the best misdirects ever. It's like a magician's trick. All the time you are wrapped up in the mystery of the falcon. But in reality Spade is only involved so he can find out who killed his partner. He seems not to care, but in reality he cares very much. I love it.
He cares because a partner dying and not solving the crime is bad for business. It casts a pall.
But it's Bogart that makes it work. Same with Raymond Chandler w/ Marlowe. Their books a pulpy and crude, and frankly childish. But ironically, thanks to the Hays Code requiring clever filmmaking to convey taboos, along with Bogart's acting, the films rise above the source material.
@@Hexon66 The book isn't crude or childish. The book is quite smart and is such a classic that it was made into 3 different movies with this one being, if I remember correctly, the last of the adaptations.
Yes, this is the 3rd film version, all produced by Warner Bros. studios. The first in 1931 was very racy and Pre-Code. It also featured the deletion of Gutman's daughter, who was the financee of Wilmer Cook. 1936, SATAN MET A LADY, with Bette Davis & Warren William tried to put a THIN MAN comic overlay to the proceedings and changed Gutman to an older woman villianess, with Wilmer being her mentally unstable son. Originally, Jean Negulescu was set to direct, but John Huston pulled a contractual demand, so Negulescu made a series of Technicolor dance films. Walter Huston, John's father appears unbilled as Captain Jacoby. Watch Peter Lorre in his first scenes subtly caressing his cane handle with his lips, which in addition to his curly hair & gardenia perfume told us his character was homosexual.
The iconic line "The stuff that dreams are made of" Humphrey Bogart was such a legend of movies in his time I could watch this movie over and over...and have lol. The African Queen with Katherine Hepburn is another great Bogart film! A must watch! Great reaction Chris as always entertaining!
maltese falcon and the big sleep are my favourites
this dashiel hammett, raymond chandler world is so alluring to me 🙂
Bogart's was likely partly inspired by one that occurs in Shakespeare's *The Tempest:* "We are such stuff as dreams are made on."
@@oliverbrownlow5615 Not "partly inspired", it's a direct reference! "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
@@ThreadBomb I think it more accurate to say partly inspired because it has a very different meaning in *The Maltese Falcon* than it has in *The Tempest.* Bogart as Spade is talking about the Falcon and all it represents to the various people who tried to get it. Shakespeare is referring to a company of players. So yes, he's referring to the line from Shakespeare, but repurposing the phrase he borrows completely. However, if you don't like the way I say it, read on, MacDuff, for you'll find as I did to my chagrin that many other people had pointed out this connection in earlier comments, phrasing their various explanations in just about every way imaginable.
If you like watching Peter Lorre, you have to watch his breakout role in Fritz Lang’s “M”. It is a brilliant film, and Lorre is amazingly riveting on screen.
And frightening as heck.
That movie is wonderful.
"Crime And Punishment" also, which he did right after! He's also in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (the first version, Hitchcock's breakthrough film). All three of those are great.
@@TTM9691 I love the original, most definitely because of the lack of theme music. It makes it all seem very claustrophobic.
M, Mad Love and Arsenic and Old Lace are all great Peter Lorre films.
This is one of those movies that gives you little gifts on re-watching: the moments of connection and weird comprehension between Guttman and Spade; the tiny smiles from Bogart which let the audience in; the fun by-play from Peter Lorre to Bogart and to Greenstreet (this was Sydney Greenstreet's first movie, and boy does he pass with flying colors!).
Of course you've seen both Lorre and Greenstreet in "Casablanca". Mary Astor was a versatile leading actress, a little past her prime here, but captivating in how she understands the twisting pathways of her character here. Elisha Cook, who was Wilmer, often played hitmen and gangsters. Because of his slight build, he was labelled "The world's lightest heavy".
"The stuff that dreams are made of" seems to have been inserted by Bogart himself. It's from the epilogue of "The Tempest": "We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep." (Bogart knew his Shakespeare).
The actor playing the ship captain is Walter Huston the director’s father and a very big star he also played the prospector in Sierra Madre
sydney greenstreet (gutman) was reportedly the inspiration for jabba the hutt in the star wars franchise. he was also in casablanca, as ferrari, the owner of the blue parrot, the rival cafe to rick's. so was peter lorre, who played ugarte, the black marketeer who killed the couriers carrying the letters of transit. both were under contract with warner bros, and two of the best character actors of the period.
"Out of The Past" with Robert Mitchum is one of the greatest noirs ever. Every movie by Jacques Tourneur is a must see movie.
This was the first film directed by the great John Huston. Nothing like having your first film turn out to be such a great classic.
....like Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane", also released in '41! What a year! World War II ended that party!
Crackin' foxy = being clever, cunning, wise-acre, quick-witted or tricky. Fast fact: the word "gunsel" has come to mean "a criminal carrying a gun." Dashiell Hammet, author of Maltese Falcon, intended the word to have its original meaning: "a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner." Here, it's Wilmer by Gutman. According to one source, "the novel Maltese Falcon was originally serialized in a magazine, Black Mask, whose editor refused to allow vulgarities. Hammett used the word "gunsel" knowing that the editor would likely misunderstand it as relating to guns, and therefore allow it." The word was later popularized with the new meaning.
"The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of."
Such an iconic noir film. This is the stereotypical, textbook example of a noir film.
Fun Fact: Three of the statuettes still exist and are conservatively valued at over $1 million each. This makes them some of the most valuable film props ever made; indeed, each is now considerably worth more than what it cost to make.
Dude, If you think this was fast paced you need to check out "His Girl Friday" with Cary Grant. It's a laugh out loud comedy classic and I'd say the film with the fastest dialogue ever.
Haha one day perhaps.
American speech averages 240 words per minute. His Girl Friday averages 240 words per minute. Where most movies have pauses so the dialog sinks in, this movie has people talking over each other.
Or Arsenic and Old Lace. One of the best comedies ever made.
I was thinking exactly that as he mentioned the speedy pace!
@@markfeggeler3479 love Jack Carson in that
I've seen "The Maltese Falcon" easily more than 50 times and it's always fresh, always exciting. Beautifully familiar, but never tired, never old. It is brilliant in it's every aspect, a virtually perfect film with one of the greatest casts ever in any film. Bogart, Academy Awars winner Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Lee Patrick, etc. all at the pinnacle of their craft. Lorre and Greenstreet were so popular together that Warner Bros. paired them in nine films altogether, the best being "The Verdict" and "The Mask Of Dimitrios" which is another excellent noir.
Technically the last line of the movie is when the police detective responds "Huh?" to Bogart.
This made me laugh, it’s such a wonderfully dumb comment, but technically correct. That’s the best kind of correct.
That was Sidney Greenstreet 's first movie...and he was 61. And brilliant
He ends up doing his first dozen films that all stand the test of time in just 5-6 years, too. His next dozen were less memorable, less rewatchable, I find, but that 1941-1946 output is outstanding. He's never The Lead and never The Star, but always is big in the film, even more than his girth.
Neil Sion did a wonderful play that was turned into a movie based on Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. It's called The Cheap Detective and it's hilarious.
The final line paraphrased a line from Shakespeare's "The Tempest". "Such stuff as dreams are made on."
The Malteses Falcon was a book by Dashiell Hammett. He was a pioneer of the “hard boiled” genre of detective fiction. He had worked as a detective for the Pinkerton Agency until tuberculosis forced him to quit. He turned to writing and created the kind of detective story that is still common today: a hard nosed PI who has his own code, always in trouble with the police for bending the rules but getting the perp in the end. He also wrote femme fatale characters who used men to get their way.
You should watch The Big Sleep with Bogart and Lauren Bacall. It’s a Raymond Chandler story. Chandler followed Hammett’s lead and further developed the “hard boiled” mystery.
The last line of the film is a riff on Prospero’s famous speech in the Tempest: we are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
Great reaction! It can be trying the first few times. As my mother, who grew up with these movies taught me, "You almost have to train your ears to listen in shorthand." 🤭😁Many Noir, as well as slapstick screwball, Howard Hawks type comedies from the 1930s and 40s contain whip fast dialogue, line topping, etc. For lightning fast dialogue in GoldenAge of Hollywood cinema, check out the Cary Grant headlining comedies like HIS GIRL FRIDAY, Arsenic and Old Lace (hilarious) and BRINGING UP BABY. and a myriad of others. Films like this came out in a time post depression era and did phenomenally. Any attempt today wouldn't fly and be viewed as corny or "camp". But these old celluloid gems, the directors behind the lens and the actors in them still educate, entertain and challenge us.
One of the greatest films of all time. John Huston was a god of directing.
His first directing job.
Ward Bond was the tall cop. He was in a lot of John Wayne movies and other great movies. He was the cop in it’s a wonderful life
"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter". That's my favorite line, SO happy you singled that one out!! That's some hard-boiled film-noir wisdom for ya, lol./ Great analysis at the end, and I love how you tied it into that scripture, beautifully said. 13:19 - That made me laugh! "I'd like to know one concrete thing for certain!" /This movie is such an archetype! For westerns, it's "Stagecoach", for the film noir/private eye genre, it's this one! The director, John Huston, went on to make many uber-classics, of all genres, from this 1941 debut right through the 1980s: "Moby Dick", "The Man Who Would Be King" "The Asphalt Jungle", "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre", The Misfits", "Prizzi's Honor", "The African Queen", etc......all of those are definite good times, lol. He acts in "Chinatown", which in itself is very much an homage to "The Maltese Falcon"! LOVED this reaction! THANK YOU, CHRIS! Thanks for hitting these older ones. '41 was a great year for movies.
I said the line out loud cause it struck me as funny the way it was said, but as I said it all the meaning clicked and I was like… wow. Thanks so much for watching :)
This was great! An all-time favorite of mine! You NEED to watch LAURA (1944). Epic. Vincent Price plays a very different character from his normal horror characters..... Clifton Webb is fabulous, Gene Tierney is a goddess and Dana Andrews is a good foil to all. Also, Judith Anderson (known for a captivating performance in REBECCA) is fantastic as well.
The Big Sleep also with Humpty Gocart is my favourite noir
I *had* a Maltese Falcon statue when I was a kid. (My gramps, who gave it to me, _claimed_ it was an actual prop from the movie. 🤨). It was eventually stolen from me, so that's appropriate.
I guess if it was fake, that's also quite appropriate.
No way! Real or fake, just lame that someone would steal it.
@@CasualNerdReactions I like to dream that a squirrelly, little, German guy stole it from me...and I'm cool with that. (Prolly not, but dreams are the stuff that...um...other stuff is made from. Yeah. What I said.)
Excellent choice! I agree, the film is filled with so much great dialogue that it is hard to do a reaction video to it without talking over some of it. But you did quite well under the circumstances. And it's a film that (I think at least) can be watched over and over again, without ever losing its zest.
I think it’s one that demands a rewatch because once you know everything you can’t help but view it through different eyes.
Bogart can speak so quickly, and yet so clearly ... with that voice ... always so impressive.
When the elevator gate shuts at the end of the movie and casts the shadow of a bird’s foot over Mary Astor’s face… makes me smile.
That’s so cool!
One of the greats! As far as Film Noir is concerned, D.O.A. (1949) is well worth a watch. A man is poisoned and races against time to solve his own murder before he dies.
Thank you ! As I previously noted, one of my favorite films (especially the character of Joel Cairo, who, shall we say, had to be "muted" to appear on film). The noir films were heavily influenced by German impressionism (witness Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt (Colonel Strasser in Casablanca), both rabid anti-Nazis), the Depression and WWII. For a follow-up dive into noir I suggest (as has previously been suggested) Double Indemnity (1944).
Sam Spade is amazing, he keeps you guessing the whole time, and he lies so easily, but he’s never once really on the “dark side.” He’s the Neutral Good D&D rogue done perfectly well.
Excellent analysis of the closing line! The Big Sleep is another excellent noir, with Bogart and a beautiful young Lauren Bacall. Or if you want an underseen and underrated neo-noir, try Night Moves starring Gene Hackman and a 16-year-old Melanie Griffith.
The Big Sleep is a confusing mash. The Maltese Falcon’s script is tight. But the Big Sleep has the AMAZING Lauren Bacall. 🎶 🎶 🐺 (That’s my wolf whistle). The Big Sleep is carried by Boggie’s and Bacall’s chemistry.
My favorite Bogart performance is in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Casablanca might be my favorite Bogart movie, but as far as really showing his acting chops, the Fred C. Dobbs character in Treasure of the Sierra Madre is unsurpassed.
@@MarcosElMalo2 I don't think it's all that confusing, except they just kind of forgot about the whole Rusty Regan plotline, if I recall correctly.
Then again, I've read the novel a few times, so my subconscious might just be filling in the film's plot holes on the sly.
"Stage Door" with Ginger Rogers, Katherine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden Adolf Monju ....trust me the banter is fantastic
That Wilmer guy years later defended Captain Kirk on Star Trek
Elisha Cook Jr. is also great in House on Haunted Hill.
SYDNEY GREENSTREET AND PETER LORRE WERE IN 8 MOVIES TOGETHER . See"THE VERDICT" and "THREE STRANGERS" .
Your analysis was spot on. You may have noticed two supporting actors also in Casablanca, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. They did a number of film noir movies together, one in particular to watch someday as it's reminiscent of Maltese Falcon, "Three Strangers" (1946). But two more must do Bogart films are "To Have and Have Not" (1944) a WWII film where Bogart stars with his future wife Lauren Bacall and her screen debut, and "Key Largo" (1948) starring Bogart & Bacall and the legendary Edward G. Robinson.
More Lorre and Greenstreet movies.
Background to Danger (1943)
Passage to Marseille (1944 also with Bogart)
The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
The Conspirators (1944)
Hollywood Canteen (1944)
The Verdict (1946)
@@creech54 Haven't seen Hollywood Canteen, but I highly second the others you suggested and have seen them all several times. 👍 Two other good Bogart war era movies "Action in the North Atlantic", and "Across the Pacific" which has the most interesting blooper and ironic title of any of Bogie's flicks. (He didn't do the blooper! 😁)
@@GrouchyMarx Musical comedy wartime morale builder with dozens of movie star cameos.
And don't forget Lionel Barrymore in KEY LARGO. AND the actor that would portray TV's Tonto, Jay Silverheels.
HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN is a cameo-a-thon war-bond extravaganza, with a host of Hollywood stars paraded across the screen in a thin plot but just to make sure folks could buy a movie ticket and see so many stars in one sitting. And raise money and portray the movie-studio as a war-bond supporter.
I love your conclusion for this.
Thanks, Maria!
This may be the first movie reaction I've ever seen where the reactor references the Bible. I like it. Some good thinking there at the end.
Sam's last line - an ad lib by Humphery Bogart - was from Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST - "We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with sleep," refering to the illusion of theatre implying that sometimes dreams are based on things that are not real.
DARK PASSAGE is another Bogart film that will keep you guessing. And as a bonus it co-stars Lauren Bacall.
Bogart's worth a decade of film-watching himself. DARK PASSAGE is a favorite, with one of my most despised characters spewed out marvellously by Agnes Moorehead. Agnes usually plays despicable characters, too, yet for me her saving grace and 'turnaround role' is in JOHNNY BELINDA where she's still a nasty vipress, but she's OURS and is on the Good Side. Amazingly so. She's also in a one-woman-show of a TWILIGHT ZONE episode that ranks as one of my favorites, too.
I'm a huge film noir fan, so many brilliant movies. I hope to see more classic noir movies reated. Just a thing: back then, you'll hear a lot 'don't get excited' in situations like that but it's just a 'calm down' sort of response. Better it out the noir dictionary and the common slangs and ''street' language during 40s-50s haha, "Kid", "Dame". Plus, in Noir movies, trust nobody, things and characters are morally ambiguous.
Trust 👏 Nobody 👏
5:30 *Spade:* We didn't exactly believe your story, Miss O'Shaughnessy.
*CNR:* [plaintively] _I_ did.
Somehow I've never noticed until today that the ship's captain that stumbles in and dies when he drops off the Falcon is Walter Huston, the director's father and a fairly famous actor of the time.
I just love Bogie. A movie series you may enjoy (be sure to watch them in order), is The Thin Man. Detective noir and fun mixed together. Enjoyed watching with you. It's terrific to see someone enjoying the oldies. (For laughs, be sure to check out, in order, The Road to movies starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.) Looking forward to watching more with you.
The line 'The stuff dreams are made of.' is a slight re-wording of a line from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. It was originally: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." Joel Cairo was played by Peter Lorre who was also in 'Casablanca' as Ugarte the man who was arrested for the murder of the two German couriers...and stole the letters of transit. The character of 'Gutman' was played by Sydney Greenstreet. The Maltese Falcon was his film debut. He was 62 years of age at the time. He was also in Casablanca as Signor Ferrari.
He figured Ciaro would have assumed by their exchange that Spade didn't have the bird. And he got out of it "unscathed" because he just demonstrated how easy Ciaro was to disarm and posed no threat.
Bogart is still the greatest. Check out The Big Sleep, High Sierra, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Caine Mutiny, In A Lonely Place, and The Petrified Forest.
Nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Picture but lost to How Green Was My Valley.
This was John Huston's first film and his first with Humphrey Bogart.
They did 5 more films together:
Across The Pacific in 1942
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre in 1947
Key Largo in 1948
The African Queen in 1951
Beat the Devil in 1953
The old man who delivered the Falcon was John Huston's father.
BEAT THE DEVIL is not well-received and there are Zero good prints of it, however I think it's pretty clever and funny throughout. Robert Morley plays a decent Greenstreet substitute (Sydney in Jan 1954). This is Truman Capote's first big-screen effort as a script writer and I think that's one of the weaker points. Maybe Morley is, and Bogart doesn't have too many years left in him, either. I think "low enthusiasm" shows in this screen. I'm not sure why I have lowly rated this film but when I see it, it's always rather surprising and fun.
I took a friend who's an old movie buff to historic John's Grill for lunch. I had the oyster Wellington, and she had the Sam Spade's Lamb Chops, and we went upstairs to see their Maltese Falcon statue. In 2007, somebody stole the falcon, and despite $25,000 a reward offered for its return, it was never recovered. Fortunately, the Academy of Art created a replica to replace the stolen one.
It’s so nice of them to replace it!
Wise analysis, and insight about "the stuff dreams are made of", Chris. I always try to be, as Paul, content in any situation. But, my sin-nature comes in, and I compare myself to others. But, I do work at counting every blessing our Good Lord provides.
On another note, I have never seen a bad Humphrey Bogart movie. All are fantastic, because in all, he disappears into each character. I think you would love "Key Largo". Absolutely fantastic movie.
If you like this I think you’ll love Laura 1944 it’s amazing!
You hit the Truth on the Head with the Last Line... Dreams of Wealth are Universally "Pipe Dreams" that are Proven Pure Fantasy... No matter what We Believe...
If you're looking for fast paced, you need to see "His Girl Friday" :)
"Passage to Marseille" also features Bogart and Greenstreet and is another little gem of a movie.
On a different note, yuo might also like "The Hill" with Sean Connery.
"Passage..." also has Peter Lorre
This was Sidney Greenstreet’s (Gutman) first film role. He had done a ton of stage work, but he was so nervous about being in a movie that he thought he was going to faint.
Didn't you NOTICE that both the actors who played "Cairo" and "Gutman/Fatman" were ALSO major characters in "Casablanca"?! 🤔 😮 😉
I recall from one of my film classes that Humphrey Bogart started out as villains. By The Maltese Falcon, he had progressed to an antihero, and then by Casablanca, he was a reluctant hero. Over a decade and a half, he'd transformed from bad guy to good guy.
I find it very interesting that the sets have ceilings instead of the usual movie walls that have molding way up the wall to imply a ceiling, but the wall actually continues on up high way out of sight because ceilings would interfere with the lights, rigging, etc. Very interesting!
Fun trivia: the man who let Spade into the fat man's place played Captain Kirk's lawyer in "Court Martial."
In this movie you need to remember that 'I am as fond of him as if he were my own son' is code 'for we are lovers'. 'If you lose a son you can always get another, but there is only one Maltese Falcon' makes more sense when you read it that way.
Definitely changes the context a bit, but makes sense.
I think you're probably reading too much into that line. I mean, you can take it that way if you like, but there's nothing in the film to support it.
@@ThreadBomb Since the movie is based on a short story, maybe you should consult it before deciding it’s not there in the movie.
John Huston’s script is so loyal to Dashiell Hammett’s best-selling novel, it should be a master class in adapting from page to screen. Hammett doesn’t waste words in any of his novels and short stories. It’s all about moving the story forward - everything serves the action and the reader is never assumed to be too slow to keep up.
That actually adds context to the pace of the film. Makes a lot of sense!
I suppose you know that the phrase: "The stuff that dreams are made of" is from Act IV of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
Fun Fact: In the scene where Sam is standing at the top of the embankment, looking down at the body of his dead partner, on the side of the building behind him is an old, torn and dirty poster for the movie, Swing Your Lady, which was a Bogart film from 1938. He supposedly hated that film.
I am fascinated watching “Wilmer” in this and then seeing the same actor in “The Big Sleep”.
Same for the fat man (Casablanca) and Joel Cairo (Casablanca).
played by elisha cook, jr, who was already an 11 year veteran of film acting and 38 years old at the time of the film's release, even though he's described as a "kid."
@@canamus1768 In the film, Spade says to the police that Wilmer is 20 years old.
Elisha Cook, he played Icepick in the older Magnum PI series.
They describe him as a "gunsel", which subsequently came to mean a trigger man, a gunman. But until this movie it was a Yiddish word meaning a young male sexual plaything for an older more powerful man.
From Wikipedia:
"By misunderstanding of the 1929 Maltese Falcon quotation above (which survived in a popular 1941 film adaptation). The novel was originally serialized in a magazine, Black Mask, whose editor refused to allow vulgarities. Hammett used the word gunsel knowing that the editor would likely misunderstand it as relating to gun and therefore allow it."
Bogart and Lorre in John Huston's Beat the Devil.
This is the film I use to counter the often (but not always) correct stance that remakes are never as good as the original. This is the third film adaptation of this story. And it's by far the best. Everything about the movie is perfect. The cast, the direction, the dialogue, the cinematography. Everything. ❤
You will enjoy watching "Double Indemnity" a very famous & enjoyable noir
Finally! Someone watched one of my favorite films!
What a great summation at the very end.
This and Double Indemnity are my fav. Noirs, actually both are in my top 5 fav. movies ever. The dialogue fir this was pretty much taken from the book, I have read the book, written by Dashiell Hammett. He lived in San Fransico so a let of his books were set in San Fransico. My fav, line is "When you're slapped you'll take it and like it" 😂
You have to watch thus twice to catch everything tbh, its possible, but much better to watch once you understand the ending. I love the fast pace, it never gets boring that way, you just have to stay focused, unless you have already watched it. This was John Huston's first ever film that he directed. He was the old man in "Chinatown" via the 1974-75 movie starring Jack Nicholson, that is a MUST WATCH Neo Noir. Its an awesome movie.
Good review. I like it that when its fast paced you understood less talking is more. (better).
@Randy White When I was a kid we only got the Exorcist in town in 74 I was 10, times were different, they showed movies in the larger cities then in the smaller cities like my 5000 person city sometimes a year later. So, I watched it in 75, but I knew it was a 74 movie. Could have been made in 73 for all I know. Hence my weird reply. As a Bama fan I can tell you the scores of games from the 70s, LOL. My brother had a Season Book for 99, it had te scores from every game ever played by Bama, in 79 it had Bama over LSU 30-0, I told him that was BS, I listened to that game on the radio, it wa in a driving Rainstorm with 50-60 MPH winds, we won 3-0 because we fumbled inside the 10 yard line like 3 or 4 times and missed 2 or 3 FG's, my brother was like, BS. they don't get books like that wrong, I said LOOK IT UP.........LOL.........Of course it was 3-0, I sweated through that game, I will never forget it, as a 15 year old my mom says now I would pace the floor on a close game LOL, so these lived experiences bring back fond memories. I still remember the first James Bond Movie I saw, "The Spy Who Loved Me" in an old remolded theatre which had an upper balcony we get not go up to, to dangerous, but I saw it with a hot girl I met, and I was scared as hell, and only 13, but she as sweet on me, so it turned out OK.
Four of my other favorite "Bogey" (Humphrey Bogart) films: "Key Largo", and "To Have and Have Not", with Lauren Bacall,, the incomparable "Casablanca", with Ingrid Bergman, and the later movie, "African Quuen", with Kathryn Hepburn.
The ship captain who brings the bird is John Huston's father Walter
'The Big Sleep' is another classic Bogart detective story with snappy dialogue and complex plot...
The ultimate MacGuffin
I love the fast talking movies. Another great fast talker is His Girl Friday (1940) and The Philadelpia Story (1940).
All that glitters is not gold…
And wherever you go, there you are…
Great reaction. This movie is f*&king awesome!!!!
If you like Bogart see The African Queen with Katherine Hepburn.
If you liked "The Maltese Falcon" you might like a gritty, violent comedy version of it "The Man with Bogarts Face(1980)" or a version of it where the writer Dashiell Hammett steps into the mystery himself with "Hammett(1982)".
John Huston is the most accomplished director in film history. He created film noir with this masterpiece and fully evolved it with another masterwork in 1950. The Asphalt Jungle was the 1st film about the execution of a major crime told entirely from the perspective of the criminals. Bogart, the owner of film's greatest screen presence, and Huston made 6 films together. They reached their zenith in 1948 with Huston's magnificent work of art, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre which is my choice for the greatest American film of all-time. Huston also directed the definitive film version of Melville's great American novel, Moby Dick (1956). BTW, Huston had a hand in all the screenplays of these films.
Humphrey Bogart played the TWO most famous detectives in film noir: The slick, fast-talking Sam Spade in “Maltese Falcon, and the dark, cynical Philip Marlowe in “The Big Sleep”. Most don’t realize they were two different characters.
Great reaction as usual! For another twisty Bogart noir classic, please watch The Big Sleep!
Great reaction, it was fun watching you sink deeper in the quagmire of lies! "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" is one of the last lines of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play about magic and deceit and love. So original author Hammett is paraphrasing that. The rapid-fire pace is a very Warner Bros thing, you find it all over the studio's thirties output too -- some are even faster than this!
Oops, I'm wrong, it's The Tempest. Also about magic, romance and deceit.
In film noir. Never trust anyone until the last scene.
Not even then!
There is a comedy called the cheap detective based on several bogart movies, you might enjoy.
The Falcon was made of lead.
A FABULOUS noir (maybe my fave) is Double Indemnity! PS Peter Lorre (Cairo) was in Casablanca, too!
"The Asphalt Jungle" 1950
The story was made into a movie in 1936 called Satan Was a Lady. It starred Bette Davis and Warren Williams. The character of Joel Cairo was gay in the story this was based on. There is a couple of scenes that tip this off. First when the secretary brings Sam the business card he sniffs it and says "Gardenias" with a knowing smirk. Later while Peter Lorre was fondling the phallic shape on the top of his cane he stuck it in his mouth. Hollywood would use these subtle clues all the time instead of just saying outright that a character was gay.
Actually, the first film version is 1931's THE MALTESE FALCON. There is a DVD package containing all three of these versions, too. Well worth it.
@@BuffaloC305 I didn't know that. I looked it up and it has Ricardo Cortez, Thelma Todd, Una Merkel and Dudley Diggs in it. I watch a lot of old movies and I'm familiar with all those actors. I'll have to check it out. Hopefully TCM will play it sometime. That's where I learned about Satan Was a Lady. Thanks for the info.
This is the 3rd movie of this story. 1931 (same name), 1936 (Satan Met a Lady), and 1941 (this). The 1931 version's pretty good but this is the next level. Interesting note Capt. Jacoby was played by Walter Huston, John Huston's (the director and screen writer of this version) father.
Great reaction, Chris!! If you want to experience lightning fast dialogue that makes this one seem like slow motion, watch His Girl Friday (1939).
Oh gosh! Maybe one day haha
His Girl Friday attempted to outdo the fast dialog of the original, The Front Page, of which it was a remake.
Just about every Howard Hawks film uses "lightning fast dialog"... THE THING (1950), HIS GIRL as noted, BRINGING UP BABY, SCARFACE, CRIMINAL CODE, on and on.
Even the filmmakers couldn't describe the story when asked. Like The Big Sleep it doesn't make a lot of sense. There is no moral center, really, it's all about Sam Spade and his world.
Like Poe's story "The Cask of Amontillado" (you read that in school, right?), the title of this (as you've noted in discussing "[t]he stuff that dreams are made of") is about a thing that in fact is never actually in the story!
Cool, huh?
Another gresat supporting cast. Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook and especially Mary Astor are fantastic. Next, The Big Sleep. then watch The Big Lebowski by the Coen Bros., which is a reimaginging of the Big Sleep in which the detective smokes pot.
-- In the book, there's a pretty "racy" scene where Spade strip searches the woman in the bathroom.
-- The man who walks in with the bird wrapped in newspaper is Walter Huston, the director John Huston;'s father and a great actor. He is best known, probably for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, also with Humprhrey Bogart and a great film.
-- This is the classic McGuffin movie. The thing that keeps the plot moving really doesn't matter. The Falcon could have been a coffee pot. It's about the characters and the dialogue.
-- Thanks for the contentment comment. Couldn't agree more.
If you think that this dialogue is fast please see His Girl Friday with Carey Grant and Rosiland Russel. You won't regret it but you may have to slow the movie down to get the dialogue. Also The Big Sleep is quite excellent (Bogart).
😅 one day.
Nah... just see it again and again. Along with any Howard Hawks' other classics, including 1950's THE THING and BRINGING UP BABY.
My sweet naive boy - yes, Spade and Mrs. Archer had a thing.
One of the greatest and most influential noirs ever made! Other noir films of the 40s and 50s would build on the groundwork laid by this one. The original 1931 version is pretty good too, and definitely worth a look, but it lacks the atmosphere and polish of this one (it does have a little more sleaze though...)
Excellent reaction! You most definitely must watch "The Caine Mutiny". The characters are so well developed. A classic for Bogart. ...after all he had the keys to the strawberry ice cream...
What an I retesting title! Haven’t heard of it, but if anything has the word mutiny it’s automatically interesting.
Someone should react to Caine Mutiny. An older Bogart in a different kind of role, to say the least.
Great reaction to your first foray into "Film Noir". Two more featuring Bogie include "The Big Sleep" with Lauren Bacall and "Key Largo" with Bacall, Edward G. Robinson and Lionel Barrymore (Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life"). Also directed by John Huston.
Another great review. I really click with your sense of humor. 😀
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoy it. I’m not for everyone haha.
I've thought for a long time that if someone could do it, this would make an interesting Broadway musical.
The African Queen and In a Lonely Place are other great movies with Humphrey Bogart
And To Have And Have Not, and The Big Sleep, both with Lauren Bacall, who was the love of his life.
@@corvus1374 Yes I love Lauren Bacall.