Maltese Falcon
Black bird mystery
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade, adapted from Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel.
The title refers to a jewel-encrusted statuette that drives the plot—a MacGuffin everyone pursues but which proves worthless.
The film established many conventions of hardboiled detective fiction on screen: cynical protagonist, femme fatale, shadowy cinematography.
They spent years chasing what turned out to be their own Maltese Falcon.
- noirHard-boiled film genre
- film noirStylish, shadowy crime drama
- 1930sFourth decade, twentieth century
- brassCopper-zinc metal mixture
- San FranciscoNorthern California metropolis
greed · femme fatale · statuette · detective · Sam Spade · moral ambiguity · pulp magazines · MacGuffin · private eye · private investigator · trench coat · obsession · betrayal · mystery · Hammett · deception · case · crime fiction
- Noirfemme fatale, detective, gumshoe, hard-boiled, trench coats
- Fictional ObjectsExcalibur, magic carpet, invisibility cloak, Mjolnir, One Ring
- movie propsprop guns, replicas, custom builds, set dressing, furniture
Maltese FalconMary Poppins
Bambi · musical comedy · romantic comedy · screwball comedy · Pollyanna
Maltese Falconnature documentary
Film about wild environments
Planet Earth · cinéma vérité · documentary film · wildlife film
Maltese, falcon, Malta, falcons, falconer, falconry, falconers