The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir with screenplay by and directed by John Huston in his directorial debut, and based on Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor and co-starring Gladys George, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.
==Summary==
Detective Sam Spade gets in over his head when becomes involved with three untrustworthy adventurers, all of whom competing against one another to be the first to obtain a fabled jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon. 
== Plot ==
"In 1539 the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels----- but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese remains a mystery to this day---"
[~introductory text appearing after the film's opening credits]
In 1941 San Francisco, private eye Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer are hired by a client named Ruth Wonderly who claims to be looking for her missing sister who is involved with a man named Floyd Thursby. Archer agrees to follow her that night and to help get her sister back.
Before daybreak, Spade gets a phone call from the police saying that Archer had been shot dead. Spade's friend, Police Detective Tom Polhaus, is at the murder scene when Spade arrives, and informs him that Archer never defended himself as his gun was still tucked away in his overcoat which was still buttoned. Spade sees Archer's body from the top of a steep embankment he fell down after being shot, but is not interested in seeing the body up close.
Back at his apartment, Spade calls for Wonderly at her hotel, but she has checked out. He is then visited by Polhaus and his superior, Lieutenant Dundy, who inform him that Floyd Thursby was also killed last night; Dundy thinks that Thursby killed Archer, which would give Spade motive to kill Thursby, but Spade, who never even met Thursby, rightly denies Dundy's theory.
At his office, Spade is visited by Archer's widow Iva, with whom Spade was having an affair; she thinks that Spade killed Archer so that they could be together. After sending Iva away, Spade gets a call from Wonderly, who now calls herself Brigid O'Shaughnessy. He meets her at a new hotel, and she explains that Thursby was her partner and probably killed Archer, but she claims to have no idea who killed Thursby. Spade distrusts her, but agrees to investigate the murders.
Back at his office, Spade is accosted by a diminutive and effeminate man named Joel Cairo, who is looking for "an ornament that, shall we say, has been mislaid"- a black statuette in the shape of a bird; Cairo is willing to pay $5,000 on behalf of its owner, though he does not reveal the owner's name. After Spade sends his secretary Effie home for the evening, Cairo pulls a gun on Spade demanding to search his office, but Spade knocks Cairo out and examines his belongings, finding multiple passports from Switzerland, France and England, a silver cigarette case, a ticket to a show at the Geary Theater, a scented handkerchief, and an exceptional amount of foreign and American money. When Cairo comes to, he hires Spade to find the bird.
Later at the hotel, O'Shaughnessy becomes nervous when Spade tells her about Cairo and his offer for the bird. When Cairo arrives at Spade's apartment it becomes all too clear that he and O'Shaughnessy know one another, and Cairo becomes agitated when O'Shaughnessy reveals that "the Fat Man" is in San Francisco.
The next morning, Spade goes to Cairo's hotel and spots Wilmer Cook, a young man who had been tailing him earlier, and gives him a message for his boss, Kasper Gutman (the Fat Man). When Spade goes to meet Gutman in his suite, he is evasive about what he wants and what he wants from Spade, so Spade feigns an angry fit and storms out. Later, Wilmer takes Spade at gunpoint back to Gutman, but even though he overpowers Wilmer en route, Spade visits Gutman anyway.
Gutman finally reveals the origin of what he calls the "Maltese Falcon", a glorious golden bird statuette crafted by the Crusading Knights of Malta as a tribute for Emperor Charles V of Spain, encrusted from beak to claw with the finest jewels in their coffers. Gutman then goes on to say that the Falcon was well hidden in a ship's galley, but never reached Spain as the ship was plundered by pirates. The Falcon turned up two centuries later in Sicily, then in Paris in 1840, by which time the Falcon had become coated in black enamel. By 1923 a Greek dealer found the statue, which is when Gutman learned of the statue. He departed from London to barter for the statue, but the Greek had been murdered and the Falcon was stolen. Gutman has been on a relentless search for the Falcon ever since. He learned that the Falcon was in Istanbul and went to parlay with its owner, a Russian general named Kemidev, who stubbornly refused to sell the bird even though he knew nothing about its value. Gutman made an offer for the Falcon and sent some "agents" to obtain it, which they did, but they never got back to Gutman, who is still determined to get the bird. Gutman offers Spade $25,000 for the bird and another 25 after the sale, but then suggests 25% of the proceeds from the sale itself. But before Spade can answer Gutman's offer, he passes out from his drink, which was spiked by Gutman; Wilmer and Cairo them emerge from an adjoining room and leave with Gutman, but not before Wilmer delivers a cowardly kick to Spade's head for humiliating him.
Later, when Spade comes to, he searches the hotel suite and finds a copy of the Examiner unfolded to the shipping section, in which he finds one ship circled in the list of arrivals: the La Paloma arriving from Hong Kong. Spade arrives at the dock only to find the La Paloma on fire. Shortly after Spade returns to his office, a wounded man barges in carrying a bundled package which he drops on the floor before collapsing dead on the sofa. Spade identifies him as Captain Jacoby from the La Paloma, and then examines the package, inside which is the Falcon itself. Moments later he gets a call from O'Shaughnessy pleading with him to meet her at a certain address, screaming in terror before the line goes dead. Spade goes to the address, but it turns out to be a vacant lot. As he makes it back to his apartment building, O'Shaughnessy runs to him from a nearby doorway; he takes her up to his place, but they are met inside by Gutman, Wilmer and Cairo.
Gutman gives Spade only $10,000 for the Falcon with a promise of more later, and then as part of the deal, Spade needs a "fall guy", someone he can turn over to the police for the murders of Thursby and Jacoby. He suggests Wilmer, who actually shot Thursby and Jacoby, but Wilmer is totally against the idea and is ready to shoot Spade who knocks Wilmer out and takes his guns. Gutman reluctantly lets Spade have Wilmer for the police, and then gives him the whole story: Thursby and O'Shaughnessy were allies, and after a futile attempt to buy Thursby's loyalty, Gutman ordered Wilmer to kill Thursby in the hope that O'Shaughnessy would reconsider rejoining them. Jacoby was one of O'Shaughnessy's many lovers; when Cairo found out that the La Paloma was bound for San Francisco, he contacted Gutman, and the three captured Jacoby and O'Shaughnessy together and, after Wilmer set fire to the ship, were in the process of bringing them to Gutman's hotel room when they escaped en route. They tracked her to her hotel room; as she answered the door, Jacoby went down the fire escape, and despite being shot multiple times by Wilmer, Jacoby still got away and made it to Spade's office. Gutman "persuaded" O'Shaughnessy to call Spade to draw him away from his office before Jacoby arrived, but it took them too long, and the call was made too late.
Just after dawn, Spade calls Effie to bring him the bundle, but when Gutman examines the statuette, he is flabbergasted to find it is a lead fake. Spade demands an explanation but O'Shauggnessey insists that was the one she got in Istanbul. Cairo deduces that Kemidev found out about the Falcon's value, had a phony one made, and then made it easy for them to steal it. Gutman invites Cairo to accompany him back to Istanbul to continue their quest, but then notices that Wilmer is gone, having escaped during their tumult with the statuette. Gutman then pressures Spade to give back the ten thousand, but Spade keeps a thousand to cover his time and expense. Gutman and Cairo depart, leaving the "rara avis" as a memento for O'Shaughnessy.
Right after they depart, Spade calls Polhaus and shares Gutman's information with him, and then tells him about Gutman and Cairo's involvement and that they're getting ready to leave town. Spade then angrily confronts O'Shaughnessy about Archer's murder, revealing that he has figured out that O'Shaughnessy wanted to get rid of Thursby before Jacoby arrived with the Falcon so she wouldn't have to split the payoff with him. She revealed that she thought that if Thursby knew he was being followed he might get scared and go away, but Spade knew that Archer wasn't clumsy enough to be spotted the first night and surmises that she told Thursby he was being followed. She attempts to imply that Thursby shot Archer, but Spade knew that Archer was too smart to be caught by Thursby with his own gun tucked away in his buttoned overcoat, but Archer was just naïve enough to go there with O'Shaughnessy, and Spade reasons she could have easily killed Archer herself using one of Thursby's guns. Spade then figures out that she had hired them in the hope that they might scare Thursby off, which didn't work. He then guesses that she thought if she told Thursby he was being followed he would attack Archer and one of them would be killed- if it were Thursby she would be rid of him, and if it were Archer, she would make sure Thursby got caught. But Thursby was too loyal, so she took one of his guns and killed Archer planning to frame Thursby, but when Thursby was killed she realized that Gutman had arrived in town, and realizing she needed another protector, came back to Spade.
O'Shaughnessy finally confesses all, but then plays up that she has fallen in love with Spade and begs him not to turn her in to the police. But remembering what Gutman said about her many lovers, and despite what feelings he himself may have for her, when Polhaus and Dundy arrive with word that they caught Gutman, Cairo and Wilmer, Spade gives O'Shaughnessy over to them, and then the evidence the others left behind: Wilmer's guns, one of Cairo's, the Falcon, and the thousand dollar bill from Gutman claiming it was a bribe. When Polhaus picks up the Falcon, he remarks on its weight and asks what it is, to which Spade ambiguously replies, "The stuff that dreams are made of."  
*Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade
*Mary Astor as Ruth Wonderly/Brigid O'Shaughnessy
*Gladys George as Iva Archer
*Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo
*Barton MacLane as Lieutenant Dundy
*Lee Patrick as Effie Perine
*Sydney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman
*Ward Bond as Detective Tom Polhaus
*Jerome Cowan as Miles Archer
*Elisha Cook Jr. as Wilmer Cook
*James Burke as Luke, hotel detective
*Murray Alper as Frank Richman, taxi driver
*John Hamilton as District Attorney Bryan
*Walter Huston as Captain Jacoby (uncredited)
Category:1941 films
Category:American films
Category:English-language films
Category:1940s films
Category:Films
Category:American crime films
Category:Crime films
Category:American mystery films
Category:Mystery films
Category:American detective films
Category:Detective films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:Black-and-white films
Category:Films based on American novels
Category:Films based on novels
Category:Films based on mystery novels
Category:Film noir
Category:Treasure hunt films
Category:Warner Bros. films
Category:Films scored by Adolph Deutsch
Category:Screenplays by John Huston
Category:Films directed by John Huston
Category:United States National Film Registry films
Category:Directorial debut films
Category:Films starring Humphrey Bogart