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The Maltese Falcon

1941

John Huston

Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre ...

8.0

33,309

Film noir. Mystery Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) is a private eye who gets involved in the hunt for a statuette while searching for the murderer of his partner, Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan). His fellow treasure hunters include a sinister 'little and large' act (Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet), a psychotic tearaway (Elisha Cook Jr), and the duplicitous femme fatale, Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor).

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"It's all style. It isn't violence or chases, but the way the actors look, move, speak and embody their characters (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"A fast mystery-thriller with quality and charm (...) Much of the quality of the picture lies in its excellent revelation of character (...) Don't miss 'The Maltese Falcon' if your taste is for mystery fare"	POS
United Kingdom	Simon Braud Empire	"An unassailable triumph of script, casting, direction and editing (...) Thoroughly engaging and thought provoking detective movie with a knock-out central performance from Bogart (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	The Hollywood Reporter	"It reveals, in startling terms, the unheralded talent of topflight scenarist, John Huston (...) Directorially, the picture is incredibly intricate"	POS
United States	Variety	"This is one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form. Unfolding a most intriguing and entertaining murder mystery, picture displays outstanding excellence in writing, direction, acting and editing"	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"Pale compared to the Howard Hawks films that followed (...) The visual style, with its exaggerated vertical compositions, is striking but not particularly expressive, and its thematics are limited to intimations of absurdism"	NEU
United Kingdom	Rob Mackie The Guardian	"[It] brought the detective movie into the modern world (...) A landmark film, still fresh and vigorous 66 years after it was made. They had fun and now it's your turn (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Tom Milne Time Out	"What makes it a prototype 'film noir' is the vein of unease missing from the two earlier versions of Hammett's novel (...) [Never] quite losing sight of this central abyss of darkness"	POS
United Kingdom	Tony Sloman Radio Times	"Superb cinematic entertainment (...) [It] created a brand-new movie icon in Humphrey Bogart's cynical private detective (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Jeff Labrecque Entertainment Weekly	"Boldly manipulating light and shadow (...) Bogart’s iconic performance (...) was equally revolutionary (...) Bogart made selfish and unredeemable likable, and the antihero was born."	POS

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