Friday October 3, 1941. The Maltese Falcon

Humphrey Bogart appeared as Sam Spade in the classic, The Maltese Falcon, which was released on this day in 1941.

Today in World War II History—October 3, 1941

In spite of the movie poster, I don't recall a lot of "blazing automatics" in the film, but it is a great film.

Not generally recognized today, the film is a remake of a film by the same name, from a decade prior.  The two films are actually reportedly very close in plot, with both very closely following the Dashiell Hammett book, but the 31 variant was a pre Production Code film and contained elements that were omitted from the 41 film, including some fairly open references to homosexuality and hints at nudity. This is interesting for a variety of reasons, including that while the movies track each other in all other respects, the 1941 version which omits this material is the one that is remembered, suggesting that the degree to which material is really necessary in movies is overstated.

The film was directed by John Huston, a great director and legendary Hollywood figures, and Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, both of whom had appeared in the recently released Casablanca, which some also regard as a film noir, appeared again with Bogart in this film.  Indeed, it's a surprise to me that The Maltese Falcon was released after Casablanca, as it has the feel of an older film. 

The 31 film came just a year after the novel was released.  The 41 film overshadows the novel and the 31 film, which is a credit to it.  Both film variants reported follow the dialog of the book very closely which is of note as the dialog in this film is so distinct that it's come to define film noir in many people's minds, even though many film noir feature nothing of the sort.  Having said that, they all have a certain gritty feel to them.  At any rate, the film's dialog is so well known that both serious noir efforts such as Pat Novak for Hire, the radio drama, and parodies, such as Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Calvin & Hobbes detective base their dialog on it.

The Maltese Falcon famously concludes with the revelation that the falcon figurine is a fraud , with Spade then indentifying that "that's the stuff dreams are made of", one of the most famous movie lines of all time.

On the same day Adolph Hitler delivered a public speech in Berlin's Sportspalast stating that the Soviet Union was almost defeated and that Germany could defeat any enemy, no matter how much they spent trying to take Germany on, a reference to American lend lease.