THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: John Huston
Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre,
Sydney Greenstreet, Lee Patrick, Gladys George,
Ward Bond, Elisha Cook Jr., Barton MacLane
I remember seeing this movie once a long time ago at a hole-in-the-wall theater called the 812 Cinema on Monterey's Cannery Row. The place was an old storefront that had been converted into a movie house, and instead of seats, there were cushions on the floor, and it was warm and comfortable and I was tired and fell asleep. I don't remember much about the movie from that screening, but I've seen it a few times since, and for all the machinations of the plot, here's the only thing you need to know: Everybody's after the black bird. That includes private eye Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), a devious dame named Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor), a refined young man named Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), who carries a cane and smells of gardenias, and a rotund adventurer named Casper Gutman (Sydney Greensteeet), the appropriately named "fat man", who likes good conversation, good liquor and good cigars. Throw in a gun-toting weasel named Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.), a hard-nosed cop named Tom Polhaus (Ward Bond), and Spade's loyal and efficient secretary Effie (Lee Patrick), and you've got most of the key players covered. It's a swell time, as long as you don't obsess over all the narrative details, and as long as you don't watch it lying on some cushions on the floor of a tiny theater where it's warm and comfortable and you're tired enough to go to sleep.
