The Maltese Falcon. A detective story from 1931 written by Dashiell Hammett. The book is widely regarded as a classic among detective fiction, and the third film adaptation of the book, The Maltese Falcon, is also regarded as a classic of film. So, what do I think about these opinions? I agree. The original novel is not, in my opinion, some super stellar piece of writing. I would not say that it was something that reshaped the mold, or even influenced an entire genre of writing. No, it is not on the level of Lord Of The Rings, or Chronicles Of Narnia. I would even say that there are better stories in its genre that came before it, such as Doyle’s Sherlock Holms or the multitude of stories by Edgar Allen Poe, for example The Tale Tale Heart. But one thing that the novel does well, especially for its time, is pacing. A vast majority of works of “classic” literature are mundane, dragged out, and mostly boring after the first ten pages. The Maltese Falcon, at least in my opinion, is the opposite. Its first chapter is a rather sluggish. There is no intense hook to bring the reader in, no spectacular world building to pull you away from the mundane existence of reality. The description of the main character isn’t even compelling, its more of a “what are you thinking about Hammet?” Moment. Triangles? Really? But that is a small problem.
So, what does it do good? As I mentioned earlier, pacing. Aside from the first chapter being a real bore, it catches steam on chapter two and doesn’t really let up. We are introduced to Spade as our main character and his partner Miles Archer. You would think that we are going to have a neat crime solving duo. A Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Or maybe even the always thrilling good cop and bad cop. But that is not what happens, instead we start the chapter off by finding out that the other supposed main character has been murdered. There are probably other stories before then that something like that occurred, killing off what someone would think to be a major character early. But I cannot attest to that fact, and even if it is so, I doubt it was ever commonplace. I did mention that the book, in my opinion, did nothing to really break the mold, but I would have to contradict myself, with the exception of killing off Archer in chapter two. From that scene on Spade is constantly on the go, following leads, having a secret one sided affair with Archer’s now widowed wife, as well as being followed by a wannabee gangster boy, that works for a man that is described in a way that could make him perfect to portray Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, from the novel Dune.
The novel rarely has a moment where it really begins to stall out, and fiddle around with throw away scenes that so many modern mystery stories like to do. That is, apart from, Spade constantly rolling a cigarette every chance he can. Someone in class did make an interesting point of discussion, however. They spoke on the scenes of Spade rolling his cigarettes as a sort of physical way that the character was being written to alleviate stress in certain moments. Being that the novel is not written in first person, the way that a lot of modern mystery novels are, I could see that example being a productive way of establishing a connection to Spade’s inner thoughts. There are moments in the book, however, where one might feel that Spade is being rather rough, and un-fair to Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Afterall, she is a lonely woman, on the run from a group of angry partners in crime that she double crossed, out of fear for her life. But once the novel ends, she is used as a pawn in Spade’s plan to turn over Gutman, Wilmer, and Joel Cairo to the authorities. Then we are told about her participation in the death of Spade’s partner. Up until the very end she tries to lie her way out of trouble, and when that fails, she continues to try and convince Spade that he loves her and should take the fall for her. Spade, like a Chad, throws her out to wolves, and I look back at all the times she was being a total piece of garbage, and laugh.
I won’t spend as much time discussing the movie. This is because I found it boring and fell asleep twice while watching it. I do have some points that I want to make, regarding my agreement that it is a classic, however. I am not taking the side of the argument about it being some gem of classic films, I do not have a deep knowledge of that sort of topic. One of the things that always bothers me about book to film adaptations is the constant and largely unnecessary changes. What I liked about the film adaptation of The Maltese Falcon was the efforts put in to avoid that. Granted there are always changes that need to be made for a book to become a film, whether that is for technology and budget reasons, or time constraints on the run time. This movie is no different, there are plenty of scenes thrown out completely, and obvious character differences. For example, there is a significant reduction of scenes where Spade is rolling a cigarette. Most people are likely to agree to that being a good change. Captain Jakobe in the book is around seven feet tall, in the movie, he might be a little over six foot. An annoying change to me personally, but nothing that breaks the integrity of the adaptation. I am merely stating these reasons to show that, even the best of adaptations has changes. With that being said, I think that the overall faithfulness to the original works scenes are wonderfully done. Some scenes are cut out, but I do not recall any being added, which is another pitfall of most adaptations. But I will add that when a key scene is thrown out, added, or replaced it can sometimes be a great thing, for the film overall. added scenes are good, and add depth to the story, or change the way the story is perceived, either in a good way or bad. The only scene added to the film that I recall is where the ending is replaced. In the novel Spade is told that Iva, Miles widowed wife, has come to see him. Spade shudders as he welcomes her in. The movie throws that scene away and replaces it with him giving Brigid one last look before she is taken down the elevator in police custody. This is the changed ending. Now I don’t think that it is something that profoundly changes the overall story or some hidden meaning we are supposed to take away. This is, after all, not the far superior to its original, Blade Runner directors cut. I am merely saying that it is a movie adaptation that showed how to adapt a really good story, keep true to almost everything from the original text, and only change small minute thing, or add scenes to drive home a final parting between two tightly knitted characters. I agree that it is a classic because it is a standard of what a film adaptation can be. Not because Humphrey Boggart is a good Samuel Spade. How could he be? He didn’t have triangles on his face! Enough said.