The Maltese Falcon | Film No. 46

*disclaimer* if you are looking for a serious review of a noir film, this is not THAT post.  there will be no breakdown of the meaning of the lighting or other artsy things. please remove the stick from your butt before reading this. Thanks, Management.

The Maltese Falcon: National Treasure of 1941.  Two men, sixty-three years apart, will seek different mythical treasures hidden long ago by the Knights Templar.  Both will be emotionally removed from real life and fully engaged/obsessed with their work.  One will struggle to keep his eyes out of the shadow cast by his fedora, despite not being in a gangster film (but that might have just been a stylistic choice but the director).  The other man will try, and fail, to have his eyes not look like crazy Nicholas Cage eyes (this could have also been a directorial choice).  In the end, both men outsmart the crooks trying to get the treasure and cooly move on to the next treasure search (or murder to solve).

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All National Treasure references aside, The Maltese Falcon is a detective film about a private eye who is contracted by a mysterious lady to follow a man. She then pulls him into a story in which he is meant to be the fall guy.  After falling for her, then seeing her for who she is, he comes out “on top” and sends her and her underworld contacts to prison.   ALSO, you should find a man who looks at you the way Humphrey Bogart looks at the falcon, am I right?

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The Maltese Falcon is also a prequel to the other Humphrey Bogart film, Casablanca.  (I like to class it as a prequel because the casts are basically identical, and Bogart is only ever playing a gangster version of himself, right?)  Also *fun fact* Humphrey Bogart is 1 inch taller than Tom Cruise.  This is probably why he just had to wear lifts and not also use forced perspective in order to seem taller. *who knows though*

Ok, I feel *kinda* bad about this review, but it is hard to write seriously about old film.  They are often taking themselves VERY seriously while having beautiful mid scene cuts and deadpan delivered lines. I actually do enjoy The Maltese Falcon because of its quirks, but I would not suggest watching it as a serious film unless you are fully into old films.  

This post is part of my year end challenge to watch every movie that I own.  If you want to see the original post with a full list of all of the films.  Click here.