The Maltese Falcon (1931) Proto Noir and the Novel its based on.

Detective Films and Prison Films are practically de facto Noir right out of the box. For the first hardboiled detective fiction is an Urtext for NOIR, for the second, prisons have got natural organic VISUALS, various shades of gray or institutional colors washed out and functioning as monochrome, bars, walls. shafts of light stabbing through darkness, barred shadows, etc., etc. 

Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon was originally serialized in Black Mask Magazine starting in the  September 1929 issue. 

Depicted in the illustration above are Dr. Joel Cairo standing

with gun and Sam Spade seated

 

The Maltese Falcon was published as a novel by Alfred A. Knopf in 1930 below.  

The visual description of Sam Spade. His face is composed of "V"'s  his chin makes a V, his mouth makes a "V", his eyes are slits that if extended to a point would make a V and his eyebrows of course do the same, and even his hairline comes to a peak. Spade is also a fair haired blonde. It all results in decidedly devilish demeanor. 

Instead of as portrayed the cover of Black Mask first image top, (if that is even supposed to be Spade he looks a bit like Randolph Scott), think of the guy below with those "V" shaped features but with blonde hair instead, and I think we got a winner. lol.

Lee Van Cleef in Girls, Guns, and Gangsters (1959)

The two serious adaptations of The Maltese Falcon have Ricardo Cortez and Humphrey Bogart two black haired New Yorkers playing Sam Spade.

Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade in the original 1931 film.

Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade 1941 version

In the novel it's slowly revealed that Sam is a ladies man. He puts his hands on all the attractive women he knows, his secretary Effie, the secretary at Wise, Merican, and Wise his lawyers, and they have absolutely no problem with him doing so. He's a chick magnet. We find out that he is also screwing his partner Miles Archer's wife, Iva, and you get the impression that Effie is also being strung along quite willingly. 

Directed by Roy Del Ruth (Red Light, Why Must I Die?). 

Written by Maude Fulton, Brown Holmes and Lucien Hubbard  (uncredited) and based closely on the novel by Dashiell Hammett. Cinematography was by William Rees. Music by Leo F. Forbstein conductor: Vitaphone Orchestra. 

The film stars Bebe Daniels (42nd Street) as Ruth Wonderly, Ricardo Cortez (Wonder Bar, The Case of the Black Cat) as Sam Spade, Dudley Digges as Casper Gutman, Una Merkel as Effie Perine, Robert Elliott as Detective Lieutenant Dundy, Thelma Todd (Marx Bros. films Monkey Business and Horse Feathers) as Iva Archer, Otto Matieson as Dr. Joel Cairo, Walter Long as Miles Archer, Dwight Frye as Wilmer Cook, J. Farrell MacDonald as Detective Sergeant Tom Polhaus, Agostino Borgato as Capt. John Jacobi (uncredited), and Morgan Wallace as District Attorney (uncredited).

In the 1931 film, after the title credits that run over the first published cover of the novel, we get a nice pan of San Francisco and then go right to the Spade and Archer office. 

A silhouette against the door shows us a man and a woman in embrace. Spade as a womanizer right from the get go. 

Ricardo Cortez plays Sam Spade,(miscast if you go by his physical description out of the novel as a blonde) but he's an excellent womanizer. 

He's escorting a "client" out of his office door. The door opens and there she stops and straightens her nylons seams exposing her legs. San grabs her hand and plants a kiss there telling her that they will see each other soon. 

Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade

Once she leaves the reception room Sam goes back into his office and he adjusts and fluffs up the cushions on the couch (subtext for a little hanky-panky took place). 

Putting the cushions back into place

The next client is a Miss Wonderly. Effie announces her as a "knock-out." Sam has her sit and explain her reason for wanting a private detective. Wonderly tells him about the her concern for her sister. It seams that her sister took off with a guy named Thursby from New York City and she wants to locate her. 

 Bebe Daniels as Ruth Wonderly,

 

Of course in the film everything is condensed in a sort of visual shorthand storytelling. We get a lot of  samples of Spades womanizing. The Miss Wonderly visit, for example is interrupted by a call from Iva, Archer's round heeled wife, and at the same time Miles Archer arrives in the office, picks up a phone and hears his wife flirting with Sam. 

Thelma Todd as Iva Archer

Sam is less than thrilled with Iva's interruption

Walter Long as Miles Archer...

eavesdropping on Sam and Iva.

Once Iva hangs up Miles goes into the office disregarding the do not disturb sign hanging from the nob to confront Sam and is surprised to see Miss Wonderly. 

Spade explains the case telling Miles they have to put a tail on Thursby after his meeting with Miss Wonderly to see where he is hiding out. Miss Wonderly pulls out two one hundred dollar bills and places them on the desk. Miles, like Spade, liking what he sees, pipes up and volunteers to personally do the tail, find her sister, and get her back home to New York. 

In the '41 Houston remake, since Sam is depicted de sexed and more aloof and formal.  it's Miles Archer who comes off as the womanizer, 

So back to our film, in the original '31 version, we cut to Spade's apartment. Light is shining through the open windows and upon curtains fluttering in a breeze. A phone rings. Its the police telling Spade that Archer is dead. Spade tells the police he'll get there ASAP. 

In the '41 version we see what happens to Archer. We get a shot of Miles Archer smiling then the smile turning to apprehension as a hand holding gun pushes into frame rt., shooting him. He falls through a wooden fence and goes rolling down an embankment. Then we cut Spade's apartment with essentially the same scene as the 1931 original.

In the '31 original Spade shows up at a location. It's Chinatown. Archers body has already been brought up on the street. It's laying on a stretcher on the sidewalk. 

Det. Sgt. Tom Polhouse tells Spade what apparently happened. The important detail is that Archer had his gun still in it's holster, and was shot almost point blank meaning who ever did it was able to get close to him.  

Archer cooling

The '41 version gives us the phone call waking Sam up telling him of the death of Miles. Before he even gets dressed he calls and breaks the news to Effie and tells her to call Eva and to keep her away from him.  Then we cut Sam showing up at the crime scene in a taxi. He finds Det. Sgt. Tom Polhouse down the side of the embankment. When Polhouse climb's up Spade tells him how he figured it happened and Polhouse confirms it giving details about shot through the heart at close range with his gun still holstered and his coat buttoned up. Polhouse tells Sam that he thought he'd want to see the body before they moved him. The cop also asks some details. Was Miles working on a case, what was he doing, etc., etc. Spade tells Polhouse not to crowd him, and tells him that he's got to tell Miles wife.

In the '31 version Spade walks away from the scene of the crime but stops and speaks in mandarin with Chinese gentleman who is standing out of site around a building corner further down the street. We don't get a subtitle so what ever was said is at this point is a secret. 

Later that night the cops drop by his apartment to question Spade about Archer, and what he was doing.

He tells them about Archer tailing Thursby for a client. The cops tell Spade the Thursby was also found shot. They want to know details but Spade tells them he's on a case and can't say anything until he speaks with his client.

Robert Elliott as Detective Lieutenant Dundy left.

The next morning Spade visits Miss Wonderly but she has checked out at her hotel. Spade tracks her down through the hotel personnel to her new abode. 

I'm afraid Sam

Spade asks her her real name she tells him Brigid O'Shaugessy. She knows about Archer being shot and confesses to Spade that she was lying about having a sister. Spade tells her that they didn't believe her story but they believed in her two hundred dollars. Brigid tells Sam that she is afraid that the police will question her. 

Sam tells her he can fix it and asks her if she has any more money to which she replies five hundred dollars. Sam tells her to give it to him. She pulls the cash out of her bra.

She only gives him four, complaining that she needs some money. Sam pulls the fifth hundred dollar bill out of her bra, and drops a few twenties on her chest. 

Sam takes off out the door and as soon as he's gone, Brigid flips up her skirt showing to top of her thigh and the large money roll she has stashed in her rolled nylon stocking top. How Noir of her? 

The next scene in the 1931 original is the into of Joel Cairo. In the novel, Effie enters into Sam's office and comes right out and tells Sam "queer." The card she hands him smells of cypher (a google gives us "Chypre fragrances are warm and dry and almost all built round a woody, mossy accord of bergamot, oakmoss, patchouli and labdanum"). In the 1931 film Effie announces Cairo to Sam as being "knock out"  to see him, Sam's grim fades when Cairo walks in. BTW he's got a cane in the original film too, but he doesn't use it as a phallic symbol, and Otto Matieson who plays Cairo is less effeminate than Lorre appears in the 1941 version.

This is where we all learn the first time about The Maltese Falcon. Cairo thinks Spade is in cahoots with Brigid and he is willing to pay Spade $5,000 to produce it. Spade tells him he hasn't got it. Cairo pulls a gun tells Sam to put his hands behind his head. Makes him get up. Tells Spade that he's going to search the office. He tells Sam that he's already searched his apartment. Spade slaps the gun out of his hand and in the ensuing struggle knocks Cairo out. 

While Cairo is unconscious Sam empties out all his pockets getting all the info on Cairo that he needs. When Cairo comes to, Sam tells him funny, he doesn't have $5,000 , all he has in his wallet is $350, to which Cairo replies that it is still a legit offer. So Sam asks for two hundred dollars advance. Sam gives Cairo back his belongings along with his gun and Cairo points it at Sam and tells him to again put his hands behind his head its the same scene in both 31 and 41 versions and the novel. Sam laughs and tells him go ahead. your paying for it. 

We cut to Spade coming back to his apartment to find Brigid waiting for him outside his door. She tells him that she got his note. They go in and he tells her about his meeting with Joel Cairo and that he knows about the "black" bird. He mentions Cairo's offer of $5,000 for his help in getting the falcon. She cozies up to Sam on the couch in front of his fireplace. Brigid gets very friendly.

In the novel Brigid tells Sam that she can't offer Sam that kind of money so she offers him her body. Note bene in the novel at this point, Sam turns her down. 

In the film there's a knock on the door. Sam excuses himself to answer the knock. It's the cops, Det. Sgt.  Tom Polhouse and Detective Lieutenant Dundy. They ask Sam if they can come in, He tells them no they can't. They tell him rumor has it that he was fooling around with Iva. Dundy asks if there's any truth to it, Sam tells him no.

A scream from inside Sam's apartment draws the cops inside where they find Brigid pointing a gun at Joel Cairo, who is bleeding from a scratch on his forehead. 

Sam introduces Brigid as one of his operatives and Cairo as a college buddy from back East. The cops don't quite by it but there's not a lot they can do. 

In the 41 version Sam tells the police that it was all an elaborate joke because he's sick of the police rousting him at all hours.

Cairo leaves with the police in the novel and in both versions of the film. Once gone, we cut to a clock showing 11:30 and Brigid opening a door. She's wearing a nightgown she found and poses dramatically up against the door frame. 

Brigid: If those detectives are waiting outside for me they are going to have a long wait. 

Sam tells her that she can use the bedroom, he'll sleep out here. Brigid, instead of going back into the bedroom walks over to the couch and sits down. Sam puts on a 78 rpm record on the victrola, switches off the lighst and joins her. He asks her if she's comfortable and he puts his arm around her. 

Sam asks her to tell him about the black bird. She replies that she's tired of making up lies. They kiss and we cut to the phonograph. The needle has reached the end of the record and is oscillating back and forth sub-texturally as we fade to black. 

Cut to the clock. 9:00 AM. Brigid is sleeping in post coital bliss in Sam's bed. Sam, completely dressed, is searching through Brigid's handbag for her apartment key. 

With the key to her Coronet apartment in hand Sam splits. At Brigid's apartment he begins a systematic search of everything. (The novel here goes into a very detailed description of the search). 

He finds nothing. On the way back to his place Sam picks up some bread and the fixings for breakfast. When he walks in, Brigid startled, pulls out a gun. Sam tells he he just went out for groceries.

Brigid asks Sam to run her a bath. There's a knock on the door. Its Iva. Sam tries to keep her out but she barges in and sees Brigid in her dressing gown. Brigid hastily takes off the gown.

The next shot is Brigid in Sam's tub. Sam comes back in to the apartment after getting rid of Iva, and converses with Brigid.

The next shot is Brigid in Sam's tub. Sam comes back in to the apartment after getting rid of Iva, and converses with Brigid.

Brigid tells Sam that he has women problems. lol fade to black.

You have woman problems

At this point Sam receives a letter from Caspar Guttman asking him to come to room 200 at the Palace Hotel. 

From here on The only difference between the novel, the '31 version, and the '41 "code" version is that the '41 version eliminates Sam's strip search of Brigid.  

Noirsville

Sam with his hand of Effie's knee.

If you read the novel before the seeing the original 1931 The Maltese Falcon, you'll see that the film almost follows it verbatim albeit, the beginning has visual and verbal shorthand to establish the Spade character, as an intelligent, womanizing, smart aleck, detective. 

Hammett's Sam Spade as written on the page, and as depicted in the 1931 screen version has more in common with Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (in his female relationships) than Raymond Chandlers Marlowe - "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid... He must be the best man in his world, and a good enough man for any world.” (from Raymond Chandler's, “The Simple Act of Murder.") 

Think of the original Spade as more of a wise cracking Jim Rockford (James Garner) type of detective combined with a Dean Martin "chick magnet" personality. 

Hammett, if I remember right, is quoted as saying that the genesis of Spade was a amalgamation of what all the Ops he knew working for Pinkerton thought they were, for maybe five minutes on their best days, lol.

"Spade has no original. He is a dream man in the sense that he is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been and in their cockier moments thought they approached." (Dashiell Hammett).

It's telling that the 1941 Maltese Falcon besides excising most of the sex from Hammett's story also emphasized smoking. They do smoke in the original film too, but in the '41 Bogart is hard core, coolly rolling his own and there's a scene with Effie where she is sitting on the armrest of his padded chair, and instead of Sam and her getting cozy and flirting as in the '31 version Effie is rolling him another coffin nail. 

Another thing you may find amusing is that surprisingly there's even some subtext in Pre Code films, lol. 8/10

Original Pocket Book paperback edition cover (1945)