THE MALTESE FALCON (1931 FILM)

'''The Maltese Falcon''' is a 1931 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. It was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Ricardo Cortez as private detective Sam Spade and Bebe Daniels in the role of Ruth Wonderly. Also featured were Thelma Todd, Dudley Digges, Otto Matieson, and Una Merkel. Maude Fulton and Brown Holmes wrote the screenplay.

Contents

Synopsis

Pre-code aspects

Censorship and remakes

Cast

Synopsis

Private eye Sam Spade (Ricardo Cortez) and his partner Miles Archer are approached by Ruth Wonderly (Bebe Daniels) to follow a man, Floyd Thursby, who allegedly ran off with her younger sister. The two accept the assignment because the money is good, but Spade also implies that the woman looks like trouble, though she projects wholesome innocence.
That night, Detective Tom Polhaus informs Spade that Archer has been shot and killed while tailing Thursby. Later, two officers visit Spade at his apartment and inquire about Spade's whereabouts in the last few hours. Spade asks what the visit is really about. The officers say that Thursby was also killed and that Spade is a suspect, since Thursby likely killed Archer. They have no evidence against Spade at the moment, but tell him that they will be conducting an investigation into the matter.
The next day, Spade gets a visit from Archer's wife (Thelma Todd), with whom he has been having an affair. The widow asks Spade if he killed off Miles so that they could be together. Spade dismisses her and tells her to leave, and coldly orders his secretary Effie to remove all of Archer's belongings from the office.
Later, Spade is visited by another man, Joel Cairo, who offers Spade $5000 if the private eye can retrieve a figurine of a black bird that has recently arrived. While Spade has no idea what the man is talking about, he plays along. Cairo leaves a card and tells Spade to contact him should anything develop. Following this, Spade is again contacted by Ruth Wonderly. She offers her sympathies for the death of his partner. Spade senses a connection between Ruth Wonderly and Cairo, and casually mentions that Cairo has contacted him. Ruth Wonderly gets extremely nervous when she hears this.
Cairo and Ruth Wonderly meet one night, at Spade's apartment. They get into an argument just as the police arrive to question Spade. Spade greets them at the door, but refuses to let them in. The officers say they know Spade was having an affair with Archer's wife; just as they are about to leave, they hear Cairo and Ruth Wonderly screaming in the back. They force their way into Spade's apartment, and Spade invents a story that involves describing how Cairo and Ruth Wonderly were just play-acting. The officers seem to accept, if not believe, Spade's story, but Cairo goes along with them because he is carrying "a large amount of money" and wants to be protected.
Spade receives a call from Casper Gutman (Dudley Digges), who wishes to meet with him. Gutman, a huge person weighing over 300 lbs, says he will pay handsomely for the black bird. Spade implies that he can get the item (although this is a bluff). At this point Cario arrives and tells him that Spade is lying. Gutman has Spade drugged and retrieves the money he had given Spade for the bird.
When Spade awakens, he returns to his office and tells the story of the Maltese Falcon to Effie. Soon afterwards, an injured man, identified as Captain Jacobi of "La Paloma," shows up at the office; he drops a package on the floor and then dies of gunshot wounds. Spade opens the package, and finds the falcon...

Pre-code aspects

The film follows the plot of the book closely, as did the 1941 adaptation, which began with the script for the 1931 version revised to clean it up and remove sections which the censors would no longer permit. The dialogue for both films is often taken verbatim directly from the novel.
There are differences between the films, however. The tenor of the 1931 film is lighter, and there is rather extensive use of sexually suggestive situations in this pre-Code film, notably a scene featuring Bebe Daniels nude in a bathtub and another in which she is seen naked in the kitchen, partially covering herself with her clothes after being strip-searched by Ricardo Cortez. From the opening scene, in which a young woman is seen straightening her stockings as she leaves Spade's office, there are numerous suggestions of Spade's sexual involvement with other female characters. Furthermore, the film does not shy away from the theme of homosexuality: a young and handsome Wilmer (played by Dwight Frye) is openly called Gutman's "boyfriend," implying a gay relationship. Spade also plays with a cop he doesn't like by constantly referring to him as "sweetheart" and "darling."

Censorship and remakes

In 1936, Warner Brothers attempted to re-release the film, but was denied approval by the Production Code Office due to the film's "lewd" content. For decades unedited copies of the film could not be seen in the United States. This prompted Warner Bros. to make a new version of the film called ''Satan Met a Lady'' in 1936. In 1941, another more serious remake of the original 1931 film was produced.
Once restrictions were lifted from showing this film (sometime after 1966), the film was retitled to '''Dangerous Female''' for U.S. television in order to avoid confusion with the 1941 version, which had previously been the only version available by that name.

Cast

As listed in the credits of the film:

★ Bebe Daniels - Ruth Wonderly

★ Ricardo Cortez - Sam Spade

★ Dudley Digges - Casper Gutman

★ Una Merkel - Effie Perrine, Spade's secretary

★ Robert Elliott - Police Lieutenant Dundy

★ Thelma Todd - Iva Archer, wife of Miles

★ Otto Matieson - Dr. Joel Cairo

★ Walter Long - Miles Archer, Spade's partner

★ Dwight Frye - Wilmer Cook, Gutman's henchman

★ J. Farrell MacDonald - Detective Sergeant Tom Polhaus