The Maltese Falcon (1931)

The Maltese Falcon (1931)

starring Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez

directed by Roy Del Ruth

79 minutes

Private Investigator Sam Spade (Ricardo Cortez) is approached by Ruth Wonderly (Bebe Daniels) who needs some help finding her kid sister. Miles Archer, Spade's business partner, takes the job but turns up dead later that night. The man that Archer was tailing also turns up dead.

The police want to pin the murder on Sam when they learn that he was having an affair with Archer's wife. Sam has to think fast to avoid getting arrested. He quickly learns that the kid sister was fictional and that Wonderly is actually after something completely different. Other characters materialize who are after Wonderly and the titular black bird, the Maltese Falcon.

Sam plays the different factions off against one another as he attempts to clear his name stay alive.

Thoughts

I watched this movie on the Internet Archive. It was subtitled in Spanish which was a little distracting but didn't really bother me. 

This is the first film version of The Maltese Falcon. The book upon which it is based was written by Dashiell Hammett and published in 1930. The 1941 adaptation is much better known. I've seen the 1941 film before but is has been a long time, probably over 30 years, since I last saw it. This was my first time watching the 1931 film.

I had not heard of most of the actors in this movie. A few of them were in other movies that were fairly well known but I don't think many of them went on to become very well known. Thelma Todd who played the part of Iva Archer, also appeared in a couple Marx Brothers films.

I can't say that I would recommend this movie to most people. It isn't awful but it also isn't all that great. The IMDb rating of 6.8 seems high to me. I wonder if some people thought they were rating the 1941 film when they rated this one.

The performances by most of the actors weren't terribly inspiring. I hope to give the 1941 version of the story a re-watch in the not too distant future.  I don't regret watching this version of The Maltese Falcon but I doubt that I will give another go after watching the 1941 version.