"The stuff dreams are made of"

In 1941 the world was transformed. World War II began for the United States. In the film world Citizen Kane was unleashed on audiences. A more important development in that celluloid world occurred when Warner Bros. released John Huston’s version of The Maltese Falcon, the movie that spawned the film noir genre and created stars out of two of its participants and new careers for two others.

The story of The Maltese Falcon is an interesting one. It was a tremendous novel written by Dashiell Hammett in 1930. It is credited as being the first real good hardboiled detective piece of fiction. The book was immediately scooped up by Warner Brothers to be made. It was made poorly, twice, before John Huston asked to remake it again. The major reasons why the first two movie versions of the book failed were because the screenwriters deviated from the successful book. Huston, like he did for the rest of his career, remained true to the book. Because of this he produced a movie that is superior to the book. There was also Humphrey Bogart.

Mired in B-pictures throughout his career, Bogart needed this role. He came fresh off of High Sierra (1941), a movie that was lauded as the perfect sendoff for the American gangster as the United States was moving away from Depression Era/Prohibition gangland and looked for its entertainment in another place. That new place would be the dark urban streets. Humphrey Bogart, who played gangsters typically, was perfect for the dark knight in the dark city of 1940s America. He almost didn’t get the role of Sam Spade. Warner Brothers’ first choice for the role was George Raft. But because Raft refused to work with a novice director, the part was given to Bogie. This was the second straight mistake Raft made. He also turned down the lead in High Sierra, saying he was above making gangster pictures. Today, Bogie is well-known, Raft not so much.

Also mired in B-pictures was the German actor Peter Lorre. After his groundbreaking performance as child murder Hans Beckert in Fritz Lang’s M (1931), Lorre became typecast as a villain after emigrating to the United States as the Nazi’s took power in Germany. Having been stuck in villain and Mr. Moto roles, Lorre jumped at the chance to play Joel Cairo for John Huston. Due to the production code present at the time, the characters homosexuality couldn’t be blatant in the script. On screen, Lorre had no problem getting across what was in the book.

The movie is also remarkable because it marked the debut of Sydney Greenstreet. A former Shakespearian actor, Greenstreet was in Los Angeles doing a play when the role of Casper Gutman was offered. He accepted and today the world can admire the performances of a great actor. Had he remained in the theater he might have been an unknown today as there is no way to preserve great stage performances like great screen ones. He and Lorre would team up together to made a great screen combination in numerous other movies. Bogart, Greenstreet and Lorre would appear in 2 more movies together, Casablanca (1942) and Passage to Marseille (1943).