The Maltese Falcon

In 1941's The Maltese Falcon, Humphrey Bogart stars as private detective Sam Spade, one of his most famous roles. What struck me about Bogart was how ugly he is....just hideously ugly. Any other actor that looked like him would surely be cast as villians exclusively. Bogart always plays the hero, though, because he's so damn cool. He has the confidence to get out of any situation, no matter how unlikely the odds. His Spade isn't a saint by any means. He never pretends that he is motivated by the greater good or by his morals. The film opens with Spade being visited by a beautiful woman, played by Mary Astor, who would like him to track down her lost sister. The plot gets more and more complicated from there; Resulting in death, lies, fights, and bribery. All of this is because of the titilar Maltese Falcon, an artifact from the 1500's that has been missing since then. Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre play the "bad guys" out to get the Falcon from Astor, who may or may not have it. This is director John Huston's first film and he directs it very confidently. Trivia: John Huston is actress Angelica Huston's father and part time actor, appearing in Chinatown, which is very similar to The Maltese Falcon. This isn't a socially important film like In The Heat of The Night or The Lost Weekend, but it is fun and very well written. It is hard to believe that this is actually Syndney Greenstreet's first film, who was 60 when it was made. I also couldn't help but wonder if somewhere in Malta, Indiana Jones was also searching for the Falcon. The DVD version of this film comes with a special feature called, "A night out with Warner's" which plays newsreels,40's movie trailers, a looney tunes cartoon, and short films before the feature that gives the viewer the experience of movie going in that era. This is one of the most purely entertaining films I've seen from my list so far