The Maltese Falcon (Believe It Or Not, A Version From 1931)

The Maltese Falcon (1931)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: Roy Del Ruth

Starring: Ricardo Cortez, Bebe Daniels, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel, Robert Elliott

From: Warner Bros

Yes, the famous 1941 movie was not the first time it was done, as I explain below:

I will operate under the assumption that even among film fans, there are plenty who did not know there was a previous film adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett story; heck, there was also the 1936 adaptation (a rather loose one) known as Satan Met a Lady, which I understand isn't too great. Remakes of films not that old is not a recent phenomenon, in other words. The way this was viewed: just recently my cable provider allowed it where you sign in with them and you can use TCM's On Demand service featured on their website; they offer a few dozen films & shorts; the films are available for only a week at a time.

I am not presumptuous enough to think that everyone reading this has seen the classic 1941 film noir, but sites like Wikipedia can give the breakdown of that plot and well, this 1931 version is not too terribly different. Private detective Sam Spade is asked by several people to try and find the titular bird, a valuable statue that people will resort to murder in order to acquire.

The movie is fine but compared to the legendary '41 film, that is clearly better in terms of acting, storytelling, and overall filmmaking. It helps when you have a tremendous cast, director, and other talent behind the camera. This version does have some interesting things to mention, though. If you ever wanted to see Sam Spade as a smilin' fool, a smartass and a horndog, then your dreams have come true as that's how he was written and how Ricardo Cortez plays him. Furthermore, as this was pre-Hays Code, things are racier; Spade asks a woman to take off her clothes to see if she's hiding money and a homosexual relationship between two supporting male characters that I understand is teased in the book is alluded to here. I can say that Spade's secretary Effie (played by Una Merkel) is a delight.

The movie's only a curio as you have a superior version of it that is quite popular, yet it's still interesting to see this as a means of comparison and on its own the motion picture is not bad.