Anniversary of The Maltese Falcon
On October 3, 1941 (exactly 80 years ago), the premiere of John Huston's film "The Maltese Falcon" took place in New York.
John Huston's film "The Maltese Falcon" was based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett, which was published in the tabloid magazine Black Mask from September 1929 to January 1930.
Dashiell Hammett is a world-renowned writer, the author of 5 detective novels and a huge variety of short stories. In 1937, he joined the Communist Party of the USA, for which during the "witch hunt" he was included in the so-called "Hollywood Blacklist" and accused of anti-American propaganda. Being interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, unlike Elia Kazan ("On the Waterfront", "A Streetcar Named Desire") and Robert Rossen ("The Hustler"), but like Dalton Trumbo ("Johnny Got His Gun", "Roman Holiday", "Spartacus") refused to name the names of party members and sponsors of the Communist Party. For this, he was sentenced to 6 months in prison.
Four of Dashiell Hammett's five novels have been filmed, and "The Maltese Falcon" has been filmed three times. John Huston's film is the third film adaptation of this novel and is considered the most successful. Perhaps because it literally reproduces the content of the novel word for word.
Due to the fact that film adaptations of this work by Dashiell Hammett were already made in 1931 and 1936, the Warner Bros. film company originally wanted to give this film a different name - "The Gentleman from Frisco". But Houston insisted on keeping the original title, which showed great courage, even though it was his directorial debut. And not only insisted, but also slightly mocked the film company by inserting a frame with the poster of the film "The Girl from Albany" into the film.
Despite the fact that The Maltese Falcon was John Huston's directorial debut, he was not a newcomer to cinema. By 1940, 13 successful films had already been staged based on Houston's scripts. Therefore, the film company Warner Bros. immediately after receiving Houston's script decided to finance the film. However, given Houston's lack of directorial experience, Warner Bros. set several restrictions: the film had to be shot in no more than 6 weeks, and its budget should not exceed 300 thousand dollars.
In fairness, we should note that 300 thousand dollars in 1941 is equivalent to about 6 million dollars today. Not so little. And the tight deadlines did not frighten Houston, because his script was so detailed that it allowed him to work without any delay. And thanks to this, the shooting of the film was completed 2 days ahead of schedule and saved 54 thousand dollars of the allocated budget.
The success of the film among the audience is evidenced by the fact that the film's box office amounted to $ 1.8 million, or 6 times more than the budget. It can be assumed that to a certain extent the increased interest of the audience towards the film was caused by the participation of Mary Astor in the film. This actress, born in 1906, began acting at the age of 14 and very soon became a silent movie star. As is often the case with young movie stars, by the age of 24 she had managed to divorce three times, become widowed once and become addicted to alcohol. All her divorces and binge drinking were accompanied by public scandals. As a result, in the 30s, Astor mostly starred either in minor roles or in very weak pictures. The offer of one of the main roles in the film was a real "gift of fate" for her.
In 1942, John Huston's film The Maltese Falcon was nominated for an Oscar in three categories, but did not win in any. In the most important nomination - the Best Film - the American Film Academy awarded the victory to John Ford's film "How Green was my Valley". The company of "relative losers" to Houston's film was made by Orson Welles' film, later recognized by many as a movie masterpiece, "Citizen Kane".
Professional film critics responded to the film extremely favorably. Even the picky Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote in his review ""The Maltese Falcon," turns out to be the best mystery thriller of the year...It's the slickest exercise in cerebration that has hit the screen in many months, and it is also one of the most compelling nervous-laughter provokers yet."
Roger Ebert rated John Huston's film "The Maltese Falcon" with a maximum of 4 stars and included it in his list of "Great Movies". Another authoritative American film critic James Berardinelli gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4 possible and wrote in his review: "I would not argue that The Maltese Falcon is the best filmed detective story, but it is the progenitor of countless films, few of which achieved its level (never mind exceeding it). The movie offers fewer surprises to today's audiences than it would have provided to those viewing it 60+ years ago, primarily because so many of the innovations brought to the screen in The Maltese Falcon have become part of the everyday cinematic lexicon. Nevertheless, with Hammett's dialogue incorporated virtually verbatim into the screenplay, Bogart in top form, and Huston allowed total directorial freedom, watching this first of the films noir is an experience to be embraced."
The estimates of John Huston's film "The Maltese Falcon", produced by modern moviegoers, are not at all inferior to the estimates of 80 years ago. 68% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film scores from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of John Huston's film "The Maltese Falcon" according to FilmGourmand was 7,969, which allowed it to take 757th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
