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The Maltese Falcon (1941)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 9/10
Reviews Counted: 43
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 0

Suspenseful, labyrinthine, and brilliantly cast, The Maltese Falcon is one of the most influential noirs -- as well as a showcase for Humphrey Bogart at his finest.

100

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0

Suspenseful, labyrinthine, and brilliantly cast, The Maltese Falcon is one of the most influential noirs -- as well as a showcase for Humphrey Bogart at his finest.

audience

90

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 52,423

My Rating

Movie Info

After two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett's detective classic The Maltese Falcon, Warner Bros. finally got it right in 1941--or, rather, John Huston, a long-established screenwriter making his directorial debut, got it right, simply by adhering as closely as possible to the original. Taking over from a recalcitrant George Raft, Humphrey Bogart achieved true stardom as Sam Spade, a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye who can be as unscrupulous as the next guy but also adheres to his

PG, 1 hr. 41 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

John Huston

Feb 15, 2000

Warner Bros.

Cast

All Critics (43) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (0) | DVD (23)

Frighteningly good evidence that the British (Alfred Hitchcock, Carol Reed, et al.) have no monopoly on the technique of making mystery films.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Maltese Falcon is among the most important and influential movies to emerge from the Hollywood system -- as significant in some ways as its contemporary, Citizen Kane.

June 10, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
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This is one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form.

April 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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Who can argue with Bogart's glower or Mary Astor in her ratty fur?

October 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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Mr. Huston gives promise of becoming one of the smartest directors in the field.

May 20, 2003 Comment
New York Times
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Among the movies we not only love but treasure, The Maltese Falcon stands as a great divide.

June 6, 2001 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's the classic hardboiled private-eye movie; the nervy maiden offering of its celebrated director, John Huston; the first glamorous star vehicle for Humphrey Bogart...

May 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Parallax View | Comment
Parallax View

Immaculately designed, evocatively photographed, and easy to watch but also spiky, morally complex, and ultimately unsettling.

January 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | Comment
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

Excellent but too mature for the littlest kids.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment (1)
Common Sense Media

John Huston's just-slightly overpraised noir debut gets its fair shake from Warner Bros. via an overall exceptional Blu-ray.

October 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Ground zero for film noir. Iconic.

December 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinemania | Comment

This Spade is no stranger to the guile of shady clients and colorful suspects...

October 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Seanax.com | Comment
Seanax.com

The film is made up almost entirely of talk, and yet the performances are so wonderfully flamboyant and focused that conversations become the action of the movie.

August 22, 2008 Comment

Perfect use of the old McGuffin.

January 19, 2008 Comment
ColeSmithey.com

Arguably the finest remake ever.

October 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

With its dark, complex plotting, stark black-and-white photography, concentration on the baseness of man, and a cynical mood sustained to its still shockingly grim conclusion, this is the prototypical film noir.

October 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

... part of what makes a film great is its power to obliterate whatever preconceptions we bring to it. There is brittle wit and sparkling harm and a very adult sense of fun present in The Maltese Falcon; it still works as a movie

September 9, 2007 Full Review | Comment
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

sharp and jagged... stripped clean

October 11, 2006 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

In tribute to the best, Warner Home Video's Blu-ray transfer of the film is truly 'the stuff that dreams are made of.' (Blu-ray Edition)

October 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

If 'The Maltese Falcon' doesn't qualify as the best private-eye yarn ever filmed, I don't know what does.

October 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

A study in human desire and imperfection, and a textbook example of how all the elements can come together in a film to create a unified effect. In the end, it's the noir treatment that makes the biggest difference.

October 3, 2006 Comment
Reel.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Maltese Falcon

Why don't we get films like this anymore? Why don't we get actors as slick and as savvy as Humphrey Bogart in our day? There's really not much to say about this film other than it's an exciting, compelling picture the likes of which just aren't created in this modern day. It's a classic dramatic mystery.

February 10, 2012
rjayhutchinson

Super Reviewer

John Huston's debut film is the third(!) adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's classic detective novel. Much like Ben-Hur, I had no idea that the classic that everyone raves about is a remake or at least not the first version.Regardless, this is a great film, and it pretty much kick started the film noir subgenre. The film

April 16, 2007
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

    1. Wilmer Cook: Keep on riding me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver.
    2. Sam Spade: The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.
    – Submitted by Francis L (13 days ago)
    1. Sam Spade: You're a good man, sister.
    – Submitted by Andy A (32 days ago)
    1. Sam Spade: When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it.
    – Submitted by Andy A (32 days ago)
    1. Sam Spade: You're good, you're very good.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)
    1. Sam Spade: The stuff that dreams are made of.
    – Submitted by Tyler C (10 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Der Malteser Falke (DE)
  • The Maltese Falcon (1941) (UK)
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