Corrie Film Club

The film to be shown on October 9th at 8.00pm in the Corrie and Sannox Village Hall will be that great classic, The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Huston in the USA in 1941.

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, plus a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

The screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his femme fatale client. Gladys George, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet co-star, with Greenstreet appearing in his film debut. Greenstreet’s characterization of the sinister “Fat Man” Kasper Gutman had such a strong cultural impact that the “Fat Man” atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II was named after him.

Huston used much of the dialogue from the original novel but removed all references to sex that the Hays Office had deemed to be unacceptable. Huston was also warned not to show excessive drinking. The director fought the latter, on the grounds that Spade was a man who put away a half bottle of hard liquor a day and showing him completely abstaining from alcohol would mean seriously falsifying his character!

The “Maltese Falcon” itself is said to have been based on the “Kniphausen Hawk”, a ceremonial pouring vessel made in 1697 for George William von Kniphausen, Count of the Holy Roman Empire. It is modeled after a hawk perched on a rock and is encrusted with red garnets, amethysts, emeralds and blue sapphires. The vessel is currently owned by the Cavendish family and is part of the collection at Chatsworth House.

In 1989, The Maltese Falcon was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The film has been named as one of the greatest films of all time by Roger Ebert, and was added to his list of The Great Movies.