The Maltese Falcon (1931)

I'll try to be fair in my review of this early version of "The Maltese Falcon", but with Bogart as my favorite actor and the 1941 remake as one of my Top 10 films, it's going to be difficult. Not that this isn't a serviceable story, it is, but if you've seen the Bogey crew in action, there's no comparison, at least for this viewer.I never read the Dashiell Hammett novel, so I don't know which Sam Spade more closely resembles the literary version. I can say though, that I didn't care for the Ricardo Cortez portrayal here all that much. Perhaps it's because he was a flagrant womanizer, or because he didn't trade barbs with Polhaus (J. Farrel MacDonald) and Dundy (Robert Elliott) with the sardonic wit of Bogart's Spade. On the flip side though, the fact that Spade understood Chinese was an interesting idea; it's not till late in the story that we learn that Lee Fu Gow told Spade who killed his partner. So he knew all along, and kept it close to the vest to see how things played out.Character for character match-ups between the two pictures makes it a hands down proposition for the later film. How can you top Greenstreet, Lorre and Elisha Cook, Jr. as the heavies compared to the statue hunters here? As Ruth Wonderly, Bebe Daniels uses only one name in the story compared to Mary Astor's character, and Sam's secretary in this version, portrayed by Una Merkel, gave every indication that she had a past, present or future in the romance department with her boss. Bogart's Spade wisely kept his hands to himself around his secretary, maintaining a professional relationship instead of a lecherous one.I guess there are those who'll see things just the other way around with this pre-code version of The Falcon. There's something to be said for the free wheeling attitude displayed toward sexual innuendo in the story. It helps explain how Miss Wonderly wound up with a woman's kimono in Sam's apartment - it belonged to partner Archer's wife!! I did get a big kick out of one thing that blows by pretty quickly if one is not attentive to it. Listen carefully when Sam Spade makes a call to Effie's home phone - her number is Berkeley, Double O-7! It would be a couple decades before writer Ian Fleming came up with that designation for his secret agent, James Bond! I wonder if he saw this picture.

It is amazing to me how the 1931 version with Cortez and the third version with Bogart are so similar. Actors using the same inflection of voice etc. The middle version (second) is not worthy of mention even though it almost cost Bette Davis her career. She complained she was being forced to film "junk" after completing a prestige project like The Petrified Forest. She failed to report to the set. "I was so distressed by the whole tone of the script and the vapidity of my part that I marched up to Mr. Warner's office and demanded that I be given work that was commensurate with my proved ability," she later recalled in her autobiography. She was suspended on December 3 and, angry and resentful but in need of her salary to cover living expenses and other family expenses she reported on December 6. .

Something went out of Bebe Daniel's personality in the talkies. She had made the transition with ease (apart from being dropped by Paramount because they didn't think she could talk but she soon put them wise). Apart from a few early musicals, the roles she was given were shady ladies, dutiful secretaries, or mistresses. The vivacity and impish appeal that had made her silents such fun was gone."The Maltese Falcon" also went under the title "Dangerous Female" when it was released to TV, so it wouldn't be confused with the later Humphrey Bogart classic. It was also identified as "The Woman in the Floral Pyjamas" and has some of the raciest, sexiest scenes I have ever seen in a pre-code movie, and along with "Baby Face", it was one of the films that hastened the dreaded Breen Code of 1934.The movie positively oozed sex - from the opening shot of a woman client, adjusting her stockings as she kisses Sam a fond farewell. Is there something going on between Sam and Ettie (Una Merkel)?? I don't think so - Ettie seems too smart for that and she is the one constant in his life, besides, he simply doesn't have the time!!! He has just met Mrs. Wonderly (Bebe Daniels) when who should phone up but Iva Archer (Thelma Todd) upset because he has been ignoring her. Another person who overhears the conversation is Miles Archer (Walter Long) but before he has time to teach his two timing wife a lesson he is shot in an alley.Ricardo Cortez is no Humphrey Bogart - I don't mean that in a "putting down" way. Cortez plays Sam Spade as a flinty, smart alecky womaniser, with a sprinkling of humour (also a sprinkling of good taste as well - I am sure that was a photo of Louise Brooks in his apartment). Bogart played him as world weary but someone you could sympathise with. Of the three villains - no one could put more menace into the phrase "I'm a man who likes to talk to a man who likes to talk" than Sidney Greenstreet but Dudley Digges was excellent in the role. He certainly didn't have the domineering presence of Greenstreet (who did?) but he specialised in roles of quiet evil ("The Mayor of Hell", "Massacre"). I thought Dwight Frye was more than a match for Elisha Cook Jnr - he didn't have as much to do and he only uttered a few lines but he bought a vulnerability to his role. The person I thought let the team down was Bebe Daniels. Don't get me wrong, I really love Bebe in the silents and in some of her talkies ("Silver Dollar", "Counsellor at Law" (she matched John Barrymore in sincerity) and "42nd Street" (she played her role with a lot of feeling)). I just think Mary Astor played the role with more warmth and sincerity, so you really cared about what happened to her at the end. Bebe just didn't seem to have the emotional depth.The two people I really loved in this movie were Walter Long (so fantastic as the hardened criminal who takes an intense dislike to Laurel and Hardy in "Pardon Us") and Thelma Todd. There is another sexy scene in this movie where Iva bursts into Sam's apartment, sees Bebe and shouts "What is she doing in my dressing gown"!!! The way Bebe takes it off - like it is poison!!! Anyway Thelma Todd and Walter Long play Mr. and Mrs. Archer. Walter Long married to Thelma Todd - that is surely the stuff that dreams are made of - his dreams!!!Highly, Highly Recommended.

When Warner Brothers did the original The Maltese Falcon, they had in mind trying to convert silent star Ricardo Cortez from an ersatz Rudolph Valentino. Latin lovers were going out of style and the cynical Sam Spade character seemed just the thing to give Cortez a new image. Though Cortez did a good job, this Maltese Falcon was put in the shade by the classic with Humphrey Bogart.Cortez's Spade is more of a smart aleck than a cynic. If you've seen the Bogart version you know exactly what happens here. The cast that Warner Brothers assembled to support Cortez and Bebe Daniels as Ms. Wonderly is a good one. I particularly liked Dudley Digges as Guttman and Dwight Frye as Wilmer. The gay relationship is more pronounced as this version is before the Code.It's a good film, but a curiosity most of all to those of us who are fans of the John Huston version.