Film Noir - The Maltese Falcon

Film Noir – The Maltese Falcon

This is a typical Film Noir of the 1940’s that follows the typical codes and conventions of a film in this genre.  It has the traditional detectives and the victim/femme fatal with some sort of enigma fitted in to it.

Firstly at the beginning of the film there is some sort of text about why the film is called The Maltese Falcon and it states that ‘ the Knight Templars of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted with the rarest jewels but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery. Followed shortly after this there is an establishing shot of the city in which the film is set in, this is San Francisco, a big city in America that is stereotypical of a Film Noir. The enigma in this film is the man getting shot and the big question is who killed him? Also red heroines are things that leads you onto something that doesn’t exist.

The detectives in this Film Noir follow the old school clothing, which is a Trilby hat or a Fedora hat which a long overcoat. They dress generally very smart and presentable as possible when doing their job and to make them look the part. Also in a lot of Film Noir and also in The Maltese Falcon we see the men/detectives with cigarettes all the time this is because the smoke created an effect and contrasts with the black and white theme. This is created by low key lighting, low key lighting is basically just one light from a certain angle which created lots of shadows and is quite iconic when it comes to the early Film Noirs. When the woman walks in the man asks her to tell him the story right from the start, so she does and then when the other detective walks in, it seems like they’re leering her in by the way that they’re looking her up and down as though she was a piece of meat. This may be reflective to how woman were perceived generally in this era of society.

In Film Noirs private detectives are used more traditionally as they’re known for being able to bend the rules to suit them, rather than the typical policeman who has to abide by a set of rules. However a private detective who works for himself or a private company can do abit more dirty work without getting caught out. When we see the scene of the man in his office we see a number of items laid out on his desk such as a telephone, a clock, a notepad and also with the phone constantly ringing it gives a feel of him being a detective and always having calls from people about solving scenarios and mysteries for them which a detective normally does.

The femme fatal in this Film Noir is Mary Astor and she plays the innocent woman. There is a phrase called ‘The spider and the fly’ which relates to the Film Noirs when the femme fatal has some sort of story and they try and get the detectives on their side and then use them to their advantage and get what they want through them. Also in this film the femme fatal is innocent and has a young British accent. When the woman has a problem or something that needs solving, in this case she needs to find her sister. Normally in our society if you needed help and some assistance then you would go to the police and they would then sort it out for you however in the 1940’s they needed to go to them for help and to gather a case around their problem. Also when the woman comes into the office and explains to the detective what’s happened and what she would like him to do she don’t really make eye contact with him, this could show that she is guilty for something that she has done or that she may be hiding something from the detectives that she don’t want them to know. When the detective gets murdered then this could all be planned by the woman who came to his office and that she wants to other detectives to do her dirty work and find out who done it, as they wouldn’t really suspect her.

When the detective gets killed Humphrey Bogart don’t seem that bothered about it, he says I don’t want to see the body this could be because he comes across as quite cold and has a tough exterior. Also he could not want to see the body as he’s guilty or knows something crucial about the murder. When the two detectives come into Humphrey Bogart’s office they’re interrogating him by asking lots of questions about the murder as if it was him, also Humphrey Bogart gets put into the newspaper getting blamed on the murder.

Overall I think that this is a typical film noir that follows all of the codes and conventions such as keeping it black and white, also following the stereotypical characters roles like the detectives and the victims. The way that the women get treated in this is also typical behaviour of this time period. Personally I wouldn’t watch this film as the genre doesn’t really appeal to me that much, however it does seem to be a good film for the genres.