Taking A Look At The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon and Classical Hollywood Cinema

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir directed by John Huston and staring Humphrey Bogart as the private investigator Samuel Spade. Through a series of twists and turns, Spade is taken across the city of San Francisco in pursuit of a mysterious black statuette of a bird of prey. The film is a prime example of classical Hollywood cinema and contains many of the key principles in classical narration as well as continuity editing. One such scene that represents these techniques begins at 50:56 when Samuel Spade seeks out Mr. Gutman to discuss the secrets surrounding the elusive statuette.
To fully understand this scene, one must consider the fabula and syuzhet of the film leading up to the pivotal moment when Spade encounters Mr. Gutman. Both Brigid O’Shaughnessy and Joel Cairo have been introduced as characters that know various

pieces of information about the falcon. Spade has gone to see Mr. Gutman to learn more about what the falcon actually is and how much it is worth. This is, in part, to help fill some of the gaps in the syzuhet. The audience has all of the same knowledge that Spade has, but both are aware that information is missing from the plot as a whole. Spade visiting Gutman not only helps move the story along, but it gives the audience hope that some of their questions will be answered. The audience is also already knowledgeable of a double causal structure. While pursuing the falcon, Spade has developed a romantic relationship with O’Shaughnessy. The effect that this will have on Spade is unknown at the point that he enters Mr. Gutman’s door.
The scene begins a few moments before that crucial moment with a fade in of Spade arriving in an elevator. He is told to head to “12C” where through an over the shoulder shot we see an employee of Mr. Gutman opening the door. Mr. Gutman is revealed to be in the background. Over the course of the next few shots, Gutman and Spade share a drink, and after the fifth cut of the scene, the conversation’s 180-degree rule is set. At this point, both men are seated, and the camera sits behind the shoulder of Spade.
The next few shots take the 30-degree rule into practice.

These shots originate at cuts six, seven, eight, and eleven. They are all at least 30 degrees apart so that the audience does not feel jarred by sudden movement, and they make up the majority of this dialogue heavy scene. Shots that originate at cuts six and eight, as well as the follow up shots that mimic them, are medium closeups of the two characters. The shot that originates after cut seven, as well as its mimicking shots, are medium closeups of both men, just off the shoulder of Spade. The eleventh shot and its mimics are over the shoulder shots showing the back of Gutman’s head and Spade from the torso up. These four key shots repeat themselves in a way that makes the conversation between Gutman and Spade easy to follow, and they flow so naturally that one may have a difficult time even distinguishing them from one another on a first viewing. This prime example of continuity editing keeps the audience engaged in the conversation rather than making them spend time trying to understand the thought process behind the

editing.
This pattern is eventually broken when Gutman tells Spade that the two of them cannot do business together. A new shot is introduced where Spade stands, yells at Gutman, and breaks a glass. This is followed by a shot from behind Spade’s back so that the audience can see Gutman and his reaction. This is an example of an eye-line match as Spade is looking directly at Gutman in the previous shot. Spade then leaves the room. The next shot is in the hallway where the audience seems Spade heading toward and eventually entering the elevator. Joel Cairo is seen entering the hallway, not seen by Spade. The scene fades out.
The Maltese Falcon is an excellent example of classical Hollywood cinema. The continuity editing and classical narration style are present in not only in the scene where Samuel Spade meets Mr. Gutman for the first time but for the majority of the film. The Maltese Falcon deploys techniques such as 180-degree rule and eye-line match to adhere to continuity editing while keeping a classical narrative structure with causal linearity and character motivation. Overall, the film exemplifies the standards that define a classical Hollywood movie and applies techniques that defined not only the film noir genera but nearly all films in this cinematic era.