The Maltese Falcon Film Noir

Though there has been much controversy surrounding film noir’s status as a genre, its role as an influential artistic movement in cinema is undeniable. Even some of film noir’s most vocal critics have conceded that it "was an essential part of the 1940s outlook, a cinematic style forged in the fires of war, exile, and disillusion, a melodramatic reflection for a world gone mad” (House 65). Just as the United States had entered into battle with the allied powers, noir arose as an insurgent challenging the classic Hollywood tropes of filmmaking and offering a more sinister glimpse into American society. In order to fully understand the impact of film noir, it is vital to analyze the historical framework from which it arose, especially the heightened

tensions that percolated from the real world to the movie screen.
The American gangster film that appeared in the 1930s was enormously popular and said to have been engendered by a “world-wide mood of hopelessness and pessimism. . . . The rise of dictators around the world, the economic collapse, and apprehension about the approaching war had created a fatalistic attitude about the prospects for the future and life in general" (House 68). In the classic 1930s film Angels with Dirty Faces starring James Cagney as troublemaking gangster, there is a definite moral opposition between “goodness” and “badness.” The ethical side is represented by Cagney’s childhood friend who has devoted his life to priesthood and caring for a group of wayward boys, whereas the corrupt field is portrayed by Cagney’s lawyer and co-conspirator, a malicious character with no redeeming features whatsoever (Fluck 387). As was typical in a gangster film, Cagney stands between those two characters and realms: he is a gangster, yet he has not lost all sense of decency, and feels protective towards the street kids. At the end of the film, Cagney’s character is sentenced to death, but he intentionally begs and screams for mercy on the way to his execution so that the street kids don’t idolize him and drift towards a violent life of crime. In spite of the ambiguity surrounding Cagney’s character, there remains an explicit distinction between “goodness” and “badness” as points of moral reference. The title of the film even alludes to this fact as instead of becoming gangsters, the wayward children remain angels with dirty faces.
Furthermore, what distinguishes these 1930s gangster movies from films noirs is that during the Depression, movies aspired to boost morale and direct attention away from the pessimism of the economy (House 69).

This meant that the villains were always captured and justice was wrought, or in the case of Angels with Dirty Faces, Cagney’s character was made into a tragic hero condemning a life of depravity. On the other of the spectrum, hopelessness prevailed during the era of film noir.
One of the most pivotal movies in the timeline of films noirs is John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon because it introduced noir’s characteristic ambiguity without fulling giving way to the cynicism that would appear in later productions. As one of the first films noirs, The Maltese Falcon revolutionized Hollywood not only by serving as a point of rupture from the gangster and detective films of the 1930s but also by promoting a paradoxical view of American society. Though protagonist Sam Spade is derisive towards law and authority, he is ultimately an icon of wartime American masculinity and

patriotism.
Once the shift towards pessimism occurred, directors turned to hard-boiled authors for inspiration because they had already perfected the dark conventions and style that would come to be associated with film noir.

The Maltese Falcon is actually based on a hard-boiled novel by Dashiell Hammett written in the 1930s which, of course, stars the iconic hardboiled detective Sam Spade (Gates 7). During the previous period of gangster and detective films, the protagonists were not cynical or defeated members of the working class but “suave, charming, "soft-boiled" gentlemen” (Gates 10). Again, because of the disillusionment that accompanied the stock market crash, the Depression-era hero salvaged a thread of optimism that good would win out, unlike his hard-boiled counterpart who struggled to triumph over the forces of evil. The distinguishing features of this “soft-boiled” detective were that he was upper class, yet lacked the family pedigree and education typically associated with upward mobility: he was a shred of hope during a time where the American Dream had been corrupted (Gates

11).
One of the reasons why The Maltese Falcon plays such a crucial role in the chronology of film noir, is that it was one of the first films to deviate from this underlying sense of optimism that had permeated Hollywood a decade before. Huston’s movie was released nearly two months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but it already offered a more ominous picture of urban life wherein the hero had to be independent and cunning to survive, let alone outwit the villains. For detectives portrayed in the 1930s, there was “a joy of living fast and well and seemingly without consequence for social, legal, and sexual transgressions” that prevented these films from completely giving way to pessimism (Gates 10). However, is clear that Spade’s primary dilemma is a question of ethics: should he choose love and money over his own sense of justice? Spade must decide between loyalty to his deceased partner Archer and his newfound lover Bridget, though each option has its own pitfalls. Through The Maltese Falcon, Huston began to realize some of the darker fantasies that had emerged during the Depression and would continue to permeate society during the war.
With this transition came the pivotal emergence of the antihero protagonist, one of the essential conventions that defined the film noir movement alongside the femme fatale (Schrader 10). There is no clear distinction between good and evil as in the gangster films— in film noir everyone is scheming and manipulating one other. The character of the antihero is a mass of contradictions because he has unclear motivations and an ambivalent attitude towards law and authority. In The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade plays out this role as a private detective attempting to unearth the mystery of a falcon statue while evading police who suspect him of murder, but in post war noirs, the antihero is often selfish and incredibly violent. When Spade initially goes to meet Gutman, he storms out in a sudden outburst of rage. This temper tantrum is shocking and uncharacteristic, and Spade only confounds this confusion when his face breaks into a grin as the camera tracks his retreat down the hallway. His motivations are hinted at, but ultimately unclear.
In an essay by Rebecca House exploring the rise of film noir, she notes that the antihero “moves with ease in that no-man's-land between the world of law and crime” and “seems are determined to tempt fate” (75). It is interesting how this impulse to tempt fate plays out in The Maltese Falcon, particularly in the way Sam Spade incessantly taunts the two policeman who have accused him of Archer’s murder. When Dundy and Polhaus first visit Spade’s apartment, Sam offers a toast to “Success—to crime!” This gesture is one reminiscent of a snarky teen rebelling against his parents, and there is no true purpose behind it besides Spade’s own enjoyment. He has nothing to gain from jeering the police— in fact, he has a lot to lose—but he heckles them anyway as a way of playing with fate.