‘The Maltese Falcon’ is a film noir that is set in the 1940’s
and made in 1941. We know that is a film noir as it has all of the basic
conventions of one. These would include things such as the main hook or enigma,
which in this case is a crime investigation, it plays with the good cop/bad cop
storyline as the main detective, ‘Detective Sam Spade’ and his partner,
Detective Miles Archer are working on a case that involves a young and
beautiful woman, who plays the ‘Femme Fatale’ and they are looking for a man
who supposedly has taken Mrs Wonderly (the Femme Fatale)’s sister. In the end,
Miles ends up being killed and Sam begins to show his true colours.
The femme
fatale, in this film noirs case – Mrs Wonderly is a young woman who is usually
a ‘damsel in distress’. Her character is one that both of the detectives swoon
over which instantly in the film we see that both detectives will end up
arguing about her. She claims to be scared for her sister’s safety when a man
called ‘Thursby’ claims to have taken her and will not let her see her sister.
She pleads for the men’s help in finding her. During the scene where she enters
the office, there is a medium close up shot of Mrs Wonderly where she is
speaking to the men about her sister, however throughout this scene she is
unable to look either of the men in the eye which suggests that there is an
underlying issue that she may be trying to hide. This gives the audience an
insight on what is going to happen before the people in the film know. This is
an example of dramatic irony which does not happen very often in a film noir as
they usuaslly have restricted narration – where the audience knows only as much
as the detective. The suggestion that Mrs Wonderly is a femme fatale shows the
representation of women at the time. We see that women were inferior to men at
the time, there is another point in the film when Miles walks into the office
and both men stand up but Mrs Wonderly is left sitting that we see that she is
smaller than/inferior to the men. This may also give the audience an idea that
the film was very misogynistic as it portrays the woman to be the bad guy/ the
killer. The femme fatale is always the character in a film noir that gets the
men to do her dirty work for her and then ends up either dead or in jail.
The establishing shot which is set in the city of San
Francisco is very stereotypical to a film noir/ crime film. We also see that
the office is set in the city and the audience suspects that it is set in a
block of offices as we cannot see anything but sky out of the windows in the
office. Slightly later on in the film, we see Detective Spade’s apartment/flat.
It is very simple and we see that he does not have very much money as he lives
in an apartment and when the detectives come to question him about the murder,
he only has a small seat for them to share and he sits on his bed (which isn’t
made). This indicates that he is a very busy man and does not have time for
anything outside of work which could also be why there is no woman present.
The sound in the film is mostly diegetic as there is a lot of
dialogue between the two detectives and Mrs Wonderly. However after Detective
Archer is killed, there is a piece of music (non-diegetic) over the top of the
dialogue and film. This piece of music was mysterious and indicated that the
chase was now on, to find out who it was that killed Archer.
The editing in the film is very simple and is called
continuity editing. This is where each shot must follow each other to make the
film look as though it flows. During the time that the film was set and written
in, there was not very much advanced editing for films (which is part of why
the film noir genre exists). So the lighting is very low key to add the effect
of the black and white film noir. There are no tricks or colour editing in the
film which is why it is simple and called ‘continuity editing’.
Both of the
detectives are very stereotypical to the film noir genre. We see this as soon
as the film starts when Detective Spade begins to roll a cigarette in his office,
this indicates that the film was made around that time as usually, people
wouldn’t smoke inside, especially if they have guests as it is considered
dangerous and rude. Again, this is another indication that Spade is very
relaxed and emotionless as he doesn’t really seem to care, we also see this
when Mills walks into the room when Spade is speaking to Mrs Wonderly.
Instantly, Archer is swooning over Wonderly and he doesn’t hide it even though
he has a wife whereas Spade is very collected and relaxed although we still see
that he shows some interest in her. When Archer is killed and Spade goes out in
the middle of the night to see what happens, he is wearing a suit with a trilby
hat and an overcoat/mac. This is a stereotypical attire for characters such as
detectives in Film noirs. Mrs Wonderly also describes Floyd Thursby to have
‘Dark hair and Bushy eyebrows’ and to be wearing a ‘Grey suit and hat’. This is
again a stereotype of the detectives at the time but it could also be Mrs
Wonderly suggesting that the detectives are just like any other bad gut which
indicates that she has an underlying plot against them.
The running theme of the film noir is a crime investigation.
In this film noir, it uses private detectives and detectives rather than police
as it allows the director to be inventive and creative as detectives are
allowed to do much more digging and do more dirty work than police. The
character or Spade takes on this persona and as we later find out has a lot of
secrets and is hiding a lot as he is supposedly having an affair with Miles’
wife which is why he does not phone her directly when he was killed. When he
went to the scene of Miles’ murder, Sam declined seeing the body before it was
taken away and did not speak directly to Miles’ wife. This would then raise
suspicions with the police as it is made to look as though it was Spade that
killed Miles. This scene shows us that there is more than meets the eye with
Sam as he is a very secretive and emotionless character in the film. This again
has the conventions of a film noir as there is always a problem with the main
characters. We also see that the femme
fatale, (Mrs Wonderly) is English. At the time, English people were considered
as very classy and posh. If the character or Mrs Wonderly spoke with a New York
or Jersey accent, she would not be treated the same as how she is treated
because she is English. The English were considered to be very classy and of a
high status so were treated with respect in America which is why both of them
men swooned over her in the film and she was treated with respect and as a
lady. This is also one of the reasons that neither of the detectives suspected
that she would be an antagonist because she seemed classy and respectful so
would not be assumed to be a killer.
In
conclusion, The Maltese Falcon has many elements of a film noir such as the
stereotypical manner of the detectives, (the trilby, suit and overcoat), the
‘Femme fatale’, (the female character that begins being beautiful and innocent
but ends up being the spider with the web and either ends up dead or in jail),
The setting of the city, the black and white film and low key lighting to add
effect and the storyline of the good cop/bad cop crime investigation
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