RARA-AVIS: Maltese Falcon Films

E J M Duggan (eddie.duggan@suffolk.ac.uk)
Wed, 03 Dec 1997 16:37:34 -0800 On Wed, 3 Dec 1997 "Spurlock, Duane" <Dspurlock@paulschultz.com> wrote:

>>BTW, the thing that gets me about Huston's film is not how close it is
>>to the novel, but how close it is to *the other films.*
>
>I've never seen the other films made from the Falcon, but I keep seeing
>references to 'em. Guess I'll have to make an effort to see them. Are
>they on video?

Unfortunately not *easily* available---at least, nafaik on this side
side of the pond. I was lucky enough to bump into the first version on
UK TV. The second version was kindly found and supplied by a fellow
rara-avian. You *might* find a copy of either/both lurking in a dusty
corner of the local video shop, but I think you're more likely to
stumble across them as cheap late-night or daytime TV fodder or in a
library. If you take a look at The Maltese Falcon FAQ you'll find some
stills from the first two _Maltese Falcon_ films (btw, look out for the
secret link in the FAQ;->).

Little has been written about the early Falcon films, though some
interesting stuff is (re-)printed in William Luhr, ed., _The Maltese
Falcon: John Huston, director_ (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press, 1995).

I've written a 50-odd page critique of the Huston film, which argues
that the 1941 film uses some visual devices and other aspects of
mise-en-scene that appear to be drawn *not* from Hammett's novel but
from one or other of the earlier films. If anyone is interested in
wading through it, I'll html it and put it on the website over the
christmas hols.

If anyone on the list has seen the other _TMF_ films, maybe we could
develop a sub-thread.

ED

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