Walter Huston's adaptation of The Maltese Falcon opening: strengths and limitations

¶ … Walter Huston's Adaptation of the Opening of the Maltese Falcon (1941) Movie. What Does it Do Well? What Does it Lack?

The Maltese Falcon -- Book vs. film

Whenever a film is made of a beloved novel, people are often quick to point out the discrepancies between the original depiction and the cinematic version. Dashiell Hammett's classic novel The Maltese Falcon, the tale of how his detective hero Sam Spade became embroiled in an intrigue involving a famous gold statue of a bird, was made into a film directed by John Huston starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. The movie was extremely faithful to the book and the first scene, textually, often transposes full pages of the novel's dialogue into the film. This is rather unusual in a cinematic adaptation, given that film is widely considered to be a visual medium vs. The verbal medium of the page. However, because film is embodied and makes use of actors to translate the words of the character onto the screen, no film adaptation is a perfect rendition of a novel. There is always a level of interpretation involved, as can be seen in The Maltese Falcon as rendered through Bogart and Astor's genius.

One of the most striking aspects of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon as a book is its reliance upon dialogue to unfold the plot. The novel opens with a quick-fire exchange between Miss Wonderly (a pseudonym) and Spade during which she asks him to shadow her sister. Corinne, Wonderly says, has fallen in the grasp of a bad man named Floyd Thursby whom she is afraid of because he seems dangerous and violent. In both the book and the film, Miss Wonderly spends a great deal of time vaguely talking about how she is afraid for her sister and for herself and she physically describes Thursby (more extensively in the book than in the movie) in very brutish terms.

In both the book and the film, Spade is portrayed as a wizened New York gumshoe. Bogart's Spade has smoother skin and is more stylishly dressed. Hammett describes Spade as a kind of 'blonde Satan' but in Humphrey Bogart's famous characterization he looks more like a typical, hard-bitten New Yorker. Bogart is smaller, darker, and younger than the book description. He is also more expressive, given that his sarcasm and mistrust seems bubbling constantly beneath the surface although he is never anything less than professional with Wonderly. An interesting aspect of having Bogart constantly in frame and cutting to Bogart is that Bogart causes Spade to dominate the scene as he questions Wonderly, despite the fact that the woman has the bulk of the dialogue. The viewer is forever studying Spade, trying to discern his reaction while in the book there is merely long exposition in the voice of Wonderly, with the occasional short, punctuated sentence describing Spade interjecting a few words or making a gesture.

The text and the film are relatively similar in terms of the words that are exchanged but in the film, given Bogart's drawling syllables and delicate balance between condescension and skepticism, the viewer is more quickly altered to the fact that Miss Wonderly may not be all she is supposed to be. Mary Astor's nervous, slightly equivocal delivery of her words and her breathlessness also raises the viewer's alarm. She often is portrayed sitting in the center of the room which gives her a precarious and vulnerable quality. The characterization of Miss Wonderly in the book leaves more doubt about her intentions. She acts nervous, but Hammett leaves doubt this could be due to her decorous nature rather than the fact she has something to hide. Mary Astor's character wears a hat that covers part of her face and a fur around her neck that seems to be deliberately designed to conceal. In the book she is described as on edge, but in a less shifty and suspicious fashion. When she begins to speak it is noted that: "her feet were flat on the floor as if she were about to rise" (Hammett 4). She speaks as if in a hurry, mashing her handbag into her lap.

Spade is shown studying her intently and given Bogart's curling lip, the viewer wonders if she is all that she purports to be. In the book, the reader is more focused upon her narration than her characterization. This causes the reader to believe her more, given that she is telling a story and the reader follows the story as 'story' rather than attempts to discern what it is really revealing about Miss Wonderly's preoccupations and motivations. On second read, however, Wonderly's vagueness and her over-exaggerated fears about her sister's lover does seem suspicious, but this troublesome aspect to her tale is still more immediately obvious on film. Hammett's characterizations of Spade's responses punctuate what is, in effect, a long monologue. In contrast to Bogart's distanced, cool regard of Wonderly, Hammett's descriptions of the detective's reactions seem less complex and more positive. "Spade nodded again. His frown went away. In its place came a look of sharp attentiveness" (Hammett 6). Bogart's hanging lip, ironic eye, and cool manner seems to indicate far more mistrust of Wonderly than attentiveness and consideration.