The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1941_film)
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film noir based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett.[2][3]
Directed by John Huston, the film stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his femme fatale client. Gladys George, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet co-star, with Greenstreet appearing in his film debut. The Maltese Falcon was Huston’s directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards. The story follows a San Francisco private detective and his dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers, all of whom are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette.
The film premiered on October 3, 1941, in New York City, and was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1989.[4]
The Maltese Falcon was considered by Roger Ebert to be one of the greatest films ever made[5] and was cited by Panorama du Film Noir Américain as the first major film noir.[6]
Amazingly, this was the third film based on the novel-- there was a 1931 version with Ricardo Cortez, which I've never seen, and a terrible comedy(!) version from 1936 called "Satan Met a Lady," which changes all of the characters' names and changes the falcon to a ram's horn, but otherwise follows the plot of the book pretty closely. Except that it tries to be funny. And isn't.