Real star of `Maltese Falcon' flying in for a visit

San Jose Mercury News ^ | Thu, Feb. 17, 2005 | Mary Anne Ostrom

[nickcarraway]

The most storied bird in cinema history, Dashiell Hammett's ``The Maltese Falcon,'' is winging its way back home to San Francisco to star in the 75th anniversary celebration of a book that helped create the ``hard-boiled'' American mystery genre.

Getting the black bird -- or rather, the 50-pound lead prop used in the 1941 screen version -- from Southern California to San Francisco, where Hammett lived and wrote from 1921 to 1929, could very well make a Hammett-style pot boiler all its own.

Now valued at $2 million, the statue Sam Spade so doggedly pursued will arrive with armed security. Two San Francisco Police Department officers have been assigned to, uh, bird watching. After a short viewing at a private party at John's Grill, it will spend the night in a bank vault.

Depending on whom you ask, Hammett wrote his most popular novel either at John's Grill on Ellis Street, where he would lunch, or at his apartment on Post Street. His office was in the famous Flood Building on Market Street.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[OwenKellogg]

Interesting...I just ate at John's Grill twice last month on a business trip to San Fran. Great restaurant.

[Darkwolf377]

I prefer The Big Sleep as far as early noirs go, but this is such a great flick.

As for hardboiled fiction, Red Harvest is THE book.

[ditto h]

It is worth 2 million dollars?... That is what dreams are made of.

[NCC-1701]

It's the stuff that dreams are made of.

[fat city]

As for hardboiled fiction, Red Harvest is THE book.

Sure is- and nobody does Chinatown better than Hammett's Continental Op. Not a bad writer for an old commie.

Kiss Me Deadly for noir films, though.

[fat city]

As for hardboiled fiction, Red Harvest is THE book.

Sure is- and nobody does Chinatown better than Hammett's Continental Op. Not a bad writer for an old commie.

Kiss Me Deadly for noir films, though.

[vrwinger]

[Darkwolf377]

I've always found Kiss Me Deadly a bit dull and dry (especially since we've got the originally-intended ending available now, and it's a lot less apocalyptic than the original). I can't put my finger on it, it's just kind of flat in its grimmness.

I mentioned Big Sleep as my favorite early noir; middle-period would be Touch of Evil; late would be Chinatown.

If you can find it give the little-seen movie Hammett a try. Frederick Forrest does a great impersonation of a fictionalized Hammett, and the score by John Barry is spare and beautiful.

[nickcarraway]

Red Harvest was pretty good. I don't believe they've ever made a movie directly based on the book, although many adaptations. All the Continental Op stuff was pretty good.

[Hank Rearden]

Milan also owns the piano from ``Casablanca'' but believes that the falcon, because it serves as the title of a book and a movie, and has such a pivotal role in both, is ``the most important piece of film memorabilia there is.''

Not Dorothy's ruby slippers?

``There were six pairs of ruby slippers,'' huffed Milan, ``in three different sizes.''

And I've been told there were three boids.

I own a full-size replica, which I see every time I watch a movie, and treasure.

[M. Espinola]

Sam surveills Wilmer surveilling Sam

[M. Espinola]

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The most storied bird in cinema history, Dashiell Hammett's ``The Maltese Falcon,'***

The 1931 vesion or the Bogart version? There is a slight difference in the bird but the story is the same.

Silly question, isn't it! Where can I get a copy of the bird? I'll take one in plaster if I can get it!

[Lancey Howard]

Kiss Me Deadly for noir films, though.

Was that the one with Dick Powell?

[nickcarraway]

Or the 1936 version with Bette Davis called Satan Met a Lady.

[Lancey Howard]

Ahh, nevermind.... I was thinking of 'Murder, My Sweet'
Now THERE's a "film noir". Great, great movie.

[nickcarraway]

No, you are thinking of Murder, My Sweet. (The Chandler novel was called Farewell, My Lovely, because audiences might think it was a musical with that title. I think that Murder, My Sweet is better than Kiss Me Deadly, I can see why some people rank it with The Big Sleep. (By the way, The Falcon Takes Over was based on the same Chandler book, Farewell, My Loverl, which isn't half bad. Ward Bond plays the role Mike Mazurzki did in the former)

[nickcarraway]

I think The Glass Key is right up there too.