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Real star of `Maltese Falcon' flying in for a visit
San Jose Mercury News ^
| Thu, Feb. 17, 2005
| Mary Anne Ostrom
Posted on 02/17/2005 7:12:30 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; US: California
KEYWORDS: anniversary; bogart; detective; hammet; hollywood; literature; maltesefalcon; movies; noir; sanfrancisco; statue
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To: Canticle_of_Deborah; NormsRevenge; martin_fierro
To: nickcarraway
Interesting...I just ate at John's Grill twice last month on a business trip to San Fran. Great restaurant.
To: nickcarraway
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.
4
posted on
02/17/2005 7:14:43 PM PST
by
Darkwolf377
("Drowning someone...I wouldn't have a part in that."--Teddy K)
To: nickcarraway
It is worth 2 million dollars?... That is what dreams are made of.
5
posted on
02/17/2005 7:17:31 PM PST
by
ditto h
To: nickcarraway
It's the stuff that dreams are made of.
6
posted on
02/17/2005 7:17:38 PM PST
by
NCC-1701
(ISLAM IS A CULT, PURE AND SIMPLE!!!!! IT MUST BE ERADICATED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH.)
To: Darkwolf377
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.
7
posted on
02/17/2005 7:24:17 PM PST
by
fat city
(Julius Rosenberg's soviet code name was "Liberal")
To: Darkwolf377
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.
8
posted on
02/17/2005 7:24:50 PM PST
by
fat city
(Julius Rosenberg's soviet code name was "Liberal")
To: nickcarraway
9
posted on
02/17/2005 7:25:28 PM PST
by
vrwinger
(Tagline? I don't need no stinkin' TAGLINE!)
To: fat city
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.
10
posted on
02/17/2005 7:27:30 PM PST
by
Darkwolf377
("Drowning someone...I wouldn't have a part in that."--Teddy K)
To: Darkwolf377
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.
To: vrwinger
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.
12
posted on
02/17/2005 7:41:59 PM PST
by
Hank Rearden
(Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
To: nickcarraway
Sam surveills Wilmer surveilling Sam
13
posted on
02/17/2005 7:46:56 PM PST
by
M. Espinola
(Freedom is never free!)
To: M. Espinola
14
posted on
02/17/2005 7:52:10 PM PST
by
M. Espinola
(Freedom is never free!)
To: nickcarraway
***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!
15
posted on
02/17/2005 8:02:36 PM PST
by
Ruy Dias de Bivar
(When someone burns a cross on your lawn, the best firehose is an AK-47.)
To: fat city
Kiss Me Deadly for noir films, though.Was that the one with Dick Powell?
To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
Or the 1936 version with Bette Davis called Satan Met a Lady.
To: fat city
Ahh, nevermind.... I was thinking of 'Murder, My Sweet'
Now THERE's a "film noir". Great, great movie.
To: Lancey Howard
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)
To: Darkwolf377; fat city
I think The Glass Key is right up there too.
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