Making of The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon, a novel, was conceived and written by Dashiell Hammett. John Huston adhered closely to the original work when he wrote the screenplay for the film. He stayed true to its structure, chronology of events, characters, dialogue, and settings. On May 22, 1941, Hal B. Wallis, an executive producer at Warner Bros., sent the chief casting executive a memo. The memo pretty much instructed him to send Huston’s screenplay to actor George Raft as soon as it was completed.

Raft read the screenplay two days after Huston finished it. Raft disliked it and rejected it. He told Jack L. Warner that The Maltese Falcon was not an important picture and that he would not perform in anything but important pictures (Richardson 37). This statement wasn’t completely unwarranted. Huston was an untested director and two other film versions of The Maltese Falcon had already bombed twice at the box office. Raft also had a bad experience when he played a part in The Glass Key, which was another film based on a novel by Hammett.

Incidentally, there is a funny story about how Warner Bros. obtained the rights for The Maltese Falcon from the thirty-six-year-old Dashiell Hammett. Jacob Wilk’s son, ten-year-old Max Wilk, liked to

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Every shot, camera move, entrance, exit was down on paper, leaving nothing to chance (Richardson 65). The man who benefited most from this was Humphrey Bogart. Today The Maltese Falcon is know as one of the best example of film noir. The film got well reviews but didn’t win any awards. Spade’s apartment, Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s apartment and the corridors leading up to them were on Stage #3. It took seven takes before Huston ordered a print. Warner had severe limitations in terms of film art, he was still the boss. This was a departure from catwalks and blazing lights overhead. Raft was also not Huston’s first choice. This was the scene where Spade was to kiss Brigid. Looking to save money when promoting, Warner Bros. During the editing of the movie Jack Warner told Huston to re-shoot the opening and one other scene. This was Hammett’s original ending to the novel.

Approximate Word count = 1969
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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