Culture

What I Learned From “The Maltese Falcon”

100 Comments

I am not generally a fan of old movies. The acting styles, set designs, plot artifices, and production values usually do not attract me. But there are some exceptions. One of these is the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon; its ethic and philosophy of life is directly relevant to men today, and is worth repeated viewing. We will discuss some of the reasons here.

968full-the-maltese-falcon-poster

In the 1940s, a new genre of film began quietly to make an appearance in Hollywood. It was a hard-bitten type of film, born of the cynicism and dislocation of the Second World War and its aftermath. This genre—which later came to be called film noir—came to be defined by its embrace of the following themes, in one form or another:

1. Men are prisoners of their nature. No matter how hard you try, you can’t escape your past or your character.
2. Crime sometimes does pay. Even when it doesn’t, the temporary thrills are worth something.
3. Women are unstable and inherently untrustworthy.
4. Most people lie or are treacherous.
5. A man must live by a code of honor, despite all the crookedness swirling around him.
6. Alienation from society is the inevitable consequence of living by a code of honor.

Recognize these themes? I thought so. You might call the film noir ethos the original “red pill” ethos. Film historians tell us that the “classic” period of noir spanned the 1940s and 1950s; after that, the genre fell out of favor, but never entirely died. It saw a major revival in the 1990s under the term “neo-noir” which continues to this day. I certainly have my own list of noir favorites, which I think every man interested in movies should see.

maltese2

A jaded but deeply moral man: Sam Spade

Film scholars also tell us that first of the genre was The Maltese Falcon (1941). Adapted from the Dashiell Hammet’s unrelenting grim crime novel, this John Huston production set a standard that few of its descendants have matched. It is a remarkable film: a misanthropic, dark meditation on human greed, the futility of effort, and the consequences of betrayal. In many ways, it is more of a stage play than a film.

Euripides would have liked The Maltese Falcon.

It is claustrophobic and oppressive, with all of the action taking place in hotel rooms and offices. Every character is either corrupt, an opportunist, or a liar, and their scheming machinations add to the oppressive atmosphere. Everyone is trying to screw everyone else; only Sam Spade, played wonderfully by Humphrey Bogart, is able to convey some sort of stoic honor.

The plot: an apparent damsel in distress (Mary Astor) visits private detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) to ask for his protection. Spade’s partner Miles Archer gets shot in the back while working on the case. The cops, apparently aware that Spade had had an affair with Miles’s wife, finger Spade as a murder suspect.

Spade is visited by a series of strange characters: Joel Cairo (masterfully played by Peter Lorre), the sinister Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), and even his apparent client Mary Astor, who proves to be a master of deceit. Everyone is lying, everyone is concealing something, and everyone is trying to screw everyone else.

maltese3

What gives? Peter Lorre had better come clean, brother

Slowly, the connections between all the characters are revealed. They are all engaged on a joint quest to find a precious artifact, a jewel-encrusted statute of a falcon, once in the possession of the Knights of Malta. Spade is skeptical, and apparently is motivated only by money. Or so he wishes everyone to believe. Feelings between him and Mary Astor begin to develop. Or do they?

The conclusion of the film is what enables it to rise above the cheap conventions of the standard crime drama. The quest for the precious statue turns out to be an illusion, a fools’ errand that brings its seekers only misery. It is the essence of the futility of effort, which would become a pervasive noir theme.

The cops turn out to be deluded, corrupt fools. The male supporting characters are scheming sociopaths. The only female character turns out to be a lying, manipulative murderess.

When Spade discovers that his partner had been gunned down by the woman he loves, he must put his allegiance to his moral code above his amorous impulses. “When your partner is killed,” Spade growls, “You’re supposed to do something about it. It doesn’t matter whether you liked him or not. You’re supposed to do something about it.”

Your comrades and your code are more important than your physical gratification. It is a lesson that many of us, in this age of simps, manginas, and white knights, have forgotten.

maltese4

Spade spots a cheap gunsel

“You’re supposed to do something about it.” And he does. Despite all the rottenness of the world, despite all of its corruption and evil (or maybe because of it) a man of honor must be true to his own code. He must do the right thing in the midst of all the iniquity, in spite of all the swirling malevolence around him. Only this stoic courage is able to give life meaning.

The original book was chosen recently as a selection for the Wall Street Journal Book Club. Some readers were disturbed. According to its critics, the book is misogynistic, homophobic (in its portrayal of Joel Cairo), and amoral. In short, the same criticisms that are heaped on every work of art (yes, I consider The Maltese Falcon to be art) that makes certain people uncomfortable.

Ignore these namby-pamby voices. The Maltese Falcon has much to teach about life and human nature. As we go through life, we quickly find out that peoples’ motivations are usually not altruistic; that many women do rely on cunning and guile to manipulate men; and that most other men are craven and corrupt.

The only safe refuge, apparently, is to adopt a patina of detached irony. Spade shields himself from the evil of the world by his tough-guy exterior, but beneath that, we could say that he is a profoundly moral man. He sets things right with the case, avenges his fallen comrade Miles, and exposes the statute of the bird for the phony it is. Sam Spade is indeed a man of honor, if a flawed one.

This is a film that bears frequent viewings. Its message resonates just as loudly today as it did in 1941, surely one of the most fateful years in recent world history. Be skeptical of the world, and on your guard with strangers.

But never abandon yourself to despair, or your soul to amorality.

Read More: The Antimans

100 thoughts on “What I Learned From “The Maltese Falcon””

  1. Well I will certainly be seeing this movie after reading this article. I was watching some older action/drama/crime movies the other day (Face/Off, Untouchables and Good Fellas) and I began to wonder: “why don’t they make great movies like this anymore?”
    It is because Hollyweird has become overrun and perverted by the feminist and Marxist agendas. Most of Hollyweird’s “finest” are any movies that indoctrinate us with the whiteguilt or misandric overtones.

    1. A decent “caper” film comes out every now and then. I really liked The Bank Job a few years ago. Now You See Me was pretty good too.
      But yeah, its mostly all Silver Linings Playbook horseshit today.

    2. In my experience modern Hollywood is more occupied with injecting their various left-political agendas into their films than anything else.

    3. Because they’re too busy making dreck like “Frozen” and (worse) “Malificent” where true love’s kiss isn’t even from a guy any more. PC Uber Alles.

    4. There was a pretty good underrated crime flick some years back called Red Rock West which had Nicolas Cage in it. If anyone recalls.

  2. “Your comrades and your code are more important than your physical
    gratification. It is a lesson that many of us, in this age of simps,
    manginas, and white knights, have forgotten.”
    How timely, since I’ve just written a post about the need for us as men to ostracize white knights from respectable society.

    1. Agree. They need to be shamed and called out at every opportunity. It’s almost sickening when you see it happening…that’s why that shit needs to be called out.

  3. Two inaccuracies: 1. “In the 1940s, a new genre of film began quietly to make an appearance in
    Hollywood. It was a hard-bitten type of film, born of the cynicism and
    dislocation of the Second World War and its aftermath.” If the first one of the genre was released in 1941, how could this be? WWII began in 1939 (1941 for the US where this was produced) and actually, Citizen Kane was the first film noir.
    2. Astor’s character wasn’t the only female. Archer’s wife was getting boned by Sam (and someone else, apparently) and of course there was the secretary, the only honest woman in the film.
    Good article otherwise.

    1. You’re being a bit too rigid about the dates. Film scholars assure us that the first noir film was The Maltese Falcon. BUT the genre really didn’t pick up steam, and come into its own, until after the war (1945). That’s what I was trying to say.

  4. there is definitely something red pill about film noir and hammett, although I find some of the films to be dated – couldn’t get my head round orson welles’ touch of evil for instance. This article is a nice take on a genre that describes a basically fallen world, yet one which unlike our own fallen world of the present wasn’t completely and bizarrely absurd with it – even if on the other side of the ocean at least it was supposed to be existentially absurd. The one thing not touched upon here perhaps in what is otherwise a great write-up is the idea of ‘the detective’ as in a sense constituting the basic role that all of us find ourselves in when interrogating the corruption and evil all around us (although SJWs don’t make for particularly satisfying napoleon’s of crime). In the context of ROK / the manosphere the obvious angle here is of women playing helpless victims who then turn out to be dangerous, self-interested and potentially lethal femme fatales – indeed its almost weird that as far as I’m aware there’s never been an article on the femme fatale – perhaps feminists just aren’t attractive enough to play the femme, even if they’ve got the fatale down to a T. Whatever one thinks of the idea of the ‘matrix’, or the ‘cathedral’ or whatever you care to call it, its clear that any thorough investigations in this regard can lead in one direction only – to the unveiling of the dark underbelly of evil that sickens our once great metropolis

    1. Touch of Evil was good, but the staged rape by the pot-smoking motorcycle gang was retarded. A real gang would have just raped and killed her instead of getting her high and then making her think she was raped the night before. Noir in the 50’s couldn’t be as dark as it wanted to be.

      1. I didn’t really like it to be honest. I think it was the fact that I paid to see a black and white film at an actual cinema

  5. The Maltese Falcon is the first in a trilogy of great Red Pill movies. The other two are To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep.
    Noir may have experienced a revival in the 90’s, but the first neo-noir comes from the mid 70’s – Towne and Polanski’s masterpiece Chinatown. I consider this a must see, with the caveat that you should be in the mood for something long and slow paced to appreciate it fully. It’s sippin’ whiskey, not drinkin’ whiskey.

    1. Chinatown is my all-time favorite movie. It bums me out that I cant seem to get my friends to watch it. Getting a 20-something to watch an old movie is nearly impossible.

      1. Christ, that’s sad. If they consider movies from the 1970s “old” what the hell are they going to do with stuff from the 1940s? As I said, a lot of the old stuff doesn’t appeal to me, but some of it is top-notch.

        1. So much acting today is ridiculously over the top and contrived, in a way that normal people just don’t behave. Of course, we have some great actors today in a country of 350 million, sure. But take for example, The Walking Dead, which I believe is the #1 show on cable.
          It is constantly overhyped and overacted drama. Instead of grit, it is just emotion for emotion’s sake. Every character is facing some personal crisis and they act in absurd ways to demonstrate that to the viewer. It’s so annoying to watch.
          There are very few characters who embody the cool, calm, in control persona of a Bogart or, dare I say, Steve McQueen. Perhaps one of Johnny Depp’s characters is all I can think of. Oh well, time for a rewatch of Maltese.. and I think I will check out Chinatown.

        2. Totally unrelated, but I refuse to watch The Walking Dead. I have only read the first omnibus comic collection. In the first issue, Rick’s wife bangs a dude within like a month of the zombie invasion (Rick’s adolescent old son later kills him – fucking bad-ass). I heard they changed it in the show so she was somewhat likable and doesn’t fuck around until way later in the series.

        3. That’s the wonder of the filter of time: Like with music, there was a *lot* of crap put out, even back during the “golden age”. But with time it’s become easy to filter it out. Oldies stations don’t play the shit from the 1950s — they play the hits. Sometimes, even the hits suck but generally speaking time weathers away at the face of the genre to reveal the gems.

        4. She was the worst thing about show. I have never in my life so hard cheered for someone to get eaten by a zombie, and have trailed off from watching the show. spicynujac is right — emotion for the sake of emotion.
          Sometimes, emotional moments are great. When they are warranted. I love it when there is a heart-wrenching moment where a character dies… but I have to give a shit about the character. He can’t just be some red shirt introduced for the purpose of dying. It loses its value.

        5. Enjoy McQueen’s neo-westerns. Also Eastwood westerns. And of course Peckinpa-pa and Leone. Cheers.

        6. Check out Telltale’s Walking Dead adventure game for infinitly better written narrative about apocalypse, survival, and the meaning of life in a world increasingly devoid of it.

        7. Yep, check out Steve McQueen’s stuff…you won’t be disappointed. Women (feminists) can bitch all they want but they all would chase right after him (and most did). You want lessons on game or how to just “be” a man……watch his movies.

        9. No, he fucks around with Rick’s wife in the first episode and was a sleaze basically from moment one after the zombies appeared. His status before that is only hinted at, that he was a ‘buddy’ type of guy whose impulses were held in check by the acknowledged societal hierarchy.

        10. Couldn’t agree more. Though in a way her drama for drama’s sake was rather interesting commentary on the true nature of women. Had Rick taken charge and controlled her impulses and squashed her legacy entitlement bullshit it would have been a perfect response. He didn’t, but in that there is also a lesson.

        13. The first three episodes were hardcore fun, very red pill, very “misogynistic”. You can tell how much it offended the powers that be by the huge push now to gay it up and make it all minority all the time. But those first three, yeah, fun. Same with Vikings first season.

        15. I find I can watch it again and again. Here’s a seriously underrated classic if interested: The Duellists, with Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine – absolutely brilliant.

        16. I used to watch those films as a boy.There was one that I can’t remember the name where this young guy takes his father’s boat I think, and sails around Sweden with this girl. By the end of the Summer she’s knocked up. He marries her and gets like a real job but she gets bored and leaves. It ends with him holding the kid.
          Reminds me of the manginas on here lol

        18. The comics and even the show itself isn’t very realistic. The zombies are slow moving and theoretically easy to control. The zombies in Day of the Dead (remake) showed a more practical threat. Nonetheless, if we buy into the concept of an apocalypse and Rick’s wife thinking he was dead, it’s not unreasonable she might start banging him a month (timeline of the show) after he’s gone. When she found out he was back, the affair was over. Shane revealed himself to be slime when he sacrificed Otto to help himself get away and acted like a thug. Rick has been a jerk at times (understandable for the situation) but was never a thug.

        19. Ever since then it’s nothing but contrived drama that appeals directly to women and effeminate men (sports fanboys).

      1. “The Long Goodbye”
        Horribly under appreciated. The missing link between noir and neo-noir. Backward looking yet entirely the product of its own, rather short, era.
        My experience is that most people never quite figure out how to take it. The tone doesn’t fit in to any of their boxes.

        1. Someone else recommended that recently. . . a fan of Gould from the Ocean films. Cheers.

        2. Which makes it’s off hand reference in Sin City rather interesting actually.

      3. Good list…here are some others that I think are worthy of any man’s time: The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape.
        Both have good casts and it shows anyone how men can get shit done.
        Also for younger men on here: watch older Paul Newman movies as well. He gives good examples on how to deal with women (silent at times but intimidating or giving it to them, straight on).

        1. The Dirty Dozen
          Kelly’s Heroes
          Bridge Over The River Kwai
          Any Eastwood film where he plays the most believable masculine character ever conceived – the man with no name.
          Master And Commander – 2003 – very good film, and stresses basically every masculine virtue that can be stressed, which is odd given how new it is. It has no females at all, no love interests, no romantic subtexts. The friends in the film are friends in a masculine way with no implied “homo” crap. The men solve a difficult problem by applying not just might, but also logic and scientific thinking. Fantastic movie all around given when it was made.

        2. Nice ones. I was thinking about Bridge Over…. as well. Same with Clint (it’s how he’s carried that torch all the way to Gran Torino).
          Master and Commander is another one that shows how men (collectively) can get shit done (with no women involved).

    3. What about “Key Largo”? Bogey the war vet going toe-to-toe with Edward G. Robinson the Capone-esque bootlegger from Milwaukee?

      1. Another top notch movie, but I find that the three I listed hang together in the same way that the Dollars Trilogy does.
        High Plains Drifter might be the jewel in that genre’s crown, but it isn’t part of the trilogy and dances to a different tune.

        1. no way man.. High Plains Drifter is an afterthought with only a few moments of coolness by Clint “the Stranger”. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the magnum opus of the spaghetti western and shows all around genius in direction, cinematography, musical score and acting throughout.

        2. “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the magnum opus of the spaghetti western . . .”
          I can’t bring myself to disagree, and the score is one of the greats, irrespective of genre, and yet I can’t help but enjoy For a Few Dollars More just a little bit, well, more.
          I also like Kagemusha better than Ran.
          No accounting for taste I guess.

        3. Given as the whole of the trilogy is epic there’s nothing wrong with preferring one over the other.
          What I find particularly interesting is that TGTBTU broke a huge rule at the time and had no dialog, not one word, for the entire first ten minutes of the show. Time it. Yet you get such a deep, rich impression of story that I can only come away awed at the level of magnificence required to tell that tale without so much as a sneeze.

    4. What about Casablanca? Doesn’t Bogart verbally put a girl in her place in that movie?

      1. Well what else would you do with that inconstant, weepy little child?
        Too much chick flick to sit through to get to the few masculine moments at the end. An end that was tacked on to try to save the thing in the first place.
        Everybody knows that To Have and Have Not is just a remake of Casablanca, and they’re right.
        Everybody knows that it is inferior to Casablanca, and they’re wrong. It took them a second try to get it right.

    6. Agree. You have quite a few movies that have lasted through the times (and the bullshit). They lasted due to directors (and producers) having enough of that “old school” in them (plus the financial backing) to make it happen….regardless of what society wanted at the time.
      After all, it’s about money and if someone can show Hollywood’s backers (red pill or not) that a movie can generate quite a bit a green then that movie is going to happen (regardless of what SJWs or feminists like or don’t like).
      It’s why we’ve seen the revival of these types of movies through the ’70s and it will come, again. It was easier (I think) back in the ’70s because you had some of those guys around….but as time moves forward we have become disconnected from it.

    7. I really wanted to like Chinatown. Even watched it twice to see if I missed something. But it’s just boring. And I’m a big fan of the classics. Love The Maltese Falcon. Love Casablanca. Love Double Indemnity. Love On the Waterfront. And I also love Polanski’s latest films (The Ghost Writer is a fucking masterpiece). But I don’t “get” Chinatown.
      What is so great about it? Note: real question, genuinely want to know what the fuss is about.

  7. There was nothing red pill about the Maltese Falcon in 1941, it is only red pill relative to now. But most old movies before the 1970s are red pill relative to now.
    I have a collection of around 400 or more disks of old movies. I have watched until now hundreds of them. This experience sets your mind straight and cleans it from many of the poisons of the modern world.

    1. There are no two or three old movies that are red pills, most of them are. And it is advisable to watch a huge quantity of them in order to understand the world better and to rid oneself from the illusions of modern times.

      2. The Roaring Twenties, 1939, is not different in tone from the Maltese Falcon. They Drive by Night, 1940, has a similar tone and a similar scheming woman.

      3. I think 1940’s was the best age for Film Noir. Not just of the detective sort, but boxing as well. The Short-Cut(1949) which inspired Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is also a beauty.

  8. Great article! Classic Bogart Noir films and American boxing films are the finest bastion of cinematic masculinity: no crying, just acceptance of fate, and then taking action. Sam Spade is the man! I used to show this in a film class, and the high school boys would cheer at two or three scenes in which Bogey just took control of the femme fatales.

  9. Talking about songs, you cannot get more red pill than Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”.

  10. Maltese Falcon, definitely an RP original. The rare film that shows the world as it is — which isn’t allowed anymore, as the world now belongs to Cairo, Gut-man (!) and the Oppressed Damsels, none of whom appreciate being characterized accurately. They don’t want honest movies made anymore, they want more movies about zombies, i.e., about themselves. . . being the zombie-killers, of course LOL. Oh and they want all the Sam Spades silenced and/or in the mancages. Because Patriarchy and Equality.
    If you try to punch the thugs and thugettes in the face, out come their new I-Phones to record your ‘criminality’. Next come the cop cars, demanding to know why you ‘frightened’ the pore innocent darlings, most of whom outweigh you by fifty pounds and spent the last month gleefully provoking you. If Sam Spade tried to raise his voice, he’d be caged for Verbal Harassment.
    His motivation was investigating the back-shooting of his partner who, we can assume, like Spade made the mistake of trying to behave like an actual man in America. And this film is more than seventy years old.
    Cheers.

    1. ♥❧♥❧♥❧Morgan . I see what you mean… Paula `s blurb is nice… on monday I got a great Subaru Impreza from having made $6173 this-past/four weeks and even more than ten grand this past munth . with-out a doubt this is the most financially rewarding I have ever done . I began this 3 months ago and almost straight away started to make over $69, per-hour . you could check here
      See here………
      You Can Find Out…….
      ►►►►► http://www.SuperbOnlineJobWorks.Com
      ✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

    2. Right on the head… What remains of man? I sincerely hope this world is as transient as a dream, merely serving to separate the wheat from the chaff.

  13. Seeing that picture of Peter Lorre reminded me of that old Fritz Lang movie “M.” That was one dark movie. I’ll have to find a copy.

  14. Sidney Greenstreet also gives one of cinema’s most memorable performances. I never thought of it as a RP film but it really is. A great film except for the forty-year-old Mary Astor playing supposedly a young hottie.

    1. Hollywood loves to put a 5 out there and inform us that she’s a 10, and that hasn’t changed since film started. There are a lot of women who may have okay or even good bodies but their face is just… all wrong, like a Picasso. A pretty face is hard to get apparently.
      Tranny face is way too popular in Hollywood.

      2. Tranny face is way too popular in Hollywood.
        Heartiste did a composite of faces from actresses from the 40’s (I believe that was the range) compared to a composite of actresses from today. The “old time” woman composite from the 40’s looked exceptionally feminine and beautiful. The composite woman from today looked like a square jawed teenaged pretty-boy with long hair. And how did men vote? For square jaw face. Shocking.
        The difference was so striking that I kept going back to look at the comparison because I thought I’d seen it wrong.
        Men are literally being conditioned to be attracted to men. Sure right now they have breasts, but for how much longer?

        1. If you watch most shows that have “a lot” of nudity (Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, The Tudors, etc) you will notice that many of the topless actresses have smaller breasts.
          If you tune in to even teen skinflicks from the 80s, most of the topless actresses are at least a cup size larger. Or so it seems to me, anyway. The trend is definitely toward less up top.
          Even the “regular” Lena Dunham is close to flat chested. Which, as a man, is the worst case scenario. Fat and ugly and flat and a whore? Pass.

  15. Films of that era did not have the technical means to wow us with visual effects and they were severely restricted by the Hayes code on
    what they could depict. These films HAD to tell a story and they had to tell it well, in such a way that people were held by it. That is why the films of that era are worth watching because they didn’t SHOW things so much as they told story’s on film that required the audience to pay attention, to think, not just merely show up to ooh and ah at flashy special effects, blatant gore and naked skin.

    1. Yes, exactly. They had to rely on dialogue and implied things. For example, the dark subject of incest that lurks just beneath the surface in the original “Scarface”….it’s effective because they don’t come out and beat you to death about it. They just imply it, which is far more effective.

      1. I like the films of that period. They definitely had to rely on dialogue but also things that were implied. I read that all scripts had to be approved by a morality board so directors and editors would add things visually (train going through a tunnel to imply sex, lighting, etc) that gave a different meaning to the movie.

        1. I guess if a kid watched it he’d have no idea but adults could read between the lines.Mae West, an ageing performer, was good at this stuff.
          Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see
          me?
          Mae West
          Sextette

    2. It was made in ’41 and yes it was very restricted. Colour film was around but I guess that it may have been too expensive for filming and perhaps the resolution was not high enough to enlarge and look good on a very large theatre screen.
      I’ve seen still photographs in colour probably taken with a 35mm Leica 24×36 (don’t think they had larger formats in Kodachrome) and the sets are beautiful, as are the clothes. It’s a pity that all the audience saw was black and white.I’ve always wondered why they went to the expense of making the scenery so authentic and good looking when no one would see the colours. Perhaps there’s something I don’t understand about the filming and shades of grey and the lighting.

  16. The hard boiled, cynical view should be familiar to most people here. Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe (two hard-boiled detectives that Bogart played) are both very aware of the nature of the people around them.
    They don’t have much choice.
    There’s also not much in the way of whining. Sure, the characters might grouse about a circumstance or two, but they never sit there and nag or bitch. Even the female characters are a cut above the snarky or naggy leads of many movies and shows.
    (Were I a woman, I would be offended-to-death by the portrayal and normalization of the snarky nag… unless I was a snarky nag.)

  17. Quintus: An enjoyable post, informative and nicely done. One small notable detail: Brigid O’Shaughnessy (Mary Astor) does not shoot Miles Archer in the back—she shoots him up front, close in, as he was licking his lips while she offers herself, seemingly, to him. Even more treacherous than simply shooting him in the back, and far more in line with your character observations about everyone but Sam Spade. Again, nicely done.

    1. You’re right. I missed that little detail, even after seeing the moving multiple times. Maybe the treachery of the act made me subliminally see it as being shot in the back.

    1. Joan Bennett was pretty hot in this film (she’s a Ho) but Edward G Robinson really reminds me of you boys on here.

      1. Oh here comes the jet setter, taking time out of his day to insult all of us non-billionaires.

    2. Too much “guilt” in this one for a great film noir. The film noir protagonist never questions his actions.

  20. Haven’t seen the movie, but seen other film noir that I’ve enjoyed. If the Maltese Falcon is misogynistic, if you make the storyline corny, make the acting not as good by replacing things like subtle changes in facial expression with exaggerated pauses right before commercial breaks trying to build tension, make the situations the characters get into simple enough to solve by just speaking up or staying away from somebody you don’t see why anyone wouldn’t figure it out, then you pretty much have every soap opera that is so loved by so many women viewers.

  21. I’ve seen more than a few attempts at defining Film Noir, but your number 6 has to be the best I’ve ever encountered: Alienation from society is the inevitable consequence of living by a code of honor.
    This is sheer genius, bro. And I can’t even begin to tell you how accurately applicable it is to my own life.
    Thanks for that one. I’ll print it out and frame it.

  22. “But never abandon yourself to despair” It’s very hard especially when you see it all unraveling before your eyes. It’s hard when even the crème de le crème of ROK intelligentisia is “not generally a fan of old movies. The acting styles, set designs, plot artifices, and production values usually do not attract me” I hate almost everything about modern western culture and music. With a passion. The reaction in the Wall Street Journal Book Club shows that this type of movie, even with modern acting styles, set designs and the like could not be made today.

  23. Another great article. I haven’t watched too much film noir because I find the acting in many old movies to be wooden, but I am going to watch the Maltese Falcon after reading this. The point about living according to a code hits home. In the current environment, it is easy to just sink to the lowest level. Having a code of honor lets you rise above the dross.

  24. What I learned from any Humphrey Bogart film:
    It doesn’t matter how big you are, or how well you can fight.
    All you need is a pair of balls and a gun.

  26. Awesome post. You’ll find the authors of those early hard-boiled novel–Dash Hammett for Falcon, Raymond Chandler for Big Sleep, also Ross and John MacDonald (no relation) were red pill throughout. Heck, even Perry Mason was Red Pill in the books and the old TV show.
    Whole thing came to an end with Spenser for Hire. First book, Spenser’s got a secretary named Big Bertha. After that… Spenser has a girlfriend who’s a psychiatrist.
    /Disclaimer; Chandler was anything but red pill in his personal life. Dude married a chick 18 years his senior. When he was 30-something. Dash… more of a Sigma until the booze destroyed him.

  27. Elated to see RoK featuring a piece on Maltese Falcon. Most ‘red pill’ moment is near the end of the novel. Sam is listing all the reasons against trusting double-crossing dame Ruth Wonderly. Ahem, spoilers.
    “…All we’ve got is the fact that maybe you love me and maybe I love.”
    “You know,” she whispered, “whether you do or not.”
    “I don’t. It’s easy enough to be nuts about you.” He looked hungrily from her hair to her feet and up to her eyes again.
    “But I don’t know what that amounts to. Does anybody ever? But suppose I do? Maybe next month I won’t. I’ve been through it before – when it lasted that long. Then what? Then I’ll think I played the sap. And if I did it (released her) and got sent over then I’d be sure I was the sap. Well, if I send you over I’ll be sorry as hell – I’ll have some rotten nights – but that’ll pass.”

  28. Had to watch the movie, it is very good, i liked most the fat guy lines. Good article.

  29. The reason this movie resonates is that Bogart as Sam Spade is PURE ALPHA.
    A man’s man.
    He is actually channeling a cool BLACK MAN
    the SAM SPADE character is based on real a BLACK PRIVATE DETECTIVE !!!
    Because Hollywood refused to hire Black actors for real roles, the script writer as an inside joke with the detective the story is based on named the character ‘SAM SPADE’ – spade being a named people jestingly or insultingly used to refer to Blacks.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2836745/How-two-Hollywood-s-famous-detectives-Sam-Spade-Philip-Marlowe-named-inspired-black-private-eye.html

  30. Never underestimate the power of a good story. It can inspire and empower. The Maltese Falcon is indeed such a story. Boys and men of today should strive to learn and emulate the masculine virtues embodied in this film. Never compromise your moral code, never betray your partners for a piece of pussy or some promise of gold, that is what sets us apart from women, they live simply for selfishness, for the pleasure of the moment, but we men are made for something greater.

Comments are closed.