Warner Bros.

“In 1539 The Knight Templars of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels — but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token, and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day.”

What is not a mystery today is the significant role that The Maltese Falcon has played in cinema history. The film itself was a remake. In fact, it was actually Warner’s third attempt to film the Dashiell Hammett novel in a single decade.
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By 1948 John Huston had proven his ability as a director with just his first film, The Maltese Falcon. Since then he had returned to Humphrey Bogart in Across The Pacific and again in The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre. Each of these films presented the star in very different surroundings and situations. His Dobbs character here couldn’t have been any farther from his Sam Spade character. But in each case Huston relied on his leading man to dominate the screen with his trademark mannerisms and his ability to liven up even the most cliché of dialog.
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