This film begins with a private detective named "Sam Spade" (Humphrey Bogart) interviewing a new client by the name of "Ruth Wonderly" (Mary Astor) who asks him to track down her missing sister who has somehow become involved with a dangerous and unseen man known only as Floyd Thursby . As it so happens, Sam's partner "Miles Archer" (Jerome Cowan) arrives at that moment and decides to take over the case personally. That night Miles is shot and killed--and since Sam is having an affair with his partner's wife--he becomes the leading suspect. And then when Thursby is shot and killed hours later he also become the primary suspect in that murder as well. It then becomes apparent that Ms. Wonderly-who has since disclosed that her real name "Brigid O'Shaughnessy"-hasn't hasn't quite told Sam the entire truth and he soon finds himself involved in a complicated scheme concerning an extremely valuable statuette known as the Maltese Falcon--and the people looking for it will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. Now, for those who might not be aware of it, this film is practically identical to the 1931 version starring Ricard Cortez in the role of Sam Spade and Bebe Daniels as Ruth Wonderly. And even though the earlier version was quite good, this one is even better with Peter Lorre (as "Joel Cairo"), Sydney Greenstreet ("Kasper Gutman"), Lee Patrick ("Effie Perine") along with the aforementioned Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor excelling in their individual roles. Again, while I liked the Maltese Falcon of 1931, this particular movie is a pure delight in every way and for that reason I highly recommend this film to all viewers and have rated it accordingly. A true classic in every sense of the word.
Review of The Maltese Falcon
