The Maltese Falcon
“He's a Killer When He Hates!”
John HustonCast
Humphrey Bogart 
Mary Astor 
Peter Lorre 
Sydney Greenstreet
Credits
Written by: John Huston
Plot
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes a case from a woman who calls herself Miss Wonderly, after which his partner is murdered. He becomes caught up in the search by several schemers for a jewelled statue of a falcon, including the suave Joel Cairo, the sinister Kasper Gutman and the lying Brigid O'Shaughnessy. John Huston's 1941 directorial debut, with Humphrey Bogart as Spade, set the template of film noir, and its dialogue and shadows have been imitated ever since.
Sinekatalog’s take
Huston's debut defined film noir: Bogart's Sam Spade, a femme fatale and a hunt for a statuette. The dialogue is tough and fast, and the cynicism has barely aged.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.
Ratings
IMDb: 7.9 / 10 (175,852 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.
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