The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Directed by: John Huston
Ranked #31 in AFI's list of 100 years... 100 Movies
This is a film noir where a private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals and their quest for a priceless statuette. The film dives straight into the story, it opens at the office of two detectives and a client comes to meet them. Thrillers and detective films are such that, it doesn't matter if the film is color or black and white. All that matters is the puzzles thrown at the protagonist and us and how we try to solve them. Also there is a danger posed to the protagonist, it is either done by revealing the murderer or by implying that the murderer will keep killing till he/she gets caught. In David Bordwell's essay 'Murder Culture: Adventures in 1940s Suspense' he says that the suspense story is centrally about a character who starts out a victim but who through brains and bravery can overcome the threat of death.
This film according to me definitely stands the test of time for the writing, although I'm not sure about the film making unless if we see it as a film made in 1940s. The guns that the characters point at each other seem like toys and the threat is not visual. Apart from this, everything works well although I wish the killer was objectively found by using clues rather how the killer confesses in the film. Noir films like this made in the 1940s are inspiring to indie filmmakers of today to explore the genre in a minimalist way.
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