The Maltese Falcon (1941) Queer Film A-

DIRECTOR: John Huston

After several years as a screenwriter, John Huston made a smashing directorial debut with his adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel. The story had already been filmed once, in 1931, as a pre‑Code vehicle for Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels, but Huston’s version quickly eclipsed it and is now considered the definitive take. Humphrey Bogart got his breakthrough role as Sam Spade, the hard‑boiled San Francisco private detective navigating a trio of unscrupulous adventurers—Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre—all in pursuit of a jewel‑encrusted falcon statuette.

The film’s queer coding is unmistakable. Peter Lorre’s Joel Cairo is openly gay by 1941 standards—perfumed, fastidious, and treated by Spade with a mixture of contempt and wary amusement. Sam will slap Cairo, but never punch him; the distinction is deliberate. Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.) is repeatedly called “the gunzel,” a term that originally meant a kept boy or homosexual, marking him as Kasper Gutman’s (Sydney Greenstreet) protégé in more ways than one. If Wilmer is Gutman’s boy, then Gutman himself is hardly straight. Splendid, dear boy.

Bogart would remain a major star until his death in 1957.

One of the quintessential film noirs, The Maltese Falcon hasn’t aged quite as gracefully as some of its contemporaries—largely because its plot is a glorious tangle that barely holds together. But the performances are a feast: Mary Astor gives a superb turn as Brigid O’Shaughnessy, a Celtic Tiger avant la lettre, and the queer triumvirate of Lorre, Greenstreet, and Cook Jr. brings up the rear with style.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Arthur Edeson

Warner Bros.

STREAMING: Amazon Prime and Apple TV+

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