"The Maltese Falcon" and Search for the Killer

Paper Summary:

It may seem at first as though John Huston's film "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) is a detective story about the search for the title object; a story with a fatalistic ending in which the object is found to be a fake. The paper shows, however, that the search for the falcon is not nearly as important as the search for the killer of Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) and the story is, in fact, a triumphant account of Sam Spade's (Humphrey Bogart) defense of his masculinity, and of American masculinity in general, against those who would destroy, distort, question, or undermine it.

From the Paper:

"The third group is the trio of homosexuals involved in the search for the falcon: the effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), the erudite and frightening Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), and his "gunsel" Wilmer Cook (Elisha Cook, Jr.). Arranged like a bizarre version of a family, this trio represents the various ways in which someone can be male but still fail to meet the requirements of the masculine code Spade adheres to. The fourth group is the trio of law enforcement officials: Detective Tom Polhaus (Ward Bond), Detective Lieutenant Dundy (Barton MacLane), and District Attorney Bryan (John Hamilton) who questions Spade in an 'informal' hearing. They function as official representatives of society and of the world of normal, acceptably masculine men who, throughout the film, question Spade's actions and motives."

More papers on "The Maltese Falcon" and Search for the Killer:

• Essay # 15461 : "The Maltese Falcon" and Masculinity"
• Analytical Essay # 121161 : "Film Elements in "The Maltese Falcon"
• Essay # 73870 : "The Maltese Falcon"

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