Trivia for
The Maltese Falcon (1941) More at IMDbPro »

• George Raft was originally cast as Sam Spade. He turned it down because it was "not an important picture," taking advantage of a clause in his contract that said he did not have to work on remakes.
  
  
• Word-for-word and scene-for-scene virtually the same as the original novel.
  
  
• The William Shakespeare reference that ends the film was suggested by Humphrey Bogart.
  
  
• Cameo: [Walter Huston] Capt. Jacobi.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [John Huston] Father.
  
  
• When he completed the screenplay, John Huston storyboarded it, allowing him the chance to give great thought to pictorial composition and camera movement. This whole set-up took two days to rehearse.
  
  
• Sam Spade refers to Wilmer as a "gunsel", a term the censors assumed was a slang reference to a gunman. The Yiddish term "gunsel", literally "little goose", *may* be a vulgarism for homosexual (the word "faigle", or "little bird", is usually used in that manner). It is more usually an "underground" term which refers to a person who is either a "fall guy" or a "stool pigeon", in which case Spade is making both a direct and an indirect reference to Wilmer's character.
  
  
• Two "Maltese Falcons" were used for the film because Humphrey Bogart dropped the original during shooting. The original falcon is on display in the movie museum at Warner Bros. studios; its tail feathers are visibly dented from Bogey's flub sixty years ago.
  
  
• Filming was completed in two months at a cost of less than $300,000.
  
  
• The revolver used to shoot Miles is correctly identified by Sam as a Webley-Fosbery. All Sam says about it is, "They don't make 'em anymore." Much more than that, it was an experiment to get a handgun to automatically reload and cock itself between shots. We're familiar with a typical semi-automatic pistol with a moving slide, but this was a revolver that used its backward momentum to cock the hammer and rotate the cylinder, readying it for the next pull of the trigger. They are very sought after by collectors. (see also Goofs)
  
  
• Sydney Greenstreet's first on-screen appearance.
  
  
• Kasper Gutman's (Sydney Greenstreet) repeated phrase of "By gad, sir..." was originally written to be "By God;" however, the script underwent changes when it clashed with the censors.
  
  
• The "Maltese Falcon" itself is said to have been inspired by the "Kniphausen Hawk," a ceremonial pouring vessel made in 1697 for George William von Kniphausen, Count of the Holy Roman Empire. It is modeled after a hawk perched on a rock and is encrusted with red garnets, amethysts, emeralds and blue sapphires. The vessel is currently owned by the Duke of Devonshire and is part of the Chatsworth collection.
  
  
• The scene where Sydney Greenstreet tries to get Humphrey Bogart to take a drink which is drugged was the former's first time in front of a Hollywood camera.
  
  
• The role of Brigid O'Shaughnessy was first offered to 27-year-old Geraldine Fitzgerald. Although the studio desperately wanted the newcomer in the role, she turned it down flat because it interfered with a scheduled trip to the East Coast. Other candidates for the role included Olivia de Havilland, Rita Hayworth, and Ingrid Bergman.
  
  
• At 357 pounds, 60-year-old British newcomer Sydney Greenstreet was so large that the studio had to specially manufacture his entire wardrobe for the role of Kasper Gutman.
  
  
• The climactic confrontation scene lasts nearly twenty minutes, one-fifth of the entire running time of the film. It involves all five principal characters, and filming required over one full week (one day - 4 July 1941 - was taken off).
  
  
• "The stuff that dreams are made of" was voted as the #14 movie quote by the American Film Institute. The line is paraphrased from William Shakespeare's "The Tempest": "We are such stuff as dream are made on, / And our little life is rounded with a sleep."
  
  
• In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #31 Greatest Movie of All Time.
  
  
• Ranked #6 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Mystery" in June 2008.
  
  
• There were several 11-1/2" tall falcon props made for use in the film. Some were cast of plastic resin, some of lead. Only two 45 lb. lead falcons and two 5 lb., 5.4 oz resin falcons are verified to be in existence today. One lead Falcon has been displayed for years at various venues. The second, which was marred at the end of the movie by Sydney Greenstreet, was a gift to William Conrad by studio chief Jack L. Warner. It was auctioned in December 1994, nine months after Conrad's death for $398,500 to Ronald Winston of Harry Winston, Inc. At that time, it was the highest price paid for a movie prop ever sold for. It was used to model a 10 lb. gold replica displayed at the 69th Academy Awards. The replica has Burmese ruby eyes, interchangeable claws (one set of gold, one set of coral) and holds a platinum chain in its beak with a 42.98 flawless diamond at the end. It's valued at over $8 million. The lead and resin falcons are valued in excess of $2 million - coincidentally the value placed on the "real" Maltese Falcon by Kasper Gutman, Greenstreet's character in the 1941 classic movie.
  
  
• Gutman and Wilmer are referred to as "Fat Man" and "Little Boy". These are the names used for the two atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima respectively.
  
  
• John Huston's first directorial effort.
  
  
• The total cost of designing, casting and painting all of the Maltese Falcons prepared for the film was less than $700.00.
  
  
• Contrary to popular opinion, "It's the stuff that dreams are made of", spoken by Humphrey Bogart, is not the last line in the picture. Immediately after Bogart says that, Ward Bond, playing a detective, says, "Huh?" making that the last line in the picture.
  
  
• Jerome Cowan, playing Spade's doomed partner Miles Archer, is only on-screen for two minutes total, although to many it seemed as if he had a much bigger part.
  
  
• There is an inordinate amount of smoking done by the main actors in this film. According to then-studio employee (and future screenwriter) Stuart Jerome, this resulted in a feud between stars Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, and studio head Jack L. Warner. Warner hated to see actors smoking on the screen, fearing it would prompt smokers in the movie audience to step out into the lobby for a cigarette. During the filming of _Maltese Falcon, The (1941)_, Warner told director John Huston that smoking in the film should be kept to a minimum. Bogart and Lorre thought it would be fun to annoy Warner by smoking as often as possible, and got their co-stars, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet to go along with the joke. During the initial filming of the climactic confrontation, all four actors smoked heavily. After seeing the rushes, Warner furiously called Huston to his office and threatened to fire him from the picture if he didn't tell Bogart and Lorre to knock it off. Realizing their prank had backfired, Bogart and Lorre agreed to stop smoking on camera. However, when the next series of rushes came back, it was obvious that the *lack* of smoking by the actors was taking away from the sinister mood of the scene. Huston went back to Jack Warner, and convinced him that the smoking added the right amount of atmospheric tension to the story, arguing that the characters *would* smoke cigarettes while waiting nervously for the Maltese Falcon to arrive.
  
  
• It was Howard Hawks who knew that John Huston wanted to direct. He suggested that Huston do The Maltese Falcon (1941) which was already owned by Warner Brothers and had been adapted to film twice before. Unlike the previous productions, Hawks suggested that Huston "film the book." Before going on a vacation, John Huston gave his secretary a copy of the book and told her to type it up in screenplay form. Studio chief Jack L. Warner saw the script, read it, and gave it a green light even before John Huston has a chance to read it.
  
  
• When Warner Brothers saw how successful the film was, the studio decided to produce a sequel. Director John Huston had written the script for the sequel, which was to be titled 'Three Strangers'. The film was supposed to contain many of the primary characters from The Maltese Falcon (1941), specifically Sam Spade. Before the film reached production; however, Dashiell Hammett informed Warner Brothers that he owned the rights to the characters in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and even though the studio had purchased the rights to novel, it did not own the rights to the characters in the novel. The sequel was never made; but, John Huston's script for Three Strangers (1946) was eventually filmed. Although the characters differed from The Maltese Falcon (1941), Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet both appeared in the film.
  
  
• Although this was the 62-year old Sydney Greenstreet's film debut, he had already worked as a prominent stage actor for forty years.
  
  
• Warner Bros. planned to change the name of the film to "The Gent from Frisco" because the novel's title had already been used on the 1931 version. The studio eventually agreed to keep the original title at John Huston's insistence.
  
  
• John Huston recruited Mary Astor to play a prank on his father, Walter, after the elder Huston had filmed his cameo. Astor called up Walter, telling him she was producer Hal Wallis' secretary, and that Wallis thought he'd over-acted during his scene. Huston was enraged, declaring that he'd never been accused of over-acting in his life, but agreed to return the next day to re-shoot the scene. John then took the phone from Astor, identified himself as Wallis, and repeated the criticism. Walter grew even more furious, declaring that he'd already agreed to the re-shoot, and it was only when John exploded in laughter on the other end of the phone that Walter realized his son was playing a prank on him.
  
  
• Although he story-boarded every scene, John Huston was open to abandoning his plans if his more-experienced cast came up with something better. He estimated that three-quarters of the time, he used his original set-ups, but for the remaining quarter, he adopted ideas that the cast had come up with during rehearsal.
  
  
• John Huston had Mary Astor run around the set several times before each of her scenes in order to give her a breathless, nervous appearance on screen.
  
  
• In real life, Dashiell Hammett had been a one-time operative for Pinkerton's Detective Agency. Brigid O'Shaughnessy was partly based on his secretary, Peggy O'Toole, and partly on a woman who once employed him to fire her housekeeper. Joel Cairo was based on a man Hammett picked up on a forgery charge in 1920, while Wilmer, the gunman, was drawn from a petty criminal who went by the nickname of "The Midget Bandit".
  
  
• When she landed the part of Ilsa in Casablanca (1942), Ingrid Bergman watched this film repeatedly so as to study Humphrey Bogart's acting technique.
  
  
• Walter Huston did his uncredited cameo as a good luck gesture for his son. He had to promise to the notoriously tight head of studio, Jack L. Warner, that he wouldn't charge for his appearance.
  
  
• John Huston planned every part of the film down to the very last detail, storyboarding all of it. His notes on the script were so efficient that not one line of dialog was changed in the final edit.
  
  
• In all the scenes involving Mary Astor, there's a suggestion of prison. In one scene, she wears striped pyjamas, the furniture in the room is striped and the slivers of light coming through the Venetian blinds suggest jailcell bars. When she steps into the elevator at the end of the film, the lighting also suggests bars.
  
  
• The first pairing of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre who would go on to make nine more movies together.
  
  
• John Huston hated the first two attempts to film "The Maltese Falcon". He felt particularly strongly about the fact that the studio had imposed a happy ending on the previous two examples.
  
  
• The now-famous seven-minute take - truly innovative in its day - took two days to rehearse.
  
  
• Mary Astor's off-screen notoriety was instrumental in her casting. She was known for being adulterous, having had an affair with John Barrymore, widowed in a plane crash, a multiple bride, and an alcoholic. She also kept a diary of her various sexual exploits that was introduced as evidence in a custody hearing against her estranged husband over who should look after their daughter. The gossip rags thrived on this story.
  
  
• One of the first films admitted to the National Film Registry in its inaugural year, 1989.
  
  
• Most of the film was shot sequentially.
  
  
• Much of the movie is filmed over Humphrey Bogart's shoulder so that the audience can be in on his point of view.
  
  
• Sydney Greenstreet was cast whenever the production had difficulty finding an actor large enough.
  
  
• As a joke, Walter Huston kept fumbling his walk-on cameo so his son John had to do lots of different takes.
  
  
• Peter Lorre's favorite of his films.
  
  
• Having seen how profligate novice writer-directors like Orson Welles and Preston Sturges had been, Warner Brothers were not keen on giving John Huston too much control. They acquiesced when Huston agreed to do an immediate polish on the script for Sergeant York (1941).
  
  
• A copy of John Huston's first draft script was accidentally sent to studio head Jack L. Warner as well as the film's designated producer, Henry Blanke. To his surprise, Warner loved the script and insisted that Huston started shooting it immediately.
  
  
• There's only one scene in the film - the pistol that kills Miles Archer - that doesn't involve the presence of Sam Spade. It was put in at the studio's insistence.
  
  
• Mary Astor was having an affair with John Huston during the making of the film.
  
  
• Three of the statuettes still exist and are conservatively valued at over $1 million each. This makes them some of the most valuable film props ever made; indeed they are now worth more than the film cost to make.
  
  
• For decades, this film could not be legally shown on US TV because of its underlying sexual suggestion.
  
  
• The opening scroll about the history of the Maltese Falcon is entirely made up.
  
  
• When Spade visits the murder scene of his partner, in the background can be seen a poster for a film called Swing Your Lady (1938), an in-joke directed at Humphrey Bogart who was one of the stars of this B-movie. Bogart referred to it as "the worst picture I ever made".
  
  
• From the start, Peter Lorre was always John Huston's first choice to play Joel Cairo.
  
  
• Frustrated at seeing his script for Juarez (1939) rewritten by Paul Muni, the film's star, John Huston vowed that from then on he would direct his own screenplays and therefore not have to see them get meddled with. He was fortunate in that he had a staunch ally in the form of producer Henry Blanke who was happy to fulfill Huston's wish.
  
  
• 'Elisha Cook Jr' was the longest surviving member of the cast, dying at the age of 90 in 1991.
  
  
• Humphrey Bogart has absolutely no resemblance to the character of Sam Spade as described in the book. There, he is over 6 feet tall, has a hooked nose and blond hair.
  
  
• Humphrey Bogart had to supply his own wardrobe. This was common practice at Warner Brothers as a way for the studio to save some money.
  
  
• After Geraldine Fitzgerald had made it clear that she wasn't interested in doing the film, the next port of call for the part of Brigid O'Shaughnessy was Mary Astor. John Huston and Humphrey Bogart visited her at her home to talk over the script and she was immediately smitten by their palpable excitement in the project. Already familiar with the novel, Astor was even more impressed with the screenplay which she thought was a "humdinger". She signed on straight away.
  
  
• Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor's dialog-heavy final scene took 3 days to shoot.
  
  

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