The Maltese Falcon

A five star for the role that it plays in film history by setting up Humphrey Bogart for Casablanca, being John Huston’s directorial debut, being Sydney Greenstreet’s first on screen appearance, and being the first film noir.

However, it is important to realize all of those things can be true while the film itself has some flaws. Particularly the amped up pace that doesn’t give one second for the script to come up for air. I quite literally had to rewind certain scenes two or three times just to catch what was being said.