Homework - The Maltese Falcon

Humphrey Bogard as Private Eye Sam Spade

I seem to find myself doing my homework at the last minute on a Monday afternoon, as I am doing this afternoon, in readiness of Tuesday. This is a shabby practise and I need to get back to basics on this and tackle it when I get home from college on a Tuesday. Last week we were shown the 1941 film 'The Maltese Falcon' and have to write a ctitique on it. What a contrast to Saturday's performance of 'Alice in Wonderland'!

The discovery of the fake falcon

Following the credits in the beginning of this older film, they screened the legend of the fictitious Maltese Falcon and I thought it was going to be a pirate film! It wasn't of course and is considered to be a film noir classic. I was completely facinated with the 'ordinariness' of the filming rather that the story (which wasn't why I was there!) It was a black and white film, shot in a studio with a small group of actors. A total contrast to what is being produced almost seventy years later. I has got me thinking; could the film makers of today bring any more to the story if it was remade for an IMAX cinema, would the story and the characters be more descriptive or more exciting in this 3D era? Somehow I think not.