This one has taken a long time to write. It's hard to describe, really. I started writing this a week or so ago, then delayed it while I watched the film again. I've seen it many times now and it's still tough to get a handle on.
Now, the reason I gave such a detailed description of the plot of the original Maltese Falcon in the previous post (not the one about Peg Entwistle, the one before it) was because it was complicated, and so I wouldn't have to go over it again. As you'll see (or not), there's really no point in going over this plot anyway. In 1935, Warner Brothers wanted to re-release the original 1931 film, but the Hayes Code had gone into effect by that time and the sexier elements of that film wouldn't allow it to happen. Warner decided it would be just as easy to remake it and assigned contract writer Brown Holmes to write a screenplay. Filming began on Dec. 1, 1935. The cast was made up of Warner contract players whose names you'll see pop up time and time again (assuming I can find the time to keep writing these reviews), and included Winifred (Wini) Shaw, Marie Wilson, Warren William, and Bette Davis.
First off, Bette Davis hated the script and wanted no part of the movie. She failed to report for filming for three days and complained to Jack Warner personally, Warner made some promises to Davis to keep her happy (good luck with that), but she was finally suspended the next year on God's Country and the Woman when she didn't show up for filming. But forget about her. This film really belongs to Warren William.
Warren William, though now obscure, would become known as "The King of Pre-Code". He was a huge star in the 1930s and was in everything. He had a distinguished career on the stage as well and was the suavest damn refined Englishman ever to come out of Aitkin, Minnesota. He starred in First National's Perry Mason films and his final one, The Case of the Velvet Claws, was also released in 1936 (oddly, he was replaced by Ricardo Cortez for the next Perry Mason film, 1936's The Case of the Black Cat). He was generally the highlight of whatever he was in, which may be why he was cast in this.
Marie Wilson as Miss Murgatroyd, perfecting the ditzy
Marilyn Monroe character two decades before the fact.
The plot is incidental. It takes the basic formula of The Maltese Falcon and mixes in liberal amounts of nonsense and humor. All the characters have undergone name changes and the falcon is now a legendary horn supposedly packed with jewels. Shane's affair with his partner Ames' (Porter Hall) wife (Winifred Shaw) is sanitized to have occurred years before. Ames' murder is treated like a minor plot point, which in truth it is. Shane's secretary, Miss Murgatroyd (Marie Wilson), is my favorite character in the film. She's a great comic actress and cute, too. Her part is much more substantial than in either of the other Falcon films. At the time of filming she was barely 19 years old. She went on to a career in radio, film, and television as the ditzy My Friend Irma (a virtual template for the "dumb blonde" character Marilyn Monroe would later become internationally famous for). I have noticed that her dress is nearly identical to the one worn by Una Merkel in the 1931 version.
The affair between Shane and Ames' wife is handled with
kid gloves here. It's established that she married Ames
only after Shane went away, three years previously.
Some actors, you wonder what they're doing here. The Casper Gutman character here is now Madame Barabas (Alison Skipworth), a notorious master criminal who seeks to possess the ridiculous jewel-filled horn at any cost. Skipworth (known as "Skippy" to her friends, not a joke) was a bona fide English Shakespearean actress who first appeared on the stage in 1894. She drank tea in her own garden every afternoon and lived to the age of 88. The Joel Cairo character is now Anthony Travers (Arthur Treacher), a very tall and jolly Englishman. Arthur Treacher is more famous for later lending his name to a chain of fish and chip restaurants, of which there are currently (according to Wikipedia) about seven still left in existence.
Oh, how she hated this movie. Did not want to be here.
Again, I'm not discussing the plot much. It simply doesn't matter here. It's a very silly movie, even though I love it. In fact, in many ways it's my favorite of the three Falcon films. Bette Davis loathed it, and that's enough for me. She was overrated in my opinion and not especially talented in the acting department if you ask me (and you did not). I prefer Glenda Farrell. Who's Glenda Farrell, you ask? Oh, we will discuss that later. We certainly shall. I have opinions and I'm eager to share them.
There are no real plot twists if you're familiar with the 1931 or 1941 versions, though there are enough diversions from Hammett's original story that you might mistake it for something else if you're not paying attention. I suspect that the screenwriter had seen The Thin Man (based on another Hammett work) a few times and just wanted to write that instead.
It's an enjoyable film. Completely harmless, with no flying robots, superheroes, or major explosions. This is the sort of movie they made eighty years ago, because it was made eighty years ago. For an hour and change, there are no cell phones, no internet, no drama. It's precisely the kind of film you watch in the middle of the night...because at the Hour of the Wolf, it makes the howling seem just a bit quieter.
If you thought a falcon statue was ridiculous, oh boy.
Warren William's frequent co-star Joan Blondell (more about her later) said that off-screen he was shy and had always seemed like an old man. He died on September 24, 1948, from multiple myeloma at age 53. Marie Wilson died of cancer on November 23, 1972 at the age of 56. Bette Davis outlived them all, because evil never really dies, expiring at age 81 on October 6, 1989. I'm not sure how the tobacco companies handled it, but they should have worn black armbands for weeks in her honor. Because she smoked so, so much.
* In the 1941 Falcon, and apparently also in Hammett's book, Gutman says "I distrust a man who says 'When'". In this film, Madame Barabas says "I mistrust a man who says 'When'". It was probably an artistic choice, but who knows. I don't know what he says in the 1931 version and I'm too lazy to check.
