Nonureva Really Surprised!

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Ali Ahmad A really good classic movie. I loved it. Marie wilson is beautiful. I think i can relate someone with her face.

MisterWhiplash The issue with this second adaptation of The Maltese Falcon is that Warner brothers wanted to not really adapt the book; they had adapted it years before, but that was in a pre-code, early-sound era studio that was trying things out. In 1934 Hammett's The Thin Man became a big hit and clearly they saw the author name and thought they could lock in to another winning turn by, in so many words, thin-manning the Maltese Falcon.But these are two very different modes of the author - the Thin Man is a light comedy that has some serious undertones and is commanded by Powell and Loy, and the Maltese Falcon was a hard-boiled detective story where Sam Spade has to avenge his partners murder and becomes embroiled with a host of characters - and director William Dieterle thought he could have it both ways. Certainly Warren William tried to channel Powell a lot here, and he might be good in other movies (I don't recognize him), but he's really a discount William Powell, a guy trying really hard to have that charming, sarcastic patter with everyone. The script doesn't really give the audience a break from his attitude so that when he has to play serious it doesn't stick so much.It may be unfair at first thought to try to compare this to the Huston film since, if for no other reason, this was a world that didn't exist. The one thing that this film can possibly compare favorably is Bette Davis. It's an understatement to say she stole the show; she is having so much fun in this part and at the same time doing her darndest to uplift everyone around her. She is beaming and on fire and alive in every moment on screen and there are a few seconds where it seems like she might, might, get a spark of a connection with William. And she's in about 20 minutes of the 74 minute run time.I think this can be judged on its own terms, and on its own it just compelling past being a typical B movie comedy-cum-thriller. All of the supporting players are trying. Sort of. But a couple of actors, like Marie Wilson as (not) Spade's secretary, are given one character trait and it is grating. The tone is all just off and it is trying to be too light when it needs some darkness or at least some commitment to the dramatics of the story. I will give one little extra point to the end of the film and again how Davis is giving an A+ barn burning performance in the middle of a C-grade production.

Michael_Elliott Satan Met a Lady (1936) ** (out of 4) A WTF variation on The Maltese Falcon has Warren William getting involved in a case of a missing trumpet. There's really no point in comparing this one to the original or the Huston film since many plot points have been changed. The "WTF" notion comes from all the humor that the film tries to get. This seems to have tried being a comedy a lot more than any type of mystery. William is wasted in the role and he's never able to get. Thank God for remakes.Available on DVD with the two other versions.

whpratt1 Just happened to view this film from the 1930's which I seemed to have missed with Bette Davis and many great character actors. It is something like the "Maltese Falcon", where everyone is involved with trying to find a TRUMPET filled with valuable gems. Bette Davis,(Valerie Purvis),"Madame Sin",'72, looks very young and attractive and lives up to her role as an evil lady who stops at nothing to charm her men and use them in every way possible and of course, sexually! Warren William, (Ted Shayne),"The Wolf Man",'41, looks like John Barrymore and even Basil Rathbone,(Sherlock Holmes series of the 1940's), Ted Shayne manages to take on the case of trying to find the valuable TRUMPET and has a dippy female assistant, Marie Wilson,(Miss Murgatroyd),"Waterfront", who has a crush on her boss Ted Shayne who simply goes head over heels for Valerie, who wraps him around her pinkie. Arthur Treacher,(Anthony Travers),"Mary Poppins",'64, famous for his, "Arthur Treacher Fish & Chips Food Chain years ago. Anthony Travers gives a great supporting role and always looks like the butler he use to play in most of his films. If you love Classic films with Bette Davis, this is definitely the film for you.