The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a 1931 American Warner Bros. Pre-Code crime film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The movie was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Bebe Daniels in the role of Ruth Wonderly and Ricardo Cortez as private detective Sam Spade. Maude Fulton, Brown Holmes, and Lucien Hubbard wrote the screenplay. The film is sometimes shown under the title Dangerous Female to avoid confusion with the more famous 1941 John Huston remake. In San Francisco, private investigator Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer are approached by Ruth Wonderly to follow a man,... Floyd Thursby, who allegedly ran off with her younger sister. The two accept the assignment because the money is good, even though they disbelieve her story. Late that night, police detective Tom Polhaus informs Spade that Archer has been shot and killed while tailing Thursby, but Spade turns down the opportunity to examine the body at the scene. As he's leaving, he has a brief conversation in Chinese with a man loitering in a doorway. Later, Polhaus and his superior, Lt.
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