“The stuff that dreams are made of,” comments Spade about the elusive black bird of the title, a sentiment easily applied to this indisputable masterpiece.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 8, 2023

Many people feel The Maltese Falcon is when Bogart became “Bogie”. He exuded a certain calm and cool demeanor that made guys want to grab a beer with him and made women want to date him.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 4, 2023

The Maltese Falcon gives Humphrey Bogart one of his best roles while playing a pivotal role in shaping the film noir genre for years to come.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 4, 2023

The film has more conversation than expected from the film’s reputation, yet only a little feels expository with the rest being a battle of wits with too many players jockeying for the prize.

| Apr 3, 2023

The film moves like lightning, without ever appearing to hurry.

| Jan 27, 2023

The new version of The Maltese Falcon novela is very satisfactory. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jan 6, 2023

The Maltese Falcon belongs with the year's superior movies of all classes. In the crime and mystery categories it makes its competitors look like the Little Peppers series.

| Nov 16, 2022

The best crook film that's ever been made. Certainly it's the best I've ever seen. Because of brilliant casting, acting and direction it does what every thriller should do: thrills you genuinely and tremendously from start to finish.

| Nov 16, 2022

It is a shockingly brilliant job of production, and, for its effect on the watcher, "gripping" is too wan a word.

| Nov 16, 2022

The story is strong of itself with an unusual ending and fine acting, but it is the treatment which makes it the best thriller so far this year.

| Nov 16, 2022

Two things in particular are notable and pleasing: The Maltese Falcon brings a new, young director, John Huston, to the surface and it gives Humphrey Bogart his best chance since The Petrified Forest.

| Nov 16, 2022

Its excitement springs not only from its unpredictable story line, and the suspense with which Huston traces each pilot development, but from the precision of each character delineation.

| Nov 16, 2022

It is (and this is rare in American films) a work of entertainment that is yet so skillfully constructed that after many years and many viewings it has the same brittle explosiveness -- and even some of the same surprise -- that it had in its first run.

| Nov 16, 2022

Bogart's grim acting style is admirably suited to the role of the hard-bitten private detective.

| Nov 16, 2022

Those who did not see the [1931 version] should be held in tense suspense, for the plot developments, although complicated, are fascinating, and the action is thrilling.

| Nov 16, 2022

A remake of a ten-year-old detective story, it might very easily be overlooked as routine filmmaking. But make no such mistake, The Maltese Falcon is lively, original, intelligent and provocative entertainment and is not to be missed.

| Nov 16, 2022

Messrs. Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, filmdom's ace thriller directors, had better look to their laurels, for they are facing dangerous competition in John Huston.

| Nov 16, 2022

It's filled with odd characters and odd situations, carries you along at breakneck pace, builds in suspense and complications, then explodes in your face.

| Nov 15, 2022

One of the greatest creations of the Hollywood dream factory, The Maltese Falcon really is the stuff dreams are made of.

| Nov 13, 2022

Good direction of a good story with top ranking talent makes The Maltese Falcon one of the best mystery films of recent months.

| Nov 11, 2022