When Warner Brothers green-lit the 1941 movie The Maltese Falcon, they were placing their bets on a first-time director (John Huston) and an unproven leading man (Humphrey Bogart). Yeah, we can laugh about it now. But what the studio did feel certain about at the time was the material, Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 detective novel… because they had already filmed it twice.
The Maltese Falcon: Take 1
The John Huston/Humphrey Bogart version was the third film made from Dashiell Hammond's classic detective novel.