The Maltese Falcon

It is impossible to read Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon without imagining the actors from John Huston's 1941 film, and for that Huston deserves high praise. He had found the 1931 pre-Code version a disappointment and scripted a movie that followed the book pretty much right down the line. Hammett's snappy dialogue was a template for those who followed, both his equal (Chandler, Macdonald) and hacks. In the novel especially, the black bird is the perfect vehicle through which ethics and desires are revealed. A morality play with no moral, the book is a dark pleasure.