"The Maltese Eagle" film review: How did the full set of second-rate crews become the pioneering work of film noir?

Director John Houston, who was called "the weird guy among the weirdos" by the movie star Paul Newman, has written weird and bizarre stories throughout his life. The town where he was born was won by his grandfather in a poker game. Since childhood, Houston, who was frail and sick, his parents divorced when he was 7 years old. Since then, he followed his father to perform in vaudeville troupes. He participated in the California amateur boxing match as a teenager and played 25 times. Won 22 times, secretly wrote scripts when he was a cavalry officer in Mexico, studied painting in London and Paris, once wandered on the streets and became beggars.

John Houston likes the unfettered lifestyle in the wild, yearning for Hemingway's masculinity, married five times in his life, gathering and separation, and his feelings are very twisted.

He has made dozens of films and won 15 Oscar nominations. The most brilliant moment is to win the Oscar for Best Director Award and Best Screenplay Award for "Blood Sands" (1948), and to help play the old Nuggets in the film His father won the Oscar for best supporting actor. In 1963, I starred in "Cardinal" and won the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but he fell short in the end. In 1985, Houston, who directed "The Godfather of Modern Times", repeated the old trick and helped her daughter Angelica Houston win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

John Houston (1906-1987)

But after decades of history, people discovered Houston’s even more amazing legend, his directorial debut "The Maltese Eagle" (1941) is not only considered to be one of the greatest detective films in the history of American cinema, it has become popular with the world's film superstar Humphrey Bogart. What's more remarkable is the unique production method of the film. Created a new movie genre-film noir.

The plot of "Malta Eagle" is ups and downs and unpredictable. Many film critics tried to summarize the plot in one sentence and challenge each other, but there are almost no accepted good answers, because the plot of the film is like one A ball of paper that has been crumpled vigorously, and it seems to be opened in all directions. Even if there is a little wrinkle, the description of the plot may be biased, causing ambiguity and incompleteness. This is also a prominent feature of the film. The charm lies.

In the film, the Maltese Eagle, which everyone chased at all costs, has an ancient and mysterious legend. It is a hunter made of gold and jewelry by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, which entrenched the Mediterranean islands in 1523. The eagle statue, prepared to pay tribute to the Roman Emperor Charles V, who agreed to their settlement here, was robbed by pirates halfway through, and then lived in the European antique market. However, because it was painted black, no one could recognize its true face, commonly known as " "Black Bird" was acquired by a Russian general with a unique vision in the early 20th century.

Samuel Spade, who opened a private detective agency in San Francisco, took over a case where a mysterious woman named Wendley was looking for her sister. The detective partner Alcher died during the night following the case, mysteriously Thursby, who was described by the woman as being with her sister, also died strangely.

In the further investigation of Spade, the woman claimed that her real name was Brigitte and was impressed by Spade's charm, and intended to have romantic relationships with Spade. In the eyes of the police, the suspect who killed the partner Archer was Spide, on the grounds that he had an affair with Archer's wife.

Spide, who is trapped in two emotional vortexes, needs to fight the police and two women at the same time, and must also deal with three mysterious men and peel off the cocoons to finally uncover the hidden "black bird" truth behind and straighten out Character disputes and a series of murder mysteries caused by the Maltese Eagle competition.

Director John Huston has been a screenwriter before, but in this film adapted from Dahir Hammet’s novel, he once again shows the "weird" character. The plot development of the film is completely shot in the order of the novel. The lines always copy the original words of the novel, and many plot developments and story backgrounds are expressed through lines.

A large number of lines make this film with a very tortuous plot more difficult to understand. Any omission of lines may cause obstacles to understanding the plot. The ins and outs of the plot and the true beauty of the film generally need to be seen Too many timesStep by step experience.

In terms of setting and photography style, the film is deeply influenced by German expressionist films, mainly with black and white tonal contrast. The gloomy and foggy San Francisco weather background caters to this mysterious and unpredictable need. Most of the outdoor scenery is night scene, full of eerie and terrifying, creating a dangerous atmosphere. Most of the daytime scenes are shot indoors. The use of lighting and the creation of shadows are very sophisticated. Spacious hotels or slightly cramped apartments are filled with gorgeous furniture and objects. The curtains and chair cushions are quite delicate and distributed. The pros and cons are mixed together, creating variables that are difficult to distinguish between good and evil, and conflicts or gangs may occur at any time, conveying a sense of tension and oppression to the audience, and the possibility of the characters' words and deeds meeting each other is often triggered.

In terms of character creation, although this is a detective film, the director Houston does not deliberately render the plot itself, but mainly through the creation of characters to achieve the need to promote the development of the plot.

John Houston was the first time to be a director. He was not well-known. At the age of 35, he knew that if he was not a teacher, he would have no chance to be a director. And the producer did not want to waste money on a new script. The 1931 version of the "Eagle of Malta" script was turned out for Houston to use.

Humphrey Bogart stills

The actor Humphrey Bogart in his hand was just a second-line actor at the time, and he was too old, the actress Mary · Astor’s acting career is declining, and the villain Sidney Greenstreet is a novice. The biggest actor is Peter Low, who once starred as a serial killer in the German film "M is the Killer" (1931). But he has just come to Hollywood for a few years and he is only suitable for playing the villain's supporting role Kello. Whether he can revitalize such a bad hand is a test of Houston's director talent and skill.

Humphrey Bogart's Spider character is very self-confident and even arrogant. He often laughs contemptuously after encountering setbacks to fully demonstrate this, but he is very witty and strong, and is a tough detective. He is easy to deal with secret opponents. His magnetic and sharp and decisive voice is like a sharp knife, making the audience not disgusted with large lines, and even a little infatuated, just like the heroine Mary Astor. "Black Widow" Brigitte listened with respect.

But under the beautiful appearance of Brigitte is the true color of "black spider". Although she is affectionate with Sped, she is the driving force behind Sped's troubles. She can be greedy at any time. Killing Spide like Archer, as long as it helps her obtain the Maltese Eagle. And her most destructive weapon is lying under the guise of her beautiful appearance. All kinds of lies are just like her looks, so that she doesn't know which ones are true and which ones are false. In this complicated case of confusion and infatuation, Spade battled his wits and bravely defeated each one, brought all the cultural relic dealers to justice, and said to Brigitte who begged him to let him go, "You close twenty I waited for you in the year, you were hanged and I remembered you." These profound classic words perfectly shaped the image of a cold-faced, clear-headed, cynical but unprofitable private detective.

Mary Astor stills

Except for Brigitte, the relationship between female secretary Effie and Alcher’s wife Eva and Spade are all shown It’s extraordinary. Humphrey Bogart performed the relationship with them just right. More importantly, he has to face three brutal and greedy villains. The equally brilliant "Fatty" Gutman, in the film Bogart has robbed him of a lot of limelight in the game. The funny gunner Kyro and the inextricable "Tail" Cook each portray the characters lifelike, but Bogart firmly controls his core position among many characters.

Humphrey Bogart showed his superb acting skills in the complex plot and the handling of the relationship between characters, and has since entered the ranks of first-line stars, which to a large extent allowed him to star in "Casablanca" ( 1942) opportunity, also achieved this immortal work that will remain famous forever.

The most exciting segment of the film is the 20-minute indoor plot of the finale, which is one-fifth of the total length. All five main characters in the film are present.After a fierce confrontation, the mystery of the Maltese Eagle was solved. Director Houston spent two weeks filming this scene, and the most difficult part of the whole film may be Bogart, because Houston created a sense of presence for the audience to see the set and characters in the film from Spade’s point of view. Almost all The shots excluding Bogart are all taken from the angle of his shoulder.

At the beginning of the filming and release of the film, Americans including the director Houston did not realize that this was an innovative film. In fact, in Hollywood at the time, such detectives and crime films were classified as second-rate directors. Second-rate films produced by second-rate actors, but with the continuous release of similar styles, especially "Laura", "Double Compensation" (1944), "Doctor Edward" (1945), "Beauty" (1946). In 1946, French writer and film critic Nino Frank made a comment on "French Screen", calling this type of black-and-white film "film noir".

Sidney Greenstreet stills

The production of film noir, including Nino Frank gave such films a brand new concept, and a second world The war is closely related.

During World War II, the German Nazi army controlled France and banned American movies from being shown. French audiences had no chance to see American movies.

After the German occupation ended in 1945 and France was liberated, French audiences were re-exposed to a large number of American movies, but these films were completely different from the classic American Hollywood movies traditionally imaged by French audiences. These American films were made during the French ban. Affected by the war, full of disturbing emotions, dark and obscure style, pessimistic cynicism.

The United States itself was also a dark era during World War II. The war brought about tremendous changes in American society. The film truly reflects the American feelings and mentality during the war. Just like "The Maltese Eagle", a group of films that portray anti-hero characters began to appear. They no longer have a sense of justice, but walk in the gray area between black and white, just as cold as Sped. Acting with rules, such as walking with corpses, is not too sad about the sudden death of a companion. The love of children who are entangled in the case only needs to be cut quickly, and there is no nostalgia. Negative characters such as Gutman are not fierce and evil, but gentle and talkative. Constantinople, Hong Kong, and San Francisco speak well, and the boundaries between good and evil are more blurred than traditional roles.

These black-based films full of crime, violence, corruption and depravity, the characters are mostly cynical, all the plot results are very desolate and pessimistic, the nihilist color prevails, just like Spide’s last in the film, Holding the Maltese eagle in his hand, when answering the police officer’s question about what it was, he casually uttered the classic line in the forefront of the history of American cinema-"The casting of dreams", which reflected that although he was able to solve the case, However, his emotions are lost and melancholy, without the joy of victory and a clear sense of direction in the future.

The French feel the sudden change in American films in a short period of time. In order to express this shock and uncomfortable feeling after watching them, they call these films "film noir". This concept has spread since then. . American film noir developed and continued until the end of the 1950s. Color films appeared later, but films with such film noir styles were called "new film noirs."

Although John Houston is recognized as a "weird" director, his director talent is extraordinary. Without any precedent, his "Malta Eagle" is a creative feat. , The film uses a low style, German expressionism, and a distinctive character, which truly reflects the dark and decadent psychological state of the Americans during World War II, and a batch of film works that fit the pulse and rhythm of social development. At the same time, it created the first of the film noir genre and was the pioneer of the American film noir genre. The film ranked 31st in the "100 Great American Films List", and its pioneer status in the film noir genre is irreplaceable.