Task 2.1 Research Into Existing Products: The Maltese Falcon Textual Analysis

The Maltese Falcon

The soundtrack for the film is a powerful orchestral piece with a mixture of strings and brass to create an intense atmosphere from the very beginning. This strong piece of music is representative of Detective Spade’s character. The soundtrack plays over the opening credits and the establishing shots of the city where it is based which is San Francisco. San Francisco is a classic place for a film noir to be set as well as Chicago due to the cityscape of a night time where the majority, if not all, of a film noir takes place. Cityscapes are the general setting for film noirs as they are often crime ridden and during this time period, ran by organised crime syndicates such as the mafia. Therefore the general plots and storylines of film noirs don’t seem out of place as they are actually somewhat a common occurrence that are a bit more extravagant due to them being portrayed in a Hollywood film. As well as this, the costumes worn by the characters, especially males, are all stereotypical items to have been worn by such ‘gangsters’.

The next scene is that of the Detective sitting in his office rolling a cigarette, pouring tobacco into his rolling paper, leaning onto his desk relaxing, already setting a tone and theme for his character to play throughout the film, after swivelling away from the window on his chair. On the window are the names ‘Arthur and Spade’ which apprises the viewer as to where the scene is set, a corporate building ran by Arthur and Spade. He is wearing a pinstripe suit with a waistcoat and tie, this is a very formal piece of clothing often associated with his profession or the profession of someone with power. He sits in a big arm chair with wings that come round him making him appear bigger than he actually is visualising that he is an authoritative and compelling figure.

 His secretary, whom he calls ‘sweetheart’, walks in and tells him that there is a woman waiting for him. This is already a misogynistic statement as the first female character we come across is assigned as nothing but a secretary with a rather bland personality. He feels the necessity to call her ‘sweetheart’ which is something that would be frowned upon in modern society as a way to refer to a colleague in the workplace. The only reason it would be deemed acceptable would be if they were in a relationship, however there is nothing to suggest that thus it takes on a sexist feeling as it portrays her as an object belonging to the detective rather than a person. The secretary wears a plain dress and has her hair in a very simplistic and generic style for the time period. This is because she is actually a side character and irrelevant to the storyline as of yet.

Then the second women we come across, the lady who wants to see the detective, is in distress. She is panicking and speaking very fast to the detective as she is on edge which is clearly displayed in her body language. Her arms are crossed on her lap and she is holding her bag tightly which is a clear sign of the nerves she is experiencing as she brings forward her issue to the detective. However, presuming that she is the femme fatale her nerves could be about something very different, something more sinister and twisted. Maybe she is trying to keep her cool so she doesn’t give away any hint of her intentions away to the detective. She is sitting on the very edge of her seat, bolt upright. Whilst she is reeling of this information in her panicked tone to the detective he remains calm, maintaining his character, by casually sitting there still with the cigarette in his hand.

At this moment the second detective enters the room. This character is called Miles, and he is wearing a large overcoat accompanied with a fedora and a cigarette in his mouth. This type of costume is generic of the film noir genre as it helps to surround the character in mystery as they can be hiding anything under the coat and it also helps to create shadows on the characters face thanks to the lip on the fedora hat. The woman is also wrapped in furs and so could be hiding something as well as using it to make herself appear attractive and well-off for money as furs were an expensive commodity at the time. We know that she is definitely hiding something as her character is assigned as the femme fatale and she already captures the detective and begins to lure him into her web with her looks. She also guilt trips the detective by asking the rhetorical question ‘I shouldn’t have done that should I?’ This informs the detective of her vulnerability and proposes an opportunity for him to be her knight in shining armour. She completes her plan to lure in the detective by offering him money at the end of their talk and asks if it is enough to which the detective hastily says it is due to the fact that he fallen in love with insecure, vulnerable yet beautiful woman.

There is also a very subtle misogynist statement in this opening scene as when Miles walks in the men are standing whilst the woman remains seated throughout the entire thing thus showing that the men are actually more powerful than the women with a visual representation that is also an accurate reflection of society during this time period.

The detective agrees to shadow ‘Thursby’ and follow him away from the hotel lobby to see what he is doing however Miles takes the job off him and seeks Thursby on his own. Miles ends up getting shot by who we originally presume is Thursby which we see in a POV shot from ‘Thursby’s’ perspective holding a revolver. From this shot we also see the realisation and desperation in Miles’ face as he realises is he about to meet his maker. This is the hook, or enigma as it creates a large mystery early on the film surrounding the death of someone we could’ve only presumed to have been a main character. Thursby is described as a dangerous man who wouldn’t think twice about killing someone which sews the seed early on and is later backed up in one of the following scenes to convince the audience of the role Thursby is going to play before a major plot twist occurs therefore making this a red herring.

That is a very short scene and quickly passes onto the next one which is set in what we believe to be the detective’s house. The room is dark with only the natural light from outside being used as it passes through the window. The window itself is open with some very thin curtains blowing in the wind and shadows are being cast across the room which is one of the main codes and conventions of a film noir. The natural light isn’t necessarily natural either, because it is a film noir and the film is set predominantly at night, the light in fact comes from street lamps out in the street so all light in the film is chroma key. As the detective finds out about his partners death he goes to the scene of the crime to have a look around however he doesn’t look at the body or anything and when a policemen mentions looking at the body he simply dismisses it and acts like he doesn’t care. This is due to the character of the detective and the main protagonist in any film noir is desirably going to be calm, collective and cold at all opportunities. This is represented throughout the entire opening sequence, in the office talking to the woman, when he received a phone call informing him of his partner’s death and now, at the actual crime scene. Arguably this is the same for all of the men in a film noir due to its representation of men being omnipotent and cold but the protagonist often shows these traits more and with even more depth than everyone else. The detective and policemen talk underneath a street lamp at the crime scene. This is so shadows are cast on their faces and around them whilst they’re having a rather pivotal conversation. The detectives face is shadowed which is a clear signal that he is a cold character and isn’t affected by the death of his partner which we can link back to him having an affair with Miles’ wife so his death actually favours him. However the police look into this and take it as a sign that he is a suspect of the murder which can also be connoted because of the shadows on his face being a visual representation of a dark side which he could have. It is perfectly reasonable for him to potentially have this side due to the role of a private detective that he plays, in film noir the main protagonist is often a private detective rather than someone who works for the police as it allows them to do darker acts and use any means necessary to get their information. Whereas the police are ruled by paperwork and are far more regimented which limits their power.

We then go back to the detective’s apartment which is still dark and full of shadows being cast from the low key lighting. Two detectives knock on the door to the apartment and Spade lets them in. They are both bigger than Spade is and are therefore intimidating to him which causes him to actually come out character and start to get agitated before quickly resuming his normal composure and asking questions such as ‘What ya girlfriend getting at?’ we reminds us of his cocky nature even when under pressure. The cops play good cop, bad cop to suit the stereotype that is often displayed in the majority of films today but was pioneered by the classical phase of the film noir genre. The detectives inform Spade that Thursby has also been shot and killed which then removes the idea that Thursby was a possible killer leading the detectives to Spade as a prime suspect. Even though we know, as viewers that the most likely suspect will in fact be the vulnerable woman we came across at the beginning due to her role as the femme fatale luring the detective into her web which he will break out of at the end of the film after coming very close to being framed for the murders of Miles and Thursby. Whilst one of the detectives is talking to Spade it is portrayed using a low angle shot with the light from a lamp casting shadows across the detectives face giving him a stern look that goes straight through you.

The film has a restricted narrative so it is hard for us to know what is going on as we only gain as much information as the detective does. Therefore we do not find out who killed who until the detective does and this is a very clever technique used in film noir to keep the viewer interested and drawn in through the entire duration of the film. There are also a large amount of red herrings apparent in film noirs as it is a great method to keep the viewer interested with lots of different potential storylines to keep them thinking.

Clear codes and conventions are displayed thoroughly throughout the film and it doesn’t deviate from the classic phase of the genre. The lighting is always dark, and chroma key with shadows being cast upon faces and across the sets of the film, there is not a single scene where there is any daylight except the very first one. This could be another visual representation as it remains daytime throughout the film until something bad happens (the enigma) so it is kind of a form of pathetic fallacy except its inversed. The costumes worn by the characters (pinstripe suits, overcoats, fedoras, furs) are generic to the codes and conventions of the genre as well as the use of props such as cigarettes and guns. Finally it maintains the spider and fly narrative that the genre is so famous for.