Taking A Look At The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon and Classical Hollywood Cinema

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir directed by John Huston and staring Humphrey Bogart as the private investigator Samuel Spade. Through a series of twists and turns, Spade is taken across the city of San Francisco in pursuit of a mysterious black statuette of a bird of prey. The film is a prime example of classical Hollywood cinema and contains many of the key principles in classical narration as well as continuity editing. One such scene that represents these techniques begins at 50:56 when Samuel Spade seeks out Mr. Gutman to discuss the secrets surrounding the elusive statuette.
To fully understand this scene, one must consider the fabula and syuzhet of the film leading up to the pivotal moment when Spade encounters Mr. Gutman. Both Brigid O’Shaughnessy and Joel Cairo have been introduced as characters that know various

These shots originate at cuts six, seven, eight, and eleven. They are all at least 30 degrees apart so that the audience does not feel jarred by sudden movement, and they make up the majority of this dialogue heavy scene. Shots that originate at cuts six and eight, as well as the follow up shots that mimic them, are medium closeups of the two characters. The shot that originates after cut seven, as well as its mimicking shots, are medium closeups of both men, just off the shoulder of Spade. The eleventh shot and its mimics are over the shoulder shots showing the back of Gutman’s head and Spade from the torso up. These four key shots repeat themselves in a way that makes the conversation between Gutman and Spade easy to follow, and they flow so naturally that one may have a difficult time even distinguishing them from one another on a first viewing. This prime example of continuity editing keeps the audience engaged in the conversation rather than making them spend time trying to understand the thought process behind the