The Three Fates of the Maltese Falcon: Hammet's Novel at Warner Bros.
By Clifford James Galiher
[Download Video Essay M4V File - 219 MB]
The video essay, “The Three Fates of the Maltese Falcon: Hammet's Novel at Warner Bros.”, uses the production histories of Warner Bros.' three film version of The Maltese Falcon to dispel the notion of a direct lineage between Dashiell Hammett's hard-boiled writing and John Huston's faithful adaptation. Instead, this piece argues that studio politics and production circumstances heavily determined the genre, tone, and visual style of each adaptation, including the iconic 1941 version.
Author bio:
Clifford James Galiher received his B.A. in Film & Television Production and M.A. in Cinema & Media Studies at UCLA, and he is currently a Ph.D. student in Critical Studies at USC. His research focuses primarily on film production in classic Hollywood, including a current project on the history of pre-digital visual effects. His other interests include animation, narrative studies, and digital media history, and he wishes he had enough money to pursue his dream of ushering full-time.
The Three Fates of the Maltese Falcon: Hammett's Novel at Warner Bros. by Clifford James Galiher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.usc.edu/libraries/collections/warner_bros/.