Critic's Pick — Weekend Classics: 1941’s Greatest Hits: 'The Maltese Falcon'

This month, the Belcourt is honoring the films of 1941 in its latest Weekend Classics series. The venerable year that brought us all-timers like The Lady Eve (also featured in this week’s Critics’ Picks section) and Citizen Kane (not featured in this week’s section since we just highlighted it in July) is celebrating its 85th anniversary. Depending on the day, my favorite film from this stacked year is The Maltese Falcon, John Huston’s influential adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s also extremely influential detective novel. Humphrey Bogart stars as private investigator Sam Spade. Of the many Spade iterations in film and TV history, Bogart’s is the most iconic. The colorful collection of side characters is just as fun, especially Mary Astor as Brigid O’Shaughnessy, Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo and Sydney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman (what names!). The Maltese Falcon is a little more decipherable than 1946’s The Big Sleep — the other famed adaptation of an iconic detective novel starring Bogart (both are great) — so it should be easy to follow along with at the Belcourt if it’s your first time seeing this classic. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. 

Sept. 22 & 26-27 at the Belcourt

2102 Belcourt Ave.