Great movie!
This movie is the precursor to The Maltese Falcon, and I actually like this version better. Warren William steals the show as the detective searching for the mysterious bird. The pace is fast, the dialogue delightfully light and witty, and the casting is wonderful. Bette Davis is entrancingly lovely as the villainess. Her eyes have never been bigger! I highly recommend this movie for a fun evening. Definitely enjoyed Alison Skipworth and the very polite robber, Arthur Treacher.

Nothing to do with Watch on the Rhine
A reviewer says that this movie is based on Watch on the Rhine--not so. (That's a play by Lillian Hellman.) This movie is based, as the other reviews indicate, on The Maltese Falcon. However, the reviewer who made that mistake is otherwise correct--it's a very disappointing movie. In fact, it's puzzling why anyone would take Hammet's The Maltese Falcon and do this tepid waste.

Satan Met A Lady
Satan Met A Lady - and her name was Bette Davis!

In this earlier screen version of The Maltese Falcon, Bette Davis stars as a young woman embroiled in the mystery surrounding an ancient, gem-filled horn.

Upon her arrival in town. Valery (Davis) enlists private investigator Ames and his associate Ted Shayne (Warren William) to help her locate the missing boyfriend she was supposed to meet. Unbeknownst to them, the man they are looking for is being sought by an assortment of crooks and goons in search of the ram's horn he possesses. When their investigation leads to Ames' murder, Shayne pits the thugs against each other to find out who killed his partner, and to solve the mystery at hand.

With Bette Davis and the help of an outstanding supporting cast, this delightfully comedic adaption of the Dashiell Hammett classic is a must-see.

A DUD FOR DAVIS.
A mysterious woman, Valerie Purvis (Davis) hires Ted Shayne (Warren William), a private detective to locate a certain Mrs. Barrabas (Alison Skipworth) but she won't tell him why....I finally watched this obscure little flick out of sheer curiousity: it really isn't very good. This is the second filming of Dashiell Hammett's classic detective story THE MALTESE FALCON which was filmed priorly in 1931 with Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. It was a good adaptation, but certainly not up to par with the 1941 classic with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet. This middle version is the bad apple of the bunch which is played largely for laughs: it concerns a ram's horn filled with valuable jewels. As an interesting footnote, Davis had just finished her role in the critically approved THE PETRIFIED FOREST when Jack Warner thrust this ill-scripted mess at her. Davis was adamant that the part was an inconsequential one and that she needed a rest. Warner had a doctor examine her, and Davis was forced to relent as she couldn't afford to take a suspension due to piling bills and increasing debt. Davis was correct about the film however: it never found an audience, and it was thoroughly dismissed as trash by the critics upon its initial release in 1936.

Hilarious!
This is a MUST for the total fan of Bette Davis. Her entrance is just great--in trenchcoat and spectacles. You can't miss her as she slinks into her chair. The movie itself is rather uneven, but well worth watching. Were these people all drunk while making the film? Warren William surely was. And really, he looked much more like Sam Spade from the original book "The Maltese Falcon" than Bogie did. Personally, I think this film has a more West Coast feel than the later movie, with all the unstable characters. Don't get me wrong, I think the Bogart/Astor version is definitely superior, but this movie is a lot of wacko fun.