The Maltese Falcon [Import]

A gallery of high-living lowlifes will stop at nothing to get their sweaty hands on a jewel-encrusted falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why - and who'll take the fall. This third screen version of Dashiell Hammett's novel is a film of firsts: John Huston's directorial debut, rotund Sydney Greenstreet's screen debut, film history's first film noir and Bogart's break-through role after years as a Warner contract player. An all-star cast (including Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr.) join Bogart in this crisply written sizzler the placed in the top quarter of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest American Films list.