The Maltese Falcon is a 1931 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. It was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Ricardo Cortez as private detective Sam Spade and Bebe Daniels in the role of Ruth Wonderly. Also featured are Thelma Todd, Dudley Digges, Otto Matieson, and Una Merkel. Maude Fulton and Brown Holmes wrote the screenplay.

The film, originally released on June 13, 1931, is sometimes shown as Dangerous Female to avoid confusion with the 1941 Humphrey Bogart version.

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film written and directed by John Huston, based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett, and starring Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his femme fatale client, Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut, and Peter Lorre. The film was Huston's directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

The story concerns the entanglement of a San Francisco private investigator with three greedy, unscrupulous and murderous adventurers who compete with each other to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon worth millions.

The Maltese Falcon has been named as one of the greatest films of all time by Roger Ebert. Ebert, Roger blank">"The Maltese Falcon (1941)." rogerebert.com. 13 May 2001. 24 February 2007. and _Entertainment Weekly, Entertainment Weekly. The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. New York: Entertainment Weekly Books, 1999. and was cited by Panorama du Film Noir Américain, the French book that coined the term film noir, as the first film of that genre. Sklar, Robert. Film: An International History of the Medium. [London]: Thames and Hudson, [c. 1990].

The film premiered on October 3, 1941 in New York City and in 1989 was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. List of National Film Registry (1988-2003).

Sam Spade is a partner in a private-eye firm who finds himself hounded by police when his partner is killed whilst tailing a man. The girl who asked him to follow the man turns out not to be who she says she is, and is really involved in something to do with the 'Maltese Falcon', a gold-encrusted life-sized statue of a falcon, the only one of its kind. Written by Graeme Roy

In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels-----but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day--- Written by Chris Schairer

While Sam Spade is investigating the murder of his partner, he finds himself surrounded by a host of strange characters all after one thing - a statue of a falcon reputed to contain priceless jewels. Warning - avoid the Ted Turner colorized version of this movie. Written by Colin Tinto

Adhering closely to Dashiel Hammett's story, sleazy detective Sam Spade seeks the whereabouts of a jewel encrusted statuette and his partner's cold-blooded killer, unaware the two quests may be related. Well received in its time, today it looks like a dress-rehearsal for John Huston's definitive version made ten years later. Written by Sister Grimm