"that many of the signatures feature the same idiosyncratic characteristics. Fred Sexton Fred Sexton (June 3, 1907 – September 11, 1995) was an American artist and creator of the Maltese Falcon statuette prop for the 1941 Warner Bros. film production, ""The Maltese Falcon"". During the 1930s and 1940s, Sexton was championed by ""Los Angeles Times"" Art Critic Arthur Millier, and his work was collected by Los Angeles-area art collectors including actor Edward G. Robinson and movie director John Huston. Sexton also taught art and headed the Art Students League in Los Angeles between 1949 and 1953. Fred Sexton completed his"
"Maltese Falcon"" (1941). During the liberation of concentration camps in 1945, the Psychological Warfare Department (PWD) of the United States Department of War produced an American propaganda documentary film directed by Billy Wilder. The film known as ""Death Mills"", or , was intended for German audiences to educate them about the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. For the German version, ""Die Todesmühlen"", Hanuš Burger is credited as the writer and director, while Wilder supervised the editing. Wilder is credited with the English-language version. Two years later, Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation"
"in Great Britain. Eventually settling in Hollywood, he later became a featured player in many Hollywood crime and mystery films. In his initial American films, ""Mad Love"" and ""Crime and Punishment"", he continued to play murderers, but he was then cast playing Mr. Moto, the Japanese detective, in a run of B pictures. From 1941 to 1946 he mainly worked for Warner Bros. His first film at Warner was ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941), which began a sequence in which he appeared with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet. This was followed by ""Casablanca"" (1942), the second of the nine films in"
"or period, treating subsequent films that evoke the classics as fundamentally different due to general shifts in filmmaking style and latter-day awareness of noir as a historical source for allusion. While the inceptive noir, ""Stranger on the Third Floor"", was a B picture directed by a virtual unknown, many of the film noirs still remembered were A-list productions by well-known film makers. Debuting as a director with ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941), John Huston followed with ""Key Largo"" (1948) and ""The Asphalt Jungle"" (1950). Opinion is divided on the noir status of several Alfred Hitchcock thrillers from the era; at least"
"The Maltese Falcon (1931 film) The Maltese Falcon is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film, based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and directed by Roy Del Ruth. The film stars Ricardo Cortez as private detective Sam Spade and Bebe Daniels as Ruth Wonderly. Maude Fulton, Brown Holmes, and Lucien Hubbard (who went uncredited) wrote the screenplay. The supporting cast features Dudley Digges, Thelma Todd, Walter Long, Una Merkel, and Dwight Frye. A print has been held by the Library of Congress since the 1970s. In San Francisco, private investigator Sam Spade (Ricardo Cortez) and"
"36 films between 1934 and 1942 including John Huston's ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941), one of the first films now considered a classic film noir. In 1941, RKO Pictures released ""Citizen Kane"" made by Orson Welles. It is often considered the greatest film of all time. It would set the stage for the modern motion picture, as it revolutionized film story telling. The strictures of wartime also brought an interest in more fantastical subjects. These included Britain's Gainsborough melodramas (including ""The Man in Grey"" and ""The Wicked Lady""), and films like ""Here Comes Mr. Jordan"", ""Heaven Can Wait"", ""I Married a"
"and Nunnally Johnson. Bogart enjoyed intense, provocative conversation and stiff drinks, as did Huston. Both were rebellious and liked to play childish pranks. Huston was reported to be easily bored during production, and admired Bogart (also bored easily off camera) not just for his acting talent but for his intense concentration on the set. Now regarded as a classic film noir, ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941) was John Huston's directorial debut. Originally a novel written by Dashiell Hammett, it was first published in the pulp magazine ""Black Mask"" in 1929, and had also served as the basis of two other movie"
"in New York City, and was nominated for three Academy Awards. ""The Maltese Falcon"" was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1989. ""The Maltese Falcon"" is a part of Roger Ebert's ""Great Movies"" series and was cited by ""Panorama du Film Noir Américain"" as the first major film noir. In San Francisco in 1941, private investigators Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) meet prospective client Ruth Wonderly (Mary Astor). She claims to be looking for her missing sister, who is involved with a man named Floyd Thursby. Archer agrees to follow"
"John Huston John Marcellus Huston (; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. Huston was a citizen of the United States by birth but renounced U.S. citizenship to become an Irish citizen and resident. He returned to reside in the United States where he died. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941), ""The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"" (1948), ""The Asphalt Jungle"" (1950), ""The African Queen"" (1951), ""The Misfits"" (1961), ""Fat City"" (1972) and ""The"
"August 14, 1942, with Edward Arnold starring. CBS later created a 30-minute adaptation for ""The Screen Guild Theater"" with Bogart, Astor, Greenstreet and Lorre all reprising their roles. This radio segment was originally released on September 20, 1943, and was played again on July 3, 1946. On May 18, 1950, another adaptation was broadcast on ""The Screen Guild Theater"" starring Bogart and his wife Lauren Bacall. In addition, there was an adaptation on ""Lux Radio Theater"" on February 8, 1943, starring Edward G. Robinson, Gail Patrick, and Laird Cregar. The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) The Maltese Falcon is a 1941"
"next script was ""High Sierra"" (1941), to be directed by Raoul Walsh. The film became the hit Huston wanted. It also made Humphrey Bogart a star with his first major role, as a gunman on the run. Warners kept their end of the bargain, and gave Huston his choice of subject. For his first directing assignment, Huston chose Dashiell Hammett's detective thriller, ""The Maltese Falcon"", a film which failed at the box office in two earlier versions by Warners. However, studio head Jack L. Warner approved of Huston's treatment of Hammett's 1930 novel, as he stood by his word to"
"1940), a musical comedy mystery in which he co-starred with horror actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, as well as band leader Kay Kyser. In 1941, Lorre became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Director John Huston effectively ended a period of decline for the actor and saved him from more B-pictures by casting him in ""The Maltese Falcon"". Although Warner Bros. were lukewarm about Lorre at first, Huston was keen for him to play Joel Cairo. Huston observed that Lorre ""had that clear combination of braininess and real innocence, and sophistication... He's always doing two things at the"
"Arthur Edeson Arthur Edeson, A.S.C. (October 24, 1891 – February 14, 1970) was a film cinematographer, born in New York City. His career ran from the formative years of the film industry in New York, through the silent era in Hollywood, and the sound era there in the 1930s and 1940s. His work included many landmarks in film history, including ""The Thief of Bagdad"" (1924), ""Frankenstein"" (1931), ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941), and ""Casablanca"" (1942). He was one of the founders of the American Society of Cinematographers, and was nominated for three Academy Awards in his career in cinema. Edeson began"
"Blondell in the cheerfully amoral gangster film, ""Blonde Crazy"" (1931). That same year, he directed the first version of Dashiell Hammett's novel, ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1931). Ricardo Cortez portrayed the roguish private eye whose investigation of a murder case entwines him in a plot involving unsavory people searching for a fabled, jewel-encrusted falcon. While the plot somewhat mirrors the 1941 remake, this pre-Code version features sexual innuendo, including Bebe Daniels bathing in the nude, overt references to homosexuality and one instance of cursing. Del Ruth reunited with James Cagney for the crime drama ""Taxi!"" (1932) and then directed the comedy"
"Agoura Hills, California. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. Source: Nominations Arthur Edeson Arthur Edeson, A.S.C. (October 24, 1891 – February 14, 1970) was a film cinematographer, born in New York City. His career ran from the formative years of the film industry in New York, through the silent era in Hollywood, and the sound era there in the 1930s and 1940s. His work included many landmarks in film history, including ""The Thief of Bagdad"" (1924), ""Frankenstein"" (1931), ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941), and ""Casablanca"" (1942). He was one of the"
"Sydney Greenstreet Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (27 December 1879 – 18 January 1954) was a British actor. While he did not work in films until the age of 62, he had a run of significant films in a Hollywood career lasting for under a decade. He is best remembered for his Warner Bros. films with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, which include ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941), ""Casablanca"" (1942), and ""Passage to Marseille"" (1944). He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1925. He portrayed Nero Wolfe on radio from 1950 to 1951. Greenstreet was born in Sandwich, Kent, the son of"
"associated with the leftist Popular Front. Nino Frank Nino Frank (born 27 June 1904 in Barletta, Italy − Paris, 17 August 1988) was an Italian-born French film critic and writer who was most active in the 1930s and 1940s. Frank is best known for being the first film critic to use the term ""film noir"" to refer to 1940s US crime drama films such as ""The Maltese Falcon,"" although research indicates that the term was used in French film reviews and newspaper articles in 1938 and 1939. Nino Frank was born in Barletta, in the southern region of Apulia, a"
"Michael Maltese Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American storyman for classic animated cartoon shorts. The son of Italian immigrants, Maltese graduated from the National Academy of Design. He married Florence Sass on May 30, 1936; animator Warren Foster served as Best Man. The couple moved to Los Angeles, where their first and only child, Brenda, was born on February 20, 1938. In 1941, Maltese was hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which three years later became Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. (Maltese had actually appeared on camera in the 1940 Porky Pig cartoon ""You Ought to"
"1941 (film) 1941 is a 1979 American period comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and featuring an ensemble cast including Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, and Robert Stack. The story involves a panic in the Los Angeles area after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Although not as financially or critically successful as many of Spielberg's other films, it received belated popularity after an expanded version aired on ABC and its subsequent home video reissues, raising it to cult status. Co-writer Gale stated"
"Nino Frank Nino Frank (born 27 June 1904 in Barletta, Italy − Paris, 17 August 1988) was an Italian-born French film critic and writer who was most active in the 1930s and 1940s. Frank is best known for being the first film critic to use the term ""film noir"" to refer to 1940s US crime drama films such as ""The Maltese Falcon,"" although research indicates that the term was used in French film reviews and newspaper articles in 1938 and 1939. Nino Frank was born in Barletta, in the southern region of Apulia, a busy port town on Italy's Adriatic"
"at a flea market in New Jersey in 1991 by Emmy-winning producer/director Ara Chekmayan. Adam Savage, co-host of ""MythBusters"", has gone to great lengths to create an accurate replica. The Maltese Falcon is considered a classic example of a MacGuffin, a plot device that motivates the characters of the story, but otherwise has little relevance. Following a September 1941 preview, ""Variety"" called it ""one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form"": Unfolding a most intriguing and entertaining murder mystery, picture displays outstanding excellence in writing, direction, acting and editing—combining in overall as a"
"sensibility is ""The Invisible Man"" (1933), directed by Englishman James Whale and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed ""The Maltese Falcon"" (1941), widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era. Josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood during the same period. Films of his such as ""Shanghai Express"" (1932) and ""The Devil Is a Woman"" (1935), with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, anticipated central elements of classic noir. The commercial and critical success of Sternberg's silent ""Underworld"" (1927) was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in"
"casting of John Payne and Mary Murphy was announced in April 1954. Filming started 7 June 1954. The film comes near the end of the film noir cycle and at a time when Payne's unsmiling and fatigued expression in film had become something of a ""noir"" icon. Phil Karlson said ""we took ""The Maltese Falcon"" [1941] and we did... The Maltese Falcon! In our own way."" ""The New York Times"" panned the film, ""All to the credit of ""Hell's Island"" — and we mean all—is an unstartling usage of VistaVision, which merely widens some pretty, crystal-clear and synthetic tropical backgrounds."
"In the 1929 detective novel ""The Maltese Falcon"", a small statuette provides both the book's eponymous title and its motive for intrigue. The name ""MacGuffin"" was coined by the English screenwriter Angus MacPhail and was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1930s. The director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term ""MacGuffin"" and the technique with his 1935 film ""The 39 Steps"", an early example of the concept. Hitchcock explained the term ""MacGuffin"" in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University in New York: It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men on a train. One"
"The Falcon in Hollywood The Falcon in Hollywood is a 1944 crime film directed by Gordon Douglas and stars Tom Conway in his recurring role as a suave amateur sleuth, supported by Barbara Hale and Veda Ann Borg. The film was the 10th of 16 in Falcon detective series. While on vacation in Los Angeles, Tom Lawrence (Tom Conway), aka The Falcon, meets Inspector McBride (Emory Parnell) at the Hollywood Park Racetrack, asking him about casino owner Louie Buchanan (Sheldon Leonard). Tom helped put Louie away but does not know about his present whereabouts. Returning to his seat, Tom finds"
"""Es geschah am 20. Juli"" (1955). He was also a photographer. His first attempt at directing came three years later with the documentary ""Warum sind sie gegen uns?"" (1958). He became internationally famous with his anti-war film of 1959 called ""Die Brücke"", which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1961, he won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival for his film ""The Miracle of Father Malachia"". His break in Hollywood came shortly thereafter when he was chosen to direct Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner in the highly"
"(1949), ""No Sad Songs for Me"" (1950), ""When Worlds Collide"" (1951), and the epic ""The 300 Spartans"" (1962). He died from a heart attack in Hollywood on 27 October 1964, at the age of 66. Rudolph Maté Rudolph Maté (21 January 1898 – 27 October 1964), born Rudolf Mayer, was a Polish-Hungarian-American cinematographer, film director and film producer who worked as cameraman and cinematographer in Hungary, Austria, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, before moving to Hollywood in the mid 1930s. Born in Kraków (then in the Grand Duchy of Krakow, now in Poland) into a Jewish family, Maté started"
"had to take as inspiration their favourite living author. Ralph chose as his inspiration Rafael Sabatini. Sabatini was famous for his tales of high adventure such as ""Scaramouche"", ""Captain Blood"" and ""The Sea Hawk"", all of which became successful motion pictures. ""Captain Blood"" was produced in 1935 and gave a young Errol Flynn his first ever Hollywood starring role. The show catalogue for that year hints at some form of collaboration between the author and the architect. Although of Italian birth Sabatini was living in Hereford. Ralph's garden tribute to Sabatini featured a half-timbered cottage and also his trademark herringbone"
"for the Roosevelt biopic ""Sunrise at Campobello"". He won the Academy Award seven years later for his work on ""Camelot"". Edward Carrere Born in Mexico, Edward Carrere (13 October 1906 - 19 December 1984) first hit Hollywood in 1947, making his debut as an art director on ""My Wild Irish Rose"". He garnered his first Academy Award nomination two years later for the Errol Flynn epic ""Adventures of Don Juan"". Throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s he worked on such films as ""White Heat"" (1949), ""The Fountainhead"" (1949), ""The Flame and the Arrow"" (1950), ""Dial M for Murder"" (1954),"
"the Falcon series for the ""Time Out Film Guide"", Tom Milne wrote, ""Conway, bringing a lighter touch to the series (which managed its comic relief better than most), starred in nine films after The Falcon's Brother, most of them deft and surprisingly enjoyable."" The Falcon in Hollywood The Falcon in Hollywood is a 1944 crime film directed by Gordon Douglas and stars Tom Conway in his recurring role as a suave amateur sleuth, supported by Barbara Hale and Veda Ann Borg. The film was the 10th of 16 in Falcon detective series. While on vacation in Los Angeles, Tom Lawrence"
"of Hollywood musicals, beginning with ""Moonlight in Havana"" (1942). Many of the films, like the Maria Montez vehicle ""White Savage"" (1943), were Universal productions, which could not rival the budgetary extravagance of MGM or Fox, though many were in Technicolor; the most notable was Arthur Lubin's ""Phantom of the Opera"" (1943). Horton's dancers also frequently worked at clubs, including the Folies Bergère in New York and Earl Carroll Theatre and Restaurant in Los Angeles. Horton's best-known works, which he called ""choreodramas,"" are ""Salome"" (which occupied Horton for nearly two decades) and ""The Beloved"". Dance Theater made only one appearance in"
"Angeles, California. Polito received three Academy Award nominations: Sol Polito Sol Polito, A.S.C. (born Salvatore Polito, November 12, 1892 — May 23, 1960) was a Sicilian-American cinematographer. He is best known for his work with directors Michael Curtiz and Mervyn LeRoy at Warner Bros. studios in the 1930s and 1940s. Salvatore Polito was born November 12, 1892, in Palermo, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in 1905. He attended school in New York City and began working in the motion picture industry as a still photographer. After experience as a lab assistant and camera assistant, he was promoted to"
"pre-Code film, ""The Maltese Falcon"", based upon the Dashiell Hammett novel. Warner's cartoon unit had its roots in the independent Harman and Ising studio. From 1930 to 1933, Disney alumni Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising produced musical cartoons for Leon Schlesinger, who sold them to Warner. Harman and Ising introduced their character Bosko in the first ""Looney Tunes"" cartoon, ""Sinkin' in the Bathtub"", and created a sister series, ""Merrie Melodies"", in 1931. Harman and Ising broke away from Schlesinger in 1933 due to a contractual dispute, taking Bosko with them to MGM. As a result, Schlesinger started his own studio,"