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Stylish but barely mediocre overall

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I was quite impressed with this. Ricardo Cortez plays Sam Spade and does it in a flip, confident style that counters Bogart's more sullen, dispirited presentation. The story is the same. The police have no time for Spade but they do respect him. When Archer, Sam's partner, is murdered, Sam doesn't bat an eye. The two seemed to hate each other and Sam has had dalliance with Mrs. Archer. Bebe Daniels (Ruth Wonderly) is willing to do anything and kill anyone to achieve riches. She double crosses anyone that comes along, including Sam. Casper Gutman and Joel Cairo are very well done, with some of the same idiosyncrasies as those in the future film. I was ready to be disappointed, but really found myself entranced with this film.

While the fun tough-talking dialog of the much more famous 1941 version isn't as prevalent here, there is much to admire in the forgotten original film which has a much more light-hearted atmosphere, slightly comic, but not as farcial (or off-putting) as the 1936 disastrous remake "Satan Met a Lady". The 1941 version follows closely to this, adding more detail to stretch out the running time somewhat, but never adding material which is unnecessary to that version's overall plot. The grinning Ricardo Cortez is playboy detective Sam Spade, seen in the very beginning saying goodbye to a female conquest (presumably his partner's wife), then flirts openly with his officious secretary (Una Merkel). In comes femme fatal Bebe Daniels, a bit younger looking than her replacement Mary Astor, but still quite deadly. (In fact, to escape confusion with the remake, the title was changed to "Dangerous Female" for television, but fortunately changed back with its original titles for the DVD release).Then, there are the other villains. Dudley Digges takes sleaziness to a new level in the future Sydney Greenstreet role of Casper Gutman. There is nothing to trust in this man; In fact, the character oozes with creepiness and at times, you can't watch him without thinking "eeew!" to yourself. The same can be said of the film's Joel Cairo, here played by Otto Matieson with a different effemininity style than Peter Lorre's. He seems like the type of creep that would shoot or stab someone, then comb and re-style their hair so at least they'd be found properly coiffed rather than a corpse with hair out of place. And who better in the early 30's to play the dumb Wilmer than Dwight Frye, the fly-eating psycho from "Dracula"? So the detail for character is dead on here, if not a bit frightening.As a pre-code film, this outdoes its superior remake, perfect as a film, yet missing the fun of the innuendos of this version. Once it was re-vamped in the 1940's, it took on a different quality which makes the same story seem quite different. So feel free to watch both versions back to back (I suggest skipping "Satan Met a Lady" other than to see a young Bette Davis in a film she detested) because they are different enough even with all of their similarities to be judged on completely different merits.

While this film is a classic, it is NOT Humphrey Bogart (Bogart might be the greatest screen detective in film history). The main reasons to watch are the women. Bebe Daniels Ruth Wonderly (Much sexier than Mary Astor), Una Merkel & Thelma Todd. Beyond that, the Cortez Spade is very different than the Bogart Spade. While Bogart was a tough guy, this Spade is more of a ladies man. People have talked about the gay subplot, and since that did not interest me, seeing it did nothing for the film. I happen to like the Detective to be real tough, like a Mike Hammer, or Phillip Marlowe, or brilliant like a Sherlock Holmes. and this Spade is neither. That said, it should be required watching for fans of the genre.

***SPOILERS*** Original version of the film "The Maltese Falcon" that has the Latin lover looking Ricardo Cortez, who's real name was Jacob Krantz, as San Francisco private eye Sam Spade the part that made Humphrey Bogart the Hollywood legend that he was to become some 10 years later.Spade gets himself involved in a missing person case that soon mushrooms into murder that leaves some half dozen people dead by the time the film is over. One of those murdered was Spade's partner fellow PI Miles Archer, Walter Long. It was Archer's wife Iva, Thelma Todd, whom Spade was having an affair with while he was on vacation. Ruth Wounderly, Babe Daniels, shows p at Spade's office looking for her sister whom she tells Spade has took off with her boyfriend someone called Thursby. Miss.Wounderly is very concerned about her sister in that she feels that Thursby is a mental case and threat to her sisters safety. Spade realizes that Miss. Wounderly's story is nothing but a load of BS but takes the case anyway because the money, a $200.00 retainer, is more then he expected. Spade has Miles tailing Thursby who ends up getting shot and killed the first night on he's on the case. Within an hour after Miles' body was discovered Thursby himself is found shot to death with Thursby's partner Sam Spade being the prime suspect in his murder. The police feel that Thursby's death was an act of revenge on Spade's part. It's later that Spade is confronted by a Dr.Cairo, Otto Matieson, who at first offers him $5,000.00 for this mysterious black bird statuette whom his boss Casper Gutman, Dudley Diggs is willing to pay him. It's when Cairo gets a little pushy by pulling a gun on Spade, who quickly disarmed him, that he took his offer seriously. By then all the pieces of this mysterious case starting coming together in that the black bird was the Maltese Falcon that had disappeared from sight over 70 years ago and was worth a cool two million dollars. And even more disturbing it was Miss.Wounderly,Spade's client, and the late Mr. Thursby who were the last person to have possession of the bird! Not as good as the Humphrey Bogart version of the film but still worth watching in Cortez's, who was an odd choice for the part, as private dick Sam Spade. Cortez seemed to have trouble taking the role of Sam Spade seriously! He just could't stop smiling, which made you wounder in watching the movie if it was either a screw ball comedy or serious hard boiled detective story!