Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

The Maltese Falcon (1941) always held a strange fascination for me; I rented it almost obsessively on video "back in the day," when I was around 10 or 11. I also read the Dashiell Hammett novel several times. I don't know why I was obsessed so; looking back, I'm not sure if I was identifying more with Bridgid O'Shaughnessy, Joel Cairo, Iva Archer or Effie, but even then, I sure as hell knew I wasn't Sam Spade. Anyway, Falcon receeded into the past as I found new obsessions, but I recently rediscovered its charms on DVD -- and, as a bonus, the package included the oft-maligned comic version of it (Satan Met a Lady, with Bette Davis!) and the 1931 original, sometimes retitled Dangerous Female.



I was surprisingly charmed by both of these relics, but especially so by the '31 version. It's not as slick, not nearly as fast-paced as the more famous '41 version; but it has a pre-Code sexiness that not even the heat between Bogie and Mary Astor can match. Plus, with Thelma Todd and Una Merkel in the cast, how can it be bad? But the topper is Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade.





Cortez' portrayal of Sam Spade has been described as having "just the right mix of sleaze and charm," which pretty much sums up Cortez' basic appeal to me. He was a pretty big star during the whole "Latin Lover" craze of the 1920's and 30's -- even though he was born Jacob Kranz in Vienna. Another film I loved as a kid was Thirteen Women -- a weird programmer starring a pre-stardom Irene Dunne, a villainous "Eurasian" Myrna Loy, and Ricardo Cortez as a sexy swami. Did I mention that I was a strange child?



Cortez eventually retired from films by the end of the 1940's, and became a stockbroker on Wall Street. He passed away in 1976, at age 78.