Saturday, December 5, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


Notes From My Journal

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Today is book and movie review day. And I’m happy to be recommending one of my favorites – a classic in noir film and fiction: The Maltese Falcon.

But before we jump into that, I want to pass along a noir story of a different kind: a very brief outline of what’s happened to the global economy over the past 100+ years, courtesy of my colleague and partner, Bill Bonner.

As anyone who’s taken World Economics 101 knows, the Industrial Revolution spurred the greatest economic growth in the history of the world. Led by the US, much of Europe, Canada, and Japan experienced a steady explosion of growth in wealth, productivity, and consumption.

In 1979, China entered the game when then Chairman Deng Xiaoping declared that becoming rich is a “glorious” pursuit, and not just allowed but encouraged free markets in many sectors of the Chinese economy.

Ten years later, the Soviet Union followed, abandoning, as BB says, both Communism and its empire.

Then in 1993, the European Union was created – “a free-trade zone big enough to rival the United States.”

But in the last 10 to 15 years, BB points out, this trend seems to have reversed:

All over the world, people grow old… and want protection from life’s risks and challenges. Even in Europe, the Italians want protection… from the French.

“The Italians in Italy. The French in France,” say the Italians, protesting the sale of Parmigiano Reggiano to French investors.

“Brexit Now!” demand the English.”

To be continued…

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Worth Reading

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The Maltese Falcon

By Dashiell Hammett

224 pages

Published 1929 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

I read this as a book club selection about a dozen years ago and returned to it this weekend because it is so damned good in the most important ways a book can be good.

The plot – The story line is engaging, suspenseful, emotionally compelling, and fast-paced.

The characterization – The characters are fully imagined, sharply defined, but also full of contrasting nuances.

The theme – The idea that insinuates itself throughout The Maltese Falcon is profound: It’s about deception and self-deception. Every important character and every relationship has elements of falseness. This theme is nicely represented by the various motifs of the story: cosmetics, costume changes, and the Maltese Falcon itself, which is a fake.

The prose – The writing is superb. Taut, clean, and yet beautifully descriptive. Three quick examples:

* “Her eyes were cobalt-blue prayers.”

* “Beginning day had reduced night to a thin smokiness when Spade sat up.”

* “His eyes burned yellowy.”

Interesting Fact: Dashiell Hammett is largely credited with the image of the hard-boiled, noir detective we’re familiar with, as well as bringing literary – and professional – credentials to the detective genre. Under his first name, Samuel – a name that he would ultimately use for his most famous character – he worked with the Pinkerton Detective Agency from 1915 to 1922. The Maltese Falcon is the only full-length Sam Spade novel, but Spade also appears in four lesser-known short stories.

 From The Times Literary Supplement (London): “The Maltese Falcon is not only probably the best detective story we have ever read, it is an exceedingly well written novel.”

From The New York Times: “Hammett’s prose [is] clean and entirely unique. His characters [are] as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction.”

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The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Directed by John Huston

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Peter Lorre

Produced 12 years after the book, The Maltese Falcon, directed by the great John Huston and starring the equally great Humphrey Bogart, does not disappoint. It was nominated for three Academy Awards and is considered by many critics to be one of the 100 best films of all time.

It begins, as so many film noirs do, in a private detective’s office. A beautiful woman enters. She has a problem. She wants Sam Spade, the protagonist, to help her. He agrees, reluctantly. And things get complicated after that.

There are many things to like about this movie. Like the book, it gets an A or A+ in all the major elements of drama: plot, characterization, dialog, and theme. In addition, Arthur Edeson, the director of photography, does a magnificent job of bringing the theme of doubt and duplicity to life with his use of soft lenses, low-key lighting, and odd camera angles.

The Maltese Falcon  was produced with a budget of $375,000, and grossed $1.8 million at the box office.

Interesting Fact: In the film, Sidney Greenstreet’s character, Kasper Gutman, is referred to as “Fat Man” – and this inspired the code name for one of the  bombs that ended World War II. “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. It destroyed 3 square miles of the city and caused approximately 140,000 deaths.

 From Variety Magazine (September 1941): “One of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form.”

From Rotten Tomatoes: “Suspenseful, labyrinthine, and brilliantly cast, The Maltese Falcon is one of the most influential noirs – as well as a showcase for Humphrey Bogart at his finest.”

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