Double Indemnity or The Maltese Falcon?

Why make this silly comparison. They are VERY different types and genres of film. Might as well ask, "The Apartment," or, "Swing Time." Geez.

The Maltese Falcon. I find it more entertaining in terms of rewatch value. The dialogue, especially, is a lot of fun. It's also a bigger world with more history than Double Indemnity. San Francisco in TMF is a port to the whole world. There's an adventure element to it that's lacking in Double Indemnity. And, of course, there's Bogie.

Don't get me wrong--I like DI. It's a bona fide classic, probably MacMurray's best role, and Barbara Stanwyck is mesmerizing (plus, Robinson is a hoot). But I always start to fall asleep on it around the third act and its rewatch value is limited for me. The Chandler aspect is attractive, but I've never been a huge fan of either Cain or Wilder. Too much bitterness about being successful in those guys and their work.

I also prefer the more even-handed approach to women in TMF. In TMF, you've got Brigid, who looks sympathetic for most of the film, with her incessant lying appearing more like a charming eccentricity than the deadly character flaw it eventually turns out to be once her true crimes are exposed. Watching her spar with Spade is fun. They're both enjoying themselves.

Iva, Miles' slutty wife, totally gets away with having *at least* one affair on the side with his partner and whichever guy she was out with the night Miles got killed. I still don't know how that one got past the Hays Code hawks.

And standup, sensible Effie is the partner Miles should have been. With three such different women and three such different character arcs, the actresses have a lot more fun than any actress not named "Barbara Stanwyck" in DI.

In DI, the only woman really in the story is Phyllis (Lola is little more than a cypher) and she gets blamed for Walter's downfall. Just because he balks a little at the beginning doesn't make him any kind of innocent. Remember that he's the one who comes up with the title clause once they start plotting together.

I will say it's filmed beautifully. Stanwyck as Phyllis is a psychopathic tramp and Wilder films the story in such a way that both she and Walter come off as the cheap, shallow, amoral people that they are, but they do so in beautiful black-and-white shadows. So, there's that.

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The Maltese Falcon was a great first (as director) film for Huston, and he did a wonderful job, with a great script and cast. The the film doesn't have quite the same moral and thematic complexity of Billy Wilder (in his second film ((as director)) ), or for that matter, many of Huston's later works.

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