Also called Dangerous Female
dir. Roy Del Ruth; writ. Maude Fulton, Brown Holmes, Lucien Hubbard; featuring Ricardo Cortez, Bebe Daniels, Thelma Todd
dir. William Dieterle; writ. Brown Holmes; featuring Warren William, Bette Davis, Arthur Treacher
dir./writ. John Huston; featuring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet
The Black Bird
dir./writ. David Giler; featuring George Segal
In 1975 a silly sequel was produced under the title The Black Bird.
George Segal
plays Sam Spade's son who inherits the San Francisco detective agency as
well as the Maltese falcon—which you may recall from the
previous movie was discovered to be a knock-off. However, Spade
the Younger eventually learns it may not be fake after all.
A fat man (the fat man) is found dead in the building, leading to all kinds of complicated and somewhat screwball plot twists, as once again everyone is chasing an elusive prize.
Lee Patrick who was Spade's tart-tongue secretary Effie in 1941 reprises her role to good effect thirty-four years later. Elisha Cook Jr. is also back as the gunsel, uh, slightly older to say the least.
The film was derided by fans of Hammett, Bogart and Huston as a sacrilege, but it's clever enough for quite a few chuckles. Come on, folks, lighten up—it's a parody. A parody that some less jaded viewers manage to find hilarious.
If they can find it at all. For some reason, The Black Bird appears to be unavailable on DVD. You might find it on tape or showing up on cable TV.
Somthing tells me not to expect any more Maltese Falcon sequels after this.
— Eric
