# "Maltese Falcon" alert: 1931 version on TCM **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791 "2002-12-10T17:24:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/1 "2002-12-10T17:24:19Z")
For the five or six of you out there with access to TCM, they will be showing the original version of the Maltese Falcon: [Dangerous Female](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0022111) (1931), starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. It’s pretty awful (despite the wonderful Bebe, Una Merkel, Thelma Todd and Dwight Frye), but interesting for fans of the later version. It’s on midnight (check local times) Wed/Thursday. Dec. 11/12. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/2 "2002-12-10T17:28:22Z")
Dwight Frye always struck me as the David Spade of his generation. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/3 "2002-12-10T17:33:09Z")
How dare you! Dwight was a _genius!_ [. . . Unless that’s what you _meant . . ._] ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/4 "2002-12-10T17:47:03Z")
_Eve_, I have to respectfully disagree that it was an “awful” movie. IIRC, some of the scenes were very similar in the 1941 version, so apparently John Huston thought a lot of it. Now, the intermediate version, **Satan Met a Lady** , I’ll agree was not too good, despite the presence of Bette Davis and Arthur Treacher. (To this day, I always thing of Treacher as being Merv Griffin’s second fiddle, with his inimitable announcement, “Here’s Muuuuuuuuuurrrrvvvvvvvvv.” ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/5 "2002-12-10T17:50:12Z")
Well, alright, it has been a long time since I’ve seen it, so I will withdraw the “awful” till I’ve re-viewed it. And with that cast, how bad could it be? I mean, Una Merkel _and_ Thelma Todd in the same movie?! ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/6 "2002-12-10T18:17:57Z")
I meant that he gives me the creeps. Of course, in the films I’ve seen with Frye he was SUPPOSED to be creepy. David Spade is just flat out creepy whatever the context. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/7 "2002-12-10T18:23:06Z")
Arrrggghhh…quit callously brandishing your TCM access in my face, willya? [sub]%#&@$#\*&%! Brooklyn-Queens Cable…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/8 "2002-12-10T21:15:44Z")
When Time-Warner is your cable provider, it’s not too hard to get TCM. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/9 "2002-12-11T03:50:26Z")
Thanks, Eve. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/10 "2002-12-11T03:54:18Z")
::Jots down reminder to set up VCR for Wednesday night:: And not only that, but Thursday night TCM is showing an Alec Guinness festival: _The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, The Ladykillers_ and _All at Sea_. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/11 "2002-12-11T05:57:30Z")
The Huston/Bogart version is the only one I’ve seen. I’ve always thought Mary Astor was terrible in it. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/12 "2002-12-11T15:39:55Z")
I remember reading a newspaper article about “stock devices” in movies. One of them was “In any bag of groceries, there will be a loaf of French bread.” I think this is one of the first movies to use that device (that or the 1936 version). Although, given the time, it might not have actually been French bread, just a generic loaf that had not yet been sliced. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/13 "2002-12-11T15:56:43Z")
Maybe it was celery, and Bebe Daniels’ [panties](http://lileks.com/institute/frahm/index.html) will fall off? ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/14 "2002-12-11T16:13:50Z")
Mary Astor terrible in TMF? She’s perfect. Stirring the coals and straightening things one minute, kicking Joel Cairo in the shins the next. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/15 "2002-12-11T18:09:11Z")
I started getting TCM when I upgraded my cable. I love to catch the really old flicks on Saturday morning (really early). I saw that hideous old John Wayne (as a Singing Cowboy) and about died laughing. TCM is where it’s at for the oldies. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/16 "2002-12-11T19:20:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mjollnir \* > \*\*_Eve_, I have to respectfully disagree that it was an “awful” movie. IIRC, some of the scenes were very similar in the 1941 version, so apparently John Huston thought a lot of it. > \*\* Did Huston even see it? IIRC, he wrote the script directly from the novel. Since they were both based on the same source, it’s not surprising that they had similar scenes. I’ll have to see about taping it. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maltese-falcon-alert-1931-version-on-tcm/141791/17 "2002-12-11T21:48:01Z")
Just one last reminder to set your VCRs!