The Maltese Falcon, a novel, was conceived and written by Dashiell Hammett. John Huston adhered closely to the original work when he wrote the screenplay for the film. He stayed true to its structure, chronology of events, characters, dialogue, and settings. On May 22, 1941, Hal B. Wallis, an executive producer at Warner Bros., sent the chief casting executive a memo. The memo pretty much instructed him to send Huston’s screenplay to actor George Raft as …showed first 75 words of 1850 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1850 total…script had bombed. Aside from all these facts, The Maltese Falcon went on to be a major success. It yielded a young cast and a praised first time director. It also helped to boost Humphrey Bogart to his superstar status. The film got well reviews but didn’t win any awards. The director and cast went out to do well. Today The Maltese Falcon is know as one of the best example of film noir.