Wikipedia Trail: From " The Maltese Falcon" to "Film Noir"

Given that for my reading project I chose "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett, it felt only right to make that the start of my Wiki Trail. The book is classified as a detective novel and was written in 1930. It takes place in 1928 San Francisco with the main character being private detective Sam "Spade." It is told in an entirely external third-person point of view. I skipped plot to not spoil the reading for myself. I learned also that there has been four films based off of the book as well as a play.

For my next link I chose "The Maltese Falcon (1941 Film)". It starred Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor and is considered a film noir. Variety called it "one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form" and Bosley Crowther said it was "the best thriller of the year". It also received 3 nominations for the 14th Academy Awards and has been selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in the US National Film Registry.

Next, I chose film noir. It is a cinematic term describing crime dramas, primarily Hollywood Crime Dramas. They usually emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivation. It translates as "black film" or "dark film" but also has been argued if it can be considered an actual genre as there is no basis for genre designation.

Finally, I chose "sexual motivation" which took me to sexual desire. It is an interest in sexual objects or activities that is a drive to act out. Its interesting to think that this is what "The Maltese Falcon" is characterized to be, as in a previous analysis i even said that it seems that Sam Spade is driven to act by Brigid's sexual nature. The objectification of women may be something i will see in the novel, either negatively from men, or even as a defense mechanism or tool that women use for themselves in the book.

I think it's great that I chose this topic to learn about. That way I can have some preliminary background information before starting to read the book. I may also watch the film as a supplement to it. I tried to avoid plot, however, some spoilers made it into some of the other sections, so its interesting to see where the book goes and how Spade handles the situations that will arise. I'm also interested to see how sexual motivation is enacted in the novel.