John Huston lifted most of his dialogue for "The Maltese Falcon" directly from Hammett's novel. Stealing the dialogue isn't necessarily a bad thing when the words are good to begin with. ("Oh, how we cozzened them!") I don't know how closely the dialogue sticks to Stevenson's original story but it works very well, partly because the actors are so competent. And his scripts are - how can one put this without sounding snotty? - "literate". But it's not just historical accuracy that makes Lewton's RKO pictures so appealing. In a less thoughtful movie the deserted basement would have a couple of lanterns already lighted, or the set would be brightly lighted with no visible lanterns at all. At night, for instance, in order to see something in a dark basement, the doctor calls out for someone to bring a candle. And Lewton saw to it that "reality" was evoked by small items from the prop department and small incidents on screen. The songs we hear are contemporary Scottish folk songs and the wardrobe as close to the real thing as they could get.
Robert Wise was his director here but the credit goes mainly to producer Lewton, the Russian master of Who Torok. It's like painting a masterpiece on the head of a pin.
One can't help admiring Val Lewton and his crew at RKO, working on tiny budgets, but producing miniature gems. There is horror galore but served up with frisson. You don't really want to miss this one unless you've been weaned on Arnold Schwarzenegger action movies or Nightmare on Elm Street, Part Twenty, the PreSequal.
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