The lady (Mary Astor) has a job for hard-boiled detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart). Something about a missing sister. Her story smells funny, but her money talks. Soon, things go foul and Spade finds himself caught up with a gang of seedy characters chasing an invaluable statue shaped like a bird of prey. Beyond its heaps of bona fides-John Huston's directorial debut, a star-maker for Bogie, debatably the first film noir-The Maltese Falcon remains a cracking good yarn brimming with tough talk, dangerous dames, and twisting intrigues.