MALTESE FALCON, THE (1931) Photo

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Vintage original 10 x 8″ (256 x 20 cm.) single weight silver gelatin print still photo, USA. Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel, Thelma Todd, Walter Long, Dwight Frye, dir: Roy Del Ruth; Warner Brothers. The superb, original, no holds barred, Pre-Code version of Dashiell Hammett’s notorious mystery suspense crime novel. The 1941 post-Code John Huston remake is a superb classic with the true nature of the characters shrouded in dark psychology, but in this version, it is all out in the open. The characters are amoral and they make no apology.

Bebe Daniels plays the dangerous dame Ruth Wonderly and she plays the sexuality blatantly, as well as nearly in the nude several times. When she was wearing a costume, it was little more than this negligee she wears in bed, a gun at her side. Daniels was one of the most versatile of early film actresses, starting as a child in 1910, enjoying a prolific film career until 1940 and a radio/TV career thereafter.

Typed at the top of the verso is information for the May 28th showing at the Winter Garden. Still is MF-28. There is a tiny chip near the top left border edge, rounding at the top right corner, a tiny border tear near the bottom left corner and a scratch in the white border near the bottom right corner. Fun, provocative image with a pointed gun, something which post-Code stills were not permitted to show. NEAR FINE.

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