thinking about the fact that The Maltese Falcon is directly responsible for the American public and subsequent noir media unknowingly describing all gunmen as twinks
For context: The Maltese Falcon was originally published in 1930. It’s pretty obvious that the villain’s henchmen are gay in the most homophobic way Dashiell Hammett could manage, and he uses the then-current slang “gunsel” several times to describe one of them. His publisher and every other writer in the genre assumed that the word referred to the henchman’s guns. It definitely did… not. But it got picked up so for a couple of decades you’d just see fictional private detectives constantly getting menaced by gun-toting murder twinks because they’d use it interchangeably with “gunman” or “hit man.”
The Maltese Falcon premiered in New York City on 3 October 1941.
It was the directorial debut of 35-year-old John Huston (who also wrote the adapted screenplay) in the 3rd film version of Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 novel. George Raft was reportedly the first choice for Sam Spade, but turned down the project because he didn’t want to work with a first-time director. Bogart’s performance made him a star, and provided the definitive depiction of a film noir detective.
The Maltese Falcon earned 3 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture (given to How Green Was My Valley), Best Supporting Actor (Sydney Greenstreet lost to Donald Crisp in How Green Was My Valley), and John Huston for Best Adapted Screenplay (awarded to Here Comes Mr. Jordan).
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