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The Real Maltese Falcon, Did it Ever Exist?

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Chastity
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« on: July 01, 2013, 06:56:49 am »

Where is the Real Maltese Falcon?




[first title card - 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941)]
Title Card: In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels ~~~~~ but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day ~~~



ahhhh..  No they didn't.  Because there was no golden falcon, bejewelled or otherwise.  You see 'The Maltese Falcon' by Dashiell Hammett is what we call "a story". It's based on some sort of reality though, except apparently the tribute was in the form of a live bird, payable annually, basically in lieu of rent for the islands of Malta.  This is considerably cheaper than the rent now being paid for pokey apartments in Gzira, even allowing for inflation.




Kasper Gutman: I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.



Bogart gets his hands on a bird
Except there isn't.  The movie is real though.  And indeed it is one of the all-time great movies featuring a nationality adjective in the title, sitting proudly alongside 'The Italian Job' and 'The French Connection'.  In my view, it's one of the all-time great movies full stop, so I reckon you're better off introducing a friend to the joys of Sam Spade and company than lumbering them with an imitation of a fictional item.

But if you insist, then I'll tell you where you can get a bird...

Sam Spade: If you kill me, how are you gonna get the bird? And if I know you can't afford to kill me, how are you gonna scare me into giving it to you?

...I'll still tell you where to get one.   Funnily enough they're not as widely available as you may suppose, but there is a shop called 'The Maltese Falcon' in Mdina, so pop yourself along there if you insist.  But watch the movie either way.


http://www.howtomalta.com/2012/01/where-is-real-maltese-falcon.html
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Chastity
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« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2013, 06:58:52 am »

The Maltese Falcon

Ch. 2:  Maltese Falcon
San Francisco, California




Our Story:

In the 1990’s an original Maltese Falcon from the movie was reportedly sold for more than 1 million dollars.  There were only 2 known to exist.  It has been uncovered that there may have been a third Maltese Falcon.  This one may have been the real one containing real jewels.  Friends and family may not be trusted in the search for what seemed to be only a movie prop.

The Real Story Behind The Maltese Falcon

The 1941 Oscar-nominated film starring Humphrey Bogart was an instant critical and commercial success, and it has become a Hollywood classic. In bringing author Dashiell Hammett’s mystery to the screen, however, director John Huston inadvertently created a real mystery: several lead and resin falcon props were created for the film after Bogart accidentally dropped and dented the original, but no one is sure exactly how many were made. Hammett reportedly based his fictional Falcon on a late 17th-century ceremonial pouring vase in the form of a hawk made for Count George William von Kniphausen; this piece, which still can be seen at Chatsworth House in Devonshire, England, was encrusted with emeralds, amethysts, sapphires and garnets, but it bears little resemblance to the iconic statuette of the film.

The whereabouts of only four of the original Falcon props are now known: two lead ones, weighing nearly 50 pounds apiece, and either one or two much lighter resin ones, which were more likely to have been used in scenes where the Falcon was carried around. One of the two lead props was sold at auction to a private collector in 1994 for just under $400,000, setting the record price for a piece of movie memorabilia, and both lead Falcons are now valued at roughly $2 million apiece ? ironically, the same dollar value attributed to the fictional Falcon in the film. A media producer claims to have re-discovered one of the resin props in 1991, but the piece has been dogged by skepticism and is still up for auction.

One problem for would-be Falcon hunters is the wide availability of convincing replicas, and even those are highly sought-after: in 2007, one such item was stolen from a display case at John’s Grill in San Francisco, a Sam Spade haunt mentioned in the novel, and was never recovered. The authentic lead Falcon auctioned in 1994 became the model for the most expensive replica ever produced, a 10-pound solid-gold falcon with Burmese ruby eyes, valued at over $8 million, which was displayed during the 69th Academy Awards in 1997.

https://www.greathunt.com/TheBook/ChapterSummaries/TheMalteseFalcon.html
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Chastity
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« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2013, 07:01:13 am »



True Story of the Maltese Falcon

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True Story of the Maltese Falcon

By Patrick Fletcher Posted on History

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Two days after returning from a trip to the island nation of Malta, I rushed out and rented a 1941 black-and-white classic from my neighborhood video store. I couldn't wait to feed the cassette into the VCR. As the vintage movie unfolded, Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) encountered a beautiful and cunning femme fatale and a motley crew of bad guys who all lusted for the same legendary figurine, a gem-encrusted golden bird of prey known as "The Maltese Falcon." According to the old film someone stole the priceless objet d'art from a treasure galleon off the coast of Spain in 1539. For 400 years the idol-like creature left a messy trail of death and destruction in its wake as one greedy thief after another wrestled the plunder into his possession, then lost it.

Dashiell Hammett, the author of the detective novel upon which the famous motion picture was based, spun a great tale. In reality no precious, jewel-covered winged figure ever existed. However, the Maltese falcon is not a figment of a novelist's imagination. Such an creature actually did exist and it played an important role in the history of the Mediterranean.

Location, Location, Location

The Maltese archipelago lies in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and northern Africa. The chain is situated about 60 miles south of Sicily and 180 miles east of Tunisia, and it straddles the 36th parallel. The tiny nation is composed of three inhabited islands (Malta, Gozo and Comino) and three islets, or big rocks (Cominotto, Filfla and St. Paul's Island). In satellite images the fragments of land look like crumbs that have fallen off their huge Sicilian neighbor.

Many cultures have coveted the small chain of islands. Due to their strategic location, Malta and her two small sisters, have been the targets of a long succession of invaders and conquerors, including Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, French, Arabs and Turks. To this list of intruders add hordes of pirates of various nationalities and boatloads of British colonials. And St. Paul, who survived a shipwreck on the rocks in 60 A.D. and converted the entire population to Christianity. Each of these gate-crashers contributed an ingredient to the rich cultural stew that is the modern-day Republic of Malta.




Powerful Crusaders

Indisputably the most potent influence upon the Maltese crossroads was exerted by a group of crusading, hospital-building, multinational aristocrats known as the Knights of Malta. The story of this monastic community, originally called "The Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem," begins long before its reign in Malta. The religious fraternity was founded in 1099 before the taking of Jerusalem by the armies of the First Crusade.

Only sons chosen from noble European families of were offered membership in the exclusive club. As a result of the vast wealth the rich scions brought with them (and later from extensive privateering), the group possessed plenty of resources and lots of prestige.

The wealthy brothers' first order of business was to build and administer a hospital for pilgrims in the Holy Land. Later the hospitalers felt obliged to become a military unit. They were needed to defend crusader territory and to protect pilgrims from bandits and gangs of marauding infidels. During this period the brotherhood acquired the status of knighthood.

When the Turks ejected the Knights from their headquarters in Rhodes in 1522, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, gave his military men the choice of Malta or Tripoli as a new home base. The Knights didn't like either choice, but they figured no place could be less hospitable than hot dry Tripoli – they opted for Malta.




The Knights' Rule

In 1530 Charles deeded the Maltese islands to the grand masters in return for a symbolic annual rent of one live bird, a Maltese falcon, which was to be presented yearly to the emperor's viceroy in Sicily. The tribute represented the role the Knights played for Christendom – they served as protective "birds of prey" for the empire.

The religious warriors ruled the Maltese archipelago for 268 years and, in the process, they transformed the small island country. Evidence of the industrious Knights' occupation can be seen everywhere, but most noticeably in the gorgeously carved and faceted architecture of the islands' cities, towns and villages.

Massive stone-walled citadels and battlements, impressive turreted basilicas, and charming, narrow-laned hamlets crown Malta's many hills. Most were built in the 16th century by these authentic knights in shining armor. Multitudes of Maltese crosses, the eight-pointed emblem of the order, were chiseled into golden limestone surfaces, putting the Knights' stamp on the place for all time.

Opulent Palaces

Although the Knights took vows of chastity, obedience and poverty, they became slackers over the years. The grand masters lived in princely luxury in castle-like headquarters called auberges. These luxurious palaces were segregated into eight nationalities (Provence, Auvergne, Aragon, Castille, Leon, Italy, Germany, and England) and were designed and decorated to reflect the homeland culture of the Knights who lived there. No English duke or French viscount lived in more a more splendid style than a grand master of Malta.

The imposing, historically-significant residences still dominate the cityscape of Valetta, although now they function as government buildings. For example, the Auberge de Castille et Leon is now the prime minister's residence and the National Museum of Archeology is housed in what was once the Auberge de Provence.




The Grandest Master of Them All

The most famous Grand Master was Jean de La Vallette, who is credited with building the imposing fortress city of Valetta. The reinforced capital was constructed in a hurry after the original fortifications just barely fended off an onslaught in 1551 by the minions of the Turkish sultan (and the Knights' archenemy) Suleiman the Magnificent. The mighty limestone bastions jut out into the sapphire water of Grand Harbor like the prows of colossal ships and no one can look upon them without conjuring up images from children's picture books, of heated battles between scimitar-wielding, turbaned infidels and mace-bearing knights clad in mail.

No record exists that supports the notion that the wealthy Knights showed off in 1539 by having a jeweled bird fashioned from solid gold, which they sent to the emperor's representative in a treasure galleon, although Dashiell Hammett's fabrication certainly thickened the plot of his thriller. In reality, the Maltese falcon was a living bird of prey which symbolized the power and prowess of the strong military arm of the Holy Roman Empire, the Knights of Malta. The true story of Maltese falcon stimulates the imagination, too.


http://www.theculturedtraveler.com/Archives/Nov2002/Maltese.htm
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Chastity
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« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2013, 07:02:13 am »

Maltese Falcon disappears in a real-life mystery
A thief takes a replica of the movie prop from a San Francisco eatery where Sam Spade, and his creator, dined.
February 14, 2007|John M. Glionna | Times Staff Writer

           
           
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SAN FRANCISCO — Call in the coppers, get Sam Spade on the case: The Maltese Falcon's gone again.

In a missing-bird caper reminiscent of the one that perplexed Dashiell Hammett's fictional sleuth, the owner of a landmark restaurant here is offering 25 Gs ($25,000) for a replica of the famed Maltese Falcon swiped from a locked display case over the weekend.
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John Konstin, the owner of John's Grill, a nearly 100-year-old restaurant with a museum dedicated to the crime novelist, said the purloined plaster statuette and 15 rare books by and about Hammett that were also stolen are emotionally priceless.

"The statue had historical significance to this restaurant and to the city," said Konstin, as he sat in a dining room framed by movie stills and Hammett mementos. "People came from all over the world to see that bird. And we want it back."

Hammett used to frequent John's -- and the falcon has been housed since 1995 in a wooden display case just upstairs from booth 21, where, as the story goes, he wrote parts of the 1930 novel that introduced readers to Spade, the womanizing, sly-talking gumshoe.

"He came here a lot, he drank a lot, hung out a lot," Konstin said of Hammett, who died in 1961. "Sam Spade ate here as well. One scene was set at the restaurant."

In "The Maltese Falcon," a missing statuette that has been stolen again and again over the centuries leads Spade on a trail of murder, intrigue and a dame named Brigid O'Shaughnessy.

During the shoot of the 1941 film version starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston, plastic replicas were made after Bogart complained about the weight of the two original lead statues, 50 pounds apiece. One of the plastic models is at the Library of Congress. Other copies, made of plaster, are available at gift stores, for about $60 apiece.

In December 1994, Konstin bid $150,000 at an auction in New York for one of the two original statues, which sold for $398,500 -- then one of the highest prices paid for a movie prop.

The following year, Elisha Cook Jr., at the time the last surviving actor in the film, gave Konstin an autographed Maltese Falcon replica.

In the last decade, the statue has been ogled by tour groups as well as college and high school literature classes. The restaurant was for years the headquarters of the Dashiell Hammett Society of San Francisco.

Konstin noticed Saturday that the statuette and books were missing.

"I thought it was a prank, that the person who took them would just put them back," he said. "I'm angry. There are so many other things they could have stolen, like vintage wines, instead of vintage books and that statue. They would have enjoyed them more."
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He called the police Monday. And he called Julie Rivett, Hammett's granddaughter, a regular at the eatery, which opened in 1908.

"The whole thing is just a rotten shame," said Rivett, who lives in Orange County. "Those pieces were placed there in honor of "The Maltese Falcon" and my grandfather. A theft of this sort makes me wish we had a sleuth of Sam Spade's caliber to track down the crooks."

But Spade isn't available. So Konstin called private investigator Jack Immendorf.

"I was the next best thing," said Immendorf, who had partnered with Konstin in the unsuccessful effort to buy the falcon original.

The veteran detective says he already has some leads.

"Whoever took the falcon knew exactly what they were doing," he said. "They went for the statue and everything else in that case. They didn't go in for the silverware or cash register. That leads me to believe that someone wanted that bird bad."

Authorities are looking at a related case, but would not say whether the other theft involved a Hammett icon or Hollywood memorabilia, Immendorf said.

"The plot thickens; this is a real mystery," he added.

In the book, the falcon was a jewel-encrusted gold statuette, covered in black enamel to hide its value.

"It was enormously expensive, worth a king's ransom," Immendorf said. "In the last scene of the film, Bogart holds a copycat version of the sought-after statuette in his arms and says, 'The stuff that dreams are made of.' That's how John felt about his statue."

Konstin agreed. "People like to own prized artifacts," he said of his plaster falcon. "I look at it like a Picasso painting."

Hammett's novel was published on Valentine's Day.

"Maybe that has something to do with the thief's timing," Konstin said. "Maybe they didn't do their homework and thought they got one of the original statues."

Since the theft, Konstin has heard from Hammett fans who have offered him replacement copies of the stolen books and bird. Some have offered to sit by their computers and keep an eye on EBay in case the thief tries to auction off the statue.

Konstin said that in recent years the original falcons, both privately owned, have been briefly on display in his restaurant. "We had them under armed guard," he said. "After hours, one went to a bank vault, the other to the safe at a local police station.

"I've learned my lesson. If I get my bird back, I'm going buy a new case and a brand new lock."

*

john.glionna@latimes.com


http://articles.latimes.com/2007/feb/14/local/me-falcon14
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"Man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity." - Ecclesiastes 3:19-20
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