Movies You Probably Didn’t Know Were Remakes, in Honor of ‘Evil Dead’

Movie #5 – The Maltese Flacon

Year – 1941

When people speak of tough-guy detective movies this is the one you think of…even if you’ve never seen it. It’s the film that invented film noir and has been parodied more times than can be calculated. Humphrey Bogart stars as Sam Spade, a private dick (quit giggling) who’s been hired (by a sexy dame of course) to solve a case more complex than the U.S. Tax Code.

But not only was this classic film a remake…it wasn’t even the first one.

The original film came out in 1931. Warner Brothers was looking to re-release the film in 1936. However, in the interim, the Motion Picture Production Code had begun to be enforced and the picture was deemed to risqué. There is scene of a leaving Sam Spade’s office and stopping to straighten her stocking. Honest to God…her stocking! I hope there aren’t any children reading this.

Of course, the implication was that our hero had just shown some dame the business end of his “Maltese falcon” and this, combined with Spade being strip-searched and the presence of a homosexual character, meant the film would now corrupt our youth. Well, “their” youth. It would have been “our” grandparents.

So they were forced to remake the film. But this time out it starred a young up-and-comer by the name of Bette Davis and was given a lighthearted tone. The script was so bad that Davis boycotted the beginning of production only yielding when she ran out of money to help her ailing mother.

Next: Heat

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6