Raft read the screenplay two days after Huston finished it. Raft disliked it and rejected it. He told Jack L. Warner that The Maltese Falcon was not an important picture and that he would not perform in anything but important pictures (Richardson 37). This statement wasn't completely unwarranted. Huston was an untested director and two other film versions of The Maltese Falcon had already bombed twice at the box office. Raft also had a bad experience when he played a part in The Glass Key, which was another film based on a novel by Hammett.

Incidentally, there is a funny story about how Warner Bros. obtained the rights for The Maltese Falcon from the thirty-six-year-old Dashiell Hammett. Jacob Wilk's son, ten-year-old Max Wilk, liked to

Precision, planning and a thrifty budget were the most vital matters of the Studio's concern. The Maltese Falcon was modestly budgeted at $381,000 and was shot in less than six weeks (Luhr 3). The crew strove to meet deadlines. With this in mind it was only logical that they would eliminate experimentation. Huston shot the script in sequence, instead of following the money-saving method of filming batches of unrelated scenes. Huston's approach to designing a motion picture in advance was also new to Hollywood. Warner publicly went on to boast how the production had "real rooms an offices with real ceilings" (Sperber and Lax 154). This was a departure from catwalks and blazing lights overhead.

Production began on Monday, June 9, in the interior of Spade's office. The Maltese Falcon was shot in the studio. At Warner Bros., sets were built on a variety of different stages. Spade's apartment, Brigid O'Shaughnessy's apartment and the corridors leading up to them were on Stage #3. The busy lobby of the Belvedere Hotel where Spade blows smoke into Wilmer's face was assembled on Stage #18. Gutman's posh suite at the Alexandria Hotel and the District Attorney's Office were constructed on Stage #19. The apartment complex on Geary Street was located on Stage #2. A special New York City set was used as the San Francisco bus terminal and the Union Square Theatre. The exterior to Spade's apartment was shot on Warner Bros.' Brownstone Street set. The ship called La Paloma was shot with controlled fires in the backlot (Richardson 47). None of the scenes in the film were shot in San Francisco where the story takes place. The number of sets built for the film was below the average of between twenty and thirty.

The truth is that Warners had not really expected Raft to take the part. They only offered the part to Raft for leverage. Jack Warner and Hal Wallis wanted a card to play in pending inter studio negotiations. Warners wanted Henry Fonda for a part in The Male Animal. Fonda worked for Fox. Fox wanted Raft. As a reward for his writing ability easy cooperation, Huston was given an opportunity to direct. Raft had made his dislike of Huston apparent during High Sierra. Raft was also not Huston's first choice. He wanted Bogart to play the role of Sam Spade. So when Raft officially did not except the role on June 3rd, Huston rejoiced (Sperber and Lax 150-151).

Nothing extra went into The Maltese Falcon. It was a bare bones operation, so to speak, all the way. It cost no more than the first version ten years before. Film noirs often lack the lavishness of other genres and the studios viewed extravagance as diminishing an element of realism in the final product. Warner Bros. employed a producer-unit system with much attention to cost-efficiency production (Richardson 42). Studio professionals and workers simply tried to produce good, routine movie.

One of Huston's first goa

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Approximate Word count = 1969
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