Smoke-filled offices, shadowy figures, femmes fatales – these are the stuff detective movies are made of. The detective thriller hit its heyday in the 30s and 40s with classics like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon, both starring legendary actor Humphrey Bogart. Later revisionist filmmakers of the 60s and 70s reworked the old formula, bringing relativist morals and antihero characters to the fore. In any case, detective films usually feature tough, uncompromising heroes, larger-than-life villains, dangerous dames, and gritty, urban backdrops. Presented here are two of the most famous detective films, one of which made it into the top 25 of the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Movies list.

Chinatown (1974)
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

>> “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” Those famous final lines sum up the confusing 1930s wasteland that the hero of Roman Polanski’s film cannot understand. Polanski, one of the hottest upstart directors of the 1960s, effortlessly reenergizes the detective genre with existential amorality and multiple plot twists. Jack Nicholson, young enough to not be playing a caricature of himself, is the Sam Spade-esque J.J. Gittes, private eye. In walks the glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway), who believes her husband, a wealthy water engineer, is having an affair. Gittes takes the case and inevitably falls into a web of deception and double-crossing, beginning with the murder of Mulwray. Polanski stocks this gem full of great symbolism and foreshadowing, making Los Angeles’ Chinatown a place of uncertainty and dread for Gittes. The film also benefits from a strong performance from John Huston (the director of The Maltese Falcon) as a depraved utilities magnate. With a controversial ending that’s nonetheless one of the best I’ve ever seen, Chinatown is a detective movie for the ages, outdoing even the established classics of the 30s and 40s.

Great scene: While snooping around a water main, Gittes runs afoul of hired hoods, including a jittery little maniac (Polanski, in a great cameo) who slices his nostril as a warning. For the rest of the film, Gittes sports a bulging bandage and a nasty scar as a symbol of the nosy snooping that goes along with his profession.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Directed by: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre

>> What better place to start with the detective genre than The Maltese Falcon, one of the greatest movies of all time and the directorial debut of film legend John Huston? Adapted from the Dashiell Hammett novel, The Maltese Falcon tells the story of hard-boiled detective Sam Spade (Bogart, in his first protagonist role). When his partner is gunned down after accepting the case of the lovely Miss Wonderly (Astor), Spade investigates the matter further, stumbling into an intriguing plot involving a weasely foreigner (Lorre), a rotund, erudite thief (Sydney Greenstreet), and the object of their obsession: a foot-high, priceless falcon statuette. Despite its 40s corniness and toned down dialogue (“Shove off!”), The Maltese Falcon is a surprisingly amoral film about a man who abides by a personal code of honor above the law. Bogart is ruthless but captivating as the smooth-talking Spade, spouting out lines with his trademark clenched-teeth sneer. A great place to start for those looking for the origins of the detective thriller.

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