>>5289460>>5289479>>5289490>>5289644>>5289671>>5289776>>5289984>>5290295>>5290333>>You have gained Gully points!Gully’s mouth curls into a teasing grin as you hand her the tickets. “Kubrick and Kurosawa.”
You shrug. “Something, something PUEXO pilots and cerebral films. But I can’t say I’ve seen the <span class="mu-i">Maltese Falcon</span>. What’s it about?”
“That would be spoilers,” she admonishes, guiding the two of you to the sandwich shop. “But I can tell you that it’s based off a novel.”
“I don’t think book club ever got to it.”
“I’ll loan you the novel. It’s sitting on my desk back on the <span class="mu-i">Calypso</span>.”
“Consider it added onto the docket.”
She nods, pleased, then adopts a pensive expression as you queue up in the line. “So have you seen either of the films you picked.”
“Just <span class="mu-i">Strangelove</span>. But I know that <span class="mu-i">Seven Samurai</span> was the inspiration for a lot of Eastwood’s spaghetti cowboy flicks.”
“As well as much of contemporary Western cinema at the time.” Gully looks up towards a sign advertising tuna melts. “But what made you choose <span class="mu-i">Strangelove?</span>”
“After the SNAFU with the OBI, I’m more than in the mood for a film that takes the piss out of them.”
That gets a laugh out of her, a warm, throaty and feminine noise. “Were there actually any spies in that film? There were more soldiers and generals, I think.”
“Spies, government spooks, kooky generals…” You grin. “Same difference, really.”
>>The Maltese Falcon (1941)<span class="mu-i">“We didn’t exactly believe your story, Miss O’Shaughnessy. We believed your $200.”</span>
<span class="mu-i">The Maltese Falcon</span> turns out to be a noir film, right out of that era of whiskey on the rocks, smoke jackets, the Mid-Atlantic accent, and hardboiled detectives taking on cases because of imminent rent. Humphrey Bogart plays Sam Spade, the archetype for the detached private eye, rakish but hellbent on the pursuit of truth and justice. His counterpart is one Mary Astor, playing the role of femme fatale Brigid O’Shaughnessy.
<span class="mu-i">“I tell you right out that I’m a man who talking to a man who likes to talk.”</span>
The titular bird in question is a gem-encrusted sculpture, made of gold and gems and intended as a gift to the King of Spain by the Knights of Malta. Lost to the ages by a pirate attack, it has been the dream of many a treasure hunter. Happenstance that for Spade, it surfaces in San Francisco, where the chase for it claims the life of his partner.
<span class="mu-i">“I couldn’t be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, then it’s possible to get another. There is only one Maltese Falcon.”</span>
(cont.)
