Conclusion

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) has introduces elements that later became hallmarks of film noir —the amoral male protagonist, the femme fatale, and the dark and disturbed urban setting where the story unfolds.

When comes to film noir, the struggle between the male protagonist and the femme fatale is central element of the whole film. According to Susan Hayward (2012, p.150) woman is the central to the intrigue, that makes her the object of male’s investigation. This is because the woman or femme fatale always uses her ability to express herself sexually and willingly in order to get control over the male protagonist, to get freedom, money, and power. However, the femme fatale that uses sex as a tool to catch the male protagonist and the camera attention has to end up with a final punishment, which is been defeated and captured at the end. This arrangement is used to restore the order at the end and resolve the conflict in the film.

In the end, film noir is about which voices is going to dominate the story telling, and get control over the femme fatale (Gledhill, 1980, p.17). Normally it is the male voice that completes the investigation. However, guilt is not easily ascribed to just one character. For instance in The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), all the bad guys who violate the order are sent over to prison, while the male protagonist has gain the victory and remain unhurt in the end.

Sam Spade suits with the image of the male protagonist as he is not bound by conventional rules of morality. He does not allow his love and obsessions towards Brigid O'Shaunessy to destroy him, and he sends her to the police at the end. The kind of closure that shows the independent femme fatale has been contained is meant to conceal her economic and sexual independence.

Although film noir is not considered as a genre but it is an important development of film movement that is created through tone and mood of the film. Indeed, film noir can be considered as one of the most influential period in Hollywood cinema, in which the influences have been existed until today.