I thought I should write about the man who made The Maltese Falcon, since I just watched it a few days back. In this series, I will write about the few directors who contributed greatly to the art of film noir.
A man of many interests and talents, John Huston, made great contributions to cinema in general and noir art in particular. His stellar career began in 1941 with a film many consider as an all time noir classic, The Maltese Falcon. This movie single handedly established Humphrey Bogart, who was playing second fiddles till then, as a superstar. This classic combination of Huston and Humphrey went on to make many many classics. Some of the more notable ones include Key Largo (1948) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1949).
Huston also made several crime thrillers with other actors. The most notable of which is The Asphalt Jungle (1950), which is again considered as one of the most original heist movies (even inspiring the classic French heist movie Du Riffifi (1955).
Huston won an Oscar for Tresure of Sierra Madre and received 15 Oscar nominations in the course of his career. He also went on to make classics such as The African Queen (1951) and The Man Who Would Be King (1975), the latter remembered fondly today for stellar acting by Michael Cane and Sean Connery.
An avid painter, Huston painted throughout his life and was particularly interested in Cubism and the American school of Synchromism. He died in 1987, having received an Oscar nomination just two years earlier for Prizzi's Honor (1985), the oldest person ever to be nominated for the Best Director award.
If you want to check Huston's work out, start something like this, these are my top five Huston flicks (as of this year):
- The Maltese Falcon
- Key Largo
- Treasure of Sierra Madre
- The Asphalt Jungle
- The African Queen
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