The Maltese Falcon Statuette

The stuff that dreams are made of

Dashiell Hammett, a former Pinkerton detective in San Francisco, published The Maltese Falcon as a serial in the pulp magazine Black Mask in 1929 and 1930 and as a book in 1930. Warner Bros. bought the rights and filmed it twice before the version anyone remembers: a 1931 adaptation and a 1936 comedy remake, Satan Met a Lady.

The third try was John Huston's first film as a director. He planned it shot by shot, filmed it almost entirely in sequence on the Warner backlot between June 9 and July 18, 1941, and brought it in for less than $400,000. George Raft turned down the role of Sam Spade; Humphrey Bogart took it, and the part fixed his screen persona. The film premiered in New York on October 3, 1941.

The bird is the story's prize: a jewel-encrusted falcon supposedly sent by the Knights of Malta to Charles V of Spain in 1539 and lost to pirates. At the climax the statuette everyone has killed for turns out to be a lead fake. Spade hands it over to the police as evidence and calls it "the stuff that dreams are made of," a line borrowed from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Who made the falcon

Studio prop records were lost long ago, and for decades no artist's name was publicly tied to the bird. A Warner memo found in the studio archive says Huston himself was involved in commissioning the statuette and that an artist was paid $75 to make it.

The artist is now generally identified as Fred Sexton, a Los Angeles painter and sculptor born in 1907 who drove a taxi during the 1930s and 1940s, showed his work in local galleries for two decades, moved to Mexico in the 1950s and died there in 1995. His daughter, Michele Fortier, said her father and Huston had been friends since high school, and that as a nine-year-old in 1941 she saw his sketch designs for the falcon on a manila envelope and then his clay model, which was cast in plaster for the film.

Sexton's name surfaced in an unexpected place: a 2003 best-seller by a retired Los Angeles detective, Steve Hodel, who argued that his father had committed the 1947 Black Dahlia murder, and that Sexton had been his accomplice in other killings. The murder theory remains unproven; some find it persuasive and others are skeptical. But the book's passing remark that Huston had Sexton sculpt the falcon sent collectors back to the archives.

From the prop room to a Las Vegas villa

The lead bird that sold in 2013 resurfaced in the 1980s with Gary Milan, a Beverly Hills oral surgeon who had earned some publicity selling a piano from Casablanca. How it left the studio is disputed. Edward Baer, a longtime assistant manager in Warner's property department, claimed through a rival collector that a studio employee quietly sold it to Milan in the mid-1980s for around $70,000; Milan has been guarded about how it came to him. He did obtain a letter from a Warner archivist authenticating it as used in the 1941 film, and he lent it to the studio, which displayed it in its museum for years.

Beginning in 1991 the statuette traveled the world in a Warner Bros. retrospective, with stops at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

On November 25, 2013, it was the top lot of a film memorabilia sale at auction in New York. The auction house described it as one of two known cast lead statuettes made for the film and the only one confirmed by Warner archives as having appeared in it, and declined to give a presale estimate. There was talk it might reach $1 million. A bidder in the room and one on the telephone pushed it past $3 million; when the room bidder dropped out at $3.5 million, the phone bidder won, and with the premium the price came to $4,085,000. The buyer was later revealed to be Steve Wynn, and Vanity Fair reported in 2016 that the bird sat in a meeting room of his Las Vegas villa alongside works by Picasso, Matisse and Giacometti.

How many falcons are there?

The case for the Milan bird rests on Warner archive documents and on damage. One studio memo describes a lead falcon weighing 47 pounds, though it may refer to the bird in Hammett's story rather than the prop. A Warner press release told of the falcon being dropped during filming and bending a tail feather; the auction house said actress Lee Patrick dropped it while handing it to Bogart, while Vanity Fair's account says it landed on Bogart's foot. The Milan bird has a bent right tail feather, and its recessed breast feathers match close-ups in the film.

A second lead falcon appeared in 1994 in the home of the late actor William Conrad, a gift from studio chief Jack Warner in the 1960s. It sold at auction in December 1994 for $398,500, then the highest price paid for a film prop, to the New York jeweler Ronald Winston, who used it as the model for a gold falcon with ruby eyes that was shown at the Academy Awards in 1997.

Then there are the plaster birds. Script supervisor Meta Wilde, who kept props continuity on the film, recalled four falcons on set, three plaster and one metal, and said nobody could have carried a heavy lead one around. Collector Hank Risan owns two six-pound plaster falcons marked "F.S.," which he matched to Sexton's signature; Sexton's daughter signed a letter authenticating one. A 1983 memoir suggested at least six plaster falcons were made. In 2013 Risan offered one at auction in New York with a $1.8 million minimum; it did not sell. A resin falcon stamped with a Warner serial number, found at a New Jersey flea market in 1991 for $8, sold at auction in 2000 for $92,000 and again about ten years later to a group including Leonardo DiCaprio; Risan argues it was made for a 1975 spoof, The Black Bird.

Warner's own people have never settled it. Studio veterans told Vanity Fair they were 99 percent certain the Milan falcon was used in the film, and acknowledged that plaster birds were made too. "It's impossible to prove or disprove any of these theories at this point," one said. "But it is a great mystery story."

The most famous prop in film noir

Variety called the film "one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form" after its September 1941 preview. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Sydney Greenstreet, in his first film at 61, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Huston.

In 1989 it was among the first 25 films chosen for the National Film Registry. The American Film Institute ranked it No. 23 in its 1998 list of the 100 greatest American films, and "The stuff that dreams are made of" came in at No. 14 on its list of movie quotes.

The auction house's specialist called the statuette "arguably the most important movie prop ever." Vanity Fair ranked it with Judy Garland's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and the Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane, which premiered the same year, as the most iconic objects in Hollywood memorabilia.

The numbers

Release

October 3, 1941 (New York premiere)

Filming

June 9 to July 18, 1941, with later reshoots

Budget

Under $400,000

Academy Award nominations

3: Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Sydney Greenstreet), Adapted Screenplay (John Huston)

AFI 100 Years...100 Movies (1998)

No. 23

AFI movie quotes rank

No. 14, "The stuff that dreams are made of"

Timeline

1. 1930

   Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon is published in book form after running in Black Mask.

2. 1931

   Warner Bros. releases its first film version of the novel.

3. 1936

   Warner remakes the story as the comedy Satan Met a Lady.

4. Jun 9, 1941

   Principal photography begins on John Huston's version on the Warner backlot; it wraps July 18.

5. Oct 3, 1941

   The Maltese Falcon premieres in New York.

6. 1989

   The film is among the first 25 named to the National Film Registry.

7. 1991

   The Milan falcon begins touring in a Warner Bros. retrospective, including the Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art.

8. Sep 1991

   Script supervisor Meta Wilde examines one of Hank Risan's plaster falcons and says it matches the birds used on set.

9. Dec 1994

   The William Conrad lead falcon sells at auction for $398,500, then a record for a film prop.

10. 2013

    One of Hank Risan's plaster falcons fails to sell at auction in New York against a $1.8 million minimum.

11. Aug 2013

    Fred Sexton's daughter, Michele Fortier, identifies the "F.S." on a Risan falcon as her father's mark.

12. Nov 25, 2013

    The Milan lead falcon sells at auction in New York for $4,085,000 to a phone bidder later revealed as Steve Wynn.

13. Feb 2016

    Vanity Fair publishes Bryan Burrough's investigation of the competing falcons.

The world in 1941

• Mar 11, 1941

  Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.

• May 1, 1941

  Orson Welles's Citizen Kane premieres in New York.

• May 15, 1941

  Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak begins.

• Jun 22, 1941

  Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.

• Aug 1, 1941

  The first Willys MB Army Jeep is produced.

• Dec 7, 1941

  Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Maltese Falcon Statuette is number 22 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (19 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The auction house declined to publish an estimate for the lead falcon. It sold for $4,085,000.
• A studio memo says an artist was paid $75 to make the falcon.
• Collector Hank Risan bought a still life on a hunch and found its "F. Sexton" signature matched a mysterious mark on his falcons that he had read as "7.5."
• A resin falcon bought for $8 at a New Jersey flea market in 1991 later sold for $92,000.
• Sydney Greenstreet was 61 and had never been in a film when he was cast as Kasper Gutman. He was nominated for an Oscar.
• Jeweler Ronald Winston used the Conrad falcon as the model for a gold version with ruby eyes and a 42-carat diamond hanging from its beak.