Huston was just a lowly company screenwriter when he went into production on The Maltese Falcon, the film that would be his directorial debut. He’d been working for Warner Brothers, shelling out the likes of Jezebel (1938) and High Sierra (1941) before earning enough leverage to negotiate a director’s gig into his contract. Warner’s figured he’d earned that, but they weren’t too pleased with his choice of picture – based on a classic novel by respected writer Dashiell Hammett, Falcon had already been adapted for the silver screen twice, and had produced less than stellar results.
Huston was adamant, arguing that the previous renditions lapsed in their understanding of what Hammett’s novel was, and how it should be made. The studio begrudgingly supported him, but they wanted George Raft to play Sam Spade, the archetypical hard-boiled detective and the star of Falcon’s show. Huston didn’t want Raft. He wanted Humphrey Bogart, who’d impressed Huston with his work on High Sierra. But Huston had exhausted his influence – this was a fight he couldn’t win.
