My thoughts exactly! I mean, the falcon is shown as extremely heavy and huge. Maybe there is a thick layer of clay or something around the real one. Did the "fat man" give up too soon? Did he ever saw the real falcon to compare?

That's exactly what I thought, a thick layer of clay or cement.

The fat man said he saw it from whoever owned it. He was too eager to buy so the owner apparently made the duplicate, but who knows..

Interesting bit of trivia: The other night I watched my DVD of the 1941 Errol Flynn mystery-comedy movie Footsteps in the Dark, I read the TCM.com article about it afterwards, and the article mentioned that the statuette used as the Falcon in The Maltese Falcon appears on the shelf, in the background, of the Chief of Police's office in Footsteps, though just as a piece of decorative filler. I don't know anything further about it, but thought that would be fun to mention here, that the statuette had a life in at least one other movie.

I read your post for that movie and watched the trailer. I have it now, so I'll be watching out for it.

Would you believe the only Errol Flynn movie I've watched is Robin Hood.

I think The Adventures of Robin Hood was maybe the very first E.F. movie I ever watched, as seems like that used to air relatively often while I was growing up.

I just now checked and see that Footsteps in the Dark was released in March 1941. So the Falcon statuette wasn't yet famous at that time. Next time I watch Footsteps I'll need to actually pay attention to the background, to see if I can notice it on a shelf somewhere.

@genplant29 said:

Interesting bit of trivia: The other night I watched my DVD of the 1941 Errol Flynn mystery-comedy movie Footsteps in the Dark, I read the TCM.com article about it afterwards, and the article mentioned that the statuette used as the Falcon in The Maltese Falcon appears on the shelf, in the background, of the Chief of Police's office in Footsteps, though just as a piece of decorative filler. I don't know anything further about it, but thought that would be fun to mention here, that the statuette had a life in at least one other movie.

With that as my guide, I did a search and on the "other" movie website that shall not be named, the trivia section does indeed contain that information:

"'The Maltese Falcon' statuette from the 1931 version of the Dashiell Hammett mystery can be seen in Alan Hale's office. Both the statue and co-star Lee Patrick would soon appear in the classic second remake later than year."

I find it interesting that they used the same statue in both films.

Ohhhh - very interesting! I hadn't realized it was the '31 statue. Great to know - and thanks for pointing that out!

By the way, I like that '31 version - though definitely agree that the Bogie version far surpasses it. However, the Pre-Code version got away with an array of things that, once the Production Code went into effect, everything had to be handled very tactfully. In Pre-Codes, characters could say and do all sorts of things, that starting in mid 1934 became strict no-no's.

You can order your own Falcon replica on Amazon.

I want one, but it's around $250.