Double Indemnity, 1944, Billy Wilder.Walter Neff is a successful insurance salesman, returning to his office building late one night. Neff, clearly in pain, sits down at his desk and tells the whole story for his colleague Barton Keyes.
He first meets the sultry Phyllis Dietrichson during a routine house call. A flirtation develops, at least until Neff hears Phyllis wonder how she could take out a policy on her husband's life without him knowing it. Neff realises she intends to murder her husband and wants no part of it.
Phyllis pursues Neff to his own home, and persuades him that the two of them, together, should kill her husband. Neff knows all the tricks of his trade and comes up with a plan in which Phyllis's husband will die an unlikely death, in this case falling from a moving train.
Keyes, a tenacious investigator, does not suspect foul play at first, but eventually concludes that the Dietrichson woman and an unknown accomplice must be behind the husband's death. The victim's daughter, Lola, comes to him convinced that her stepmother Phyllis is behind her father's death.
When Neff and Phyllis meet, she tells him she has been seeing Lola's boyfriend only to provoke him into killing the suspicious Lola in a jealous rage. Neff, now wholly disgusted, is about to kill Phyllis when she shoots him first. Neff is badly wounded but still standing and walks towards her, telling her to shoot again. Phyllis does not shoot and he takes the gun from her. She says she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot" and had been using him all along.
Phyllis hugs him tightly but then pulls away and looks pleadingly at him when she feels the gun pressed against her side. Neff says "Goodbye, baby," then shoots twice and kills her.
Neff drives to his office where he dictates his full confession to Keyes, who arrives and hears enough of the confession to understand everything. Neff tells Keyes he is going to Mexico rather than face a death sentence but collapses to the floor before he can reach the elevator.
The Maltese Falcon, 1941, John Huston
In 1941 San Francisco Private investigator Sam Spade and Miles Archer meet a beautiful prospective client, Miss Ruth Wonderly. Wonderly claims to be looking for her missing sister, who is involved with a man named Floyd Thursby. Archer volunteers to follow her that night and help her get her sister back.
That night, Spade is informed that Archer has been killed. He tells his secretary Effie Perrine to break the news to Archer's wife, Iva. He meets his friend, Detective Tom Polhaus at the murder scene. Spade tells Polhaus that Archer was tailing Thursby. Spade then calls Wonderly’s hotel, but she has checked out. They also inform Spade of the death of Thursby that same evening. Dundy suggests that Spade had the opportunity and motive (Archer's wife) to commit both crimes.
The next morning, Spade has to fend off an amorous Iva. He then meets with Wonderly, now calling herself Brigid O’Shaughnessy. She explains that Thursby was her partner and probably killed Archer, but claims to have no idea who killed Thursby. Spade agrees to investigate the murders.
At his office, Spade meets Joel Cairo , who first offers him a $5,000 fee to find a “black figure of a bird”, then pulls a gun on him in order to search for it. Spade manages to knock Cairo out and go through his belongings.
Later that evening, Spade tells Brigid about his meeting with Cairo. When Cairo shows up, it becomes clear that Spade's acquaintances know each other. When Brigid insults Cairo, he tries to pull a gun on her, but Spade slaps him down. Polhaus and Dundy arrive to question Spade again. The two police detectives barge into the office when they hear Cairo's cry for help, and are given conflicting accounts about what happened. To avoid trouble, Cairo retracts his story.
the morning, Spade goes to Cairo's hotel, where he spots Wilmer, the man who had been following him earlier. He gives Wilmer a message for his boss. Spade meets Gutman in his hotel suite. Gutman begins to talk about the Falcon, but becomes evasive, causing Spade to storm out, giving Gutman a deadline to be more forthcoming.
Later, Spade is taken by Wilmer to Gutman at gunpoint. Spade overpowers him, but meets with Gutman anyway. Gutman relates the checkered history of the Maltese Falcon. "Well, sir," Gutman says, "they got it, but I haven't got it." Gutman offers Spade $25,000 for the bird and a fourth of the proceeds from its sale. Wilmer kicks Spade in the face, before he, Gutman and Cairo (who had been in the other room) depart.
When Spade revives, he searches the suite and finds a newspaper with the arrival time of the freighter
La Paloma circled. When he arrives at the dock, the ship is on fire, so he returns to his office. A man bursts in and staggers toward Spade, clutching a bundle wrapped in newspaper, before collapsing and dying. The contents of his wallet identify the dead man as Captain Jacobi of the
La Paloma. Looking inside the bundle, Spade tells Effie, "We’ve got it, angel. We’ve got it."
When Effie answers the phone, she hears Brigid give an address and then scream before the line goes dead. Spade first stashes the package in a bus terminal baggage room, before going to the address. After it turns out to be an empty lot, Spade returns home and finds Brigid hiding in a doorway. When he takes her inside, he finds Gutman waiting for him, guns drawn. Gutman gives Spade $10,000 for the Falcon.
Just after dawn, Spade calls Effie, who brings him the bundle. In a frenzy, Gutman, Cairo and Brigid unwrap it, revealing a black statuette: the Maltese Falcon. However, when Gutman inspects the bird, he cries out, "It's a fake!" When Gutman recovers from his disappointment, he suggests that he and Cairo return to Istanbul to continue their quest. He takes back the money he paid Spade at gunpoint, all but $1,000 for his "time and expenses", and tries unsuccessfully to recruit Spade.
After Gutman and Cairo leave, Spade calls the police and tells them where to pick up the pair. Spade then angrily confronts Brigid, telling her he knows she killed Archer to implicate Thursby, her unwanted accomplice. Brigid cannot believe that Spade will turn her over to the police, but he is deadly earnest. Spade turns over the fake Falcon, the money Gutman gave him, and last of all, Brigid. Polhaus picks up the statuette and asks what it is. Spade replies, "The stuff that dreams are made of."
