The classics of film noir, of which The Maltese Falcon is a major example, often featured stock characters. Female characters, in particular, took on certain characteristics in noir, and more often than not, were painted as unreliable and morally corruptible, either because they used their sexuality for deceit, or because they were too emotional to think clearly and be of any help. In The Maltese Falcon, the three female characters represent different archetypes that would become prevalent as the genre took off in America, and the film's complicated and sometimes unflattering portrait of women can tell us a great deal about broader gender structures in the genre.
In an article from the film website Screen Prism, Jeff Saporito analyzes the female archetypes in The Maltese Falcon. Categorizing Brigid O'Shaughnessy's character as a "black widow," a female character who ensnares the unsuspecting hero in a convoluted web, he writes, "Brigid is an antagonist who receives punishment in the film’s conclusion, but women classified as black widows, despite the negative connotation of the name and the dubious nature of their film characters, are regarded as pioneers in progressive representations of women in film." Indeed, as unflattering as the portraits of women in noir films can be, they are often more three-dimensional than the more condescending portraits of women in other films of the time. For all her flaws, Brigid is a crafty villain, and in spite of her performance of dependence and distress, becomes something of a competitor to Sam. Saporito refers to Effie, the loyal secretary, as a "helpmate," a maternal figure who sees Sam's flaws, but perhaps transcends Sam's general mistrust of women. Saporito writes, "There exists an easy level of objectivism in her [Effie's] treatment despite that sentiment [his pet names for her], but it stems from a place of adoration rather than contempt, which is the veil through with Spade views the other women in the film." Iva Archer is categorized as a "scorned woman," another typical noir trope. The scorned woman is underestimated by the male character, and she thus comes back to haunt him: here, Iva Archer is able to cause more harm than expected when she accuses Sam of murdering Miles to the police.
The Maltese Falcon's treatment of women is complex, but the film is not really about women. While noir is often cited as opening up more three-dimensional representations of femininity, these representations often still come from a man's point of view. One film (based on a novel written by a woman crime novelist, Dorothy B. Hughes) which subverts this trend is the 1950 film In A Lonely Place, directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. In the narrative, the trajectory of emasculation at the hands of women that is so common to noir is revealed in more explicit and feminist ways as being the result of the man's distrust of women, and thus an internal struggle, rather than the women's entrapment of him. In an article in The Paris Review about the film, novelist Megan Abbott details the ways that Hughes' novel and Ray's adaptation subvert some of the gendered tropes of noir. She writes, "As the story unfolds, we gradually understand that the danger is not without but within. And it is Laurel and Sylvia who prove to be the real detectives here, the hard-boiled 'dicks' uncovering Dix’s secrets, while Dix himself is the threat, the contaminant. The femme fatale turns out to be an homme, leading us to wonder if, perhaps, he always was." In exposing the root of her male anti-hero's angst and distrust of the world, Dorothy B. Hughes wrote one of the first female-centered noirs. Abbott goes on to write, "Hughes, like her two female heroes, remains cold-eyed and incisive, rational and effectual. It is the men who collapse, who wilt, who fall to pieces." In a Lonely Place changed the treatment of women in noir, giving them more credit. While noirs like The Maltese Falcon undoubtedly gave female characters greater dimensionality by virtue of their moral ambiguities, In a Lonely Place set the stage for women to become constructive rather than destructive characters, and for noir to tell women's story, as we can see evidenced today in films like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the miniseries Top of the Lake.
