this be direct and co write by joseph mankiewicz . the cast include john hodiak and richard conte . almost all the scene be shoot at night around los angeles and on the lot . it ought to be good but in fact it no more than routine . let recall john huston superb the maltese falcon and in which the hero and sam spade and be hire to find a fabulously expensive statue of a bird whose trip through time have leave a trail of dead body behind . spade search for the statue and discover a little more about it each time he run into the colorful and quirky figure that be associate with it pursuit . the fat man and the gay levantine and the dame with the past and the gunsel they come crawl out of the woodwork and enough of them to make a minion . in the climactic scene they be all bring together in spade apartment and where all be explain . and they leave and only to have spade ring up the police and clue them in and except for the ambiguous dame who be reveal a the chief villain . i suspect the maltese falcon must have provide the model for this dark mystery and though enough cosmetic surgery have be perform to disguise the feature of the original mold . instead of the mysterious black bird and john hodiak and the man with no memory and pursue his own past and the two million dollar hidden somewhere within it . he run into a gang of colorful and quirky character . the fat man here be just a guy with a sinister face and a german accent and a classy phraseology . the gunsel be a huge tub of lard who be barely able to string three sentence together . there no gay levantine and but a few other character make up for his absence . the ambiguous dame be split into her two constituent the louche broad who sling around french clichés and the honest and brave nancy guild who fall in love with hodiak ( and vice versa ) two minute after they meet . hodiak be beat up by the hood and just a spade be . at the end and he demand a fall guy for the police and just a spade do . the hoodlum gang and instead of leave and just shrug and their leader tell them philosophically that the jig be up . the friend turn out to be the real scheming murderer spade ambiguous dame there and a secondary but likable character here . the direction be okay . mankiewicz be no slouch . and some of the writing be passable and a be hodiak performance a george taylor and and especially and lloyd nolan a the police lieutenant . the rest be pallid facsimile . there be and in fact and too many quirky and colorful character and none of them could act . neither could nancy guild and although she be attractive enough . hodiak pursuit of his own identity and his pal larry cravat and and the two million buck grow tiresome and confuse too . there be too many lead and too many red herring . we watch hodiak travel from place to place and mostly meet with hostility from people who do not even know him and garner little scrap of information which may lead somewhere and or maybe not . the musical score have no lilt to it . and the character have only one note on their instrument and except for nolan who deliver sarcasm and irony with effortless aplomb . mankiewicz be to do much well and later on . these semi noir mystery be not his forte and though he make another one of them and that one and no way out and be pretty damned good .