The Black Bird

In 1975 San Francisco, Sam Spade Jr. has taken over his father's private investigation business, but he does not like the work, or his father's obnoxious secretary. One of the father's big cases comes back to haunt the young Spade. A man offers a lot of money for a statue which may or may not be the Maltese Falcon. In fact, there are several large offers for the bird, and it might be worth millions if it is the genuine article. A European woman who has some trouble with English claims to want the bird to help a children's hospital. And Spade gets unwanted help from a crazy character (one of the movie's funniest) who he calls 'Andrew Jackson' after the man offers a $20 bill for Spade's time. Whatever the significance of the bird, someone must want it badly because people start dying.

The movie started out really funny and showed promise, but later it lost something. The second half proved much funnier than the first. The jokes were not always obvious, and sometimes you had to pay close attention to realize why something was funny. Sometimes the jokes came at a rapid-fire pace, but other times I felt unsatisfied. One running gag was a rental car with a mind of its own. The last gag involving the car was hilarious. Overall, the movie proved to be worthwhile, but not quite in a league with similar style comedies such as 'Airplane!'

People offended by political incorrectness should probably stay away, but to me politically incorrect humor was the best part. Such as the time Spade was in a room with black men and when his name was called, all the black men got up. The funniest character was a midget (Spade's word) in a Nazi uniform with a group of large Hawaiian guards protecting him, and the hilarious jokes about or from him were anything but sensitive. Spade also referred several time to the children in the hospital as 'cripples' or an even worse variation of the word.

I liked the movie...thought it was funny, especially the bantering between George Segal and all of the co-stars. I watched the original version of unfaithful and saw the same actress was in This movie and the french version of unfaithful. I thought she was hilarious in this movie.

I saw this movie in a movie theater in 1976 and laughed and still laugh via VHS. Thought the ending was a little drawn out...so thats why I gave it an 8.. In Leonard Maltins book he gave it BOMB rating which I can not understand. I can watch this movie anytime where as a movie like Porkys or Dodgeball I find unwatchable.

George segal is sam spade junior, in the black bird, a parody of the maltese falcon. Some fun faces in here. Ken swofford (police academy) and vic tayback (mel, for those old enough to remember) are police detectives. Lionel stander (max, for those old enough to remember). Effie and wilmer are played by the original actors from bogart's version! Although in this one, effie is a loud, ornery shrew, who hates her boss. It starts out strong, but loses steam about halfway through; the trivia section here tells us that the writers, producers, and directors were all fighting, which didn't help. I love the premise, but after a while, it just tries too hard. And the anna character just brings it to a halt every time she speaks. Where's madeline kahn when you need her? They really wasted vic tayback... he did this in between the film "alice doesn't live here" and the tv series alice. The first and last film directed by david giler. Segal did this one about ten years after "virginia woolf". Too bad. I really wanted to like this one.

I am proud to declare that I am one of only 18 people in America who actually like this movie. My basis for that statement? There are -- were -- only 17 voters at IMDb who rate this movie at "7" or higher (out of a whopping 50 total votes). My vote of "7" now makes that 18 people who like it.

How unpopular is this movie with everyone everywhere? Very little info is available on it here at IMDb and none at all at Rotten Tomatoes. IMDb users who hate it don't even deem it worthy of the usual brickbats. Only one user has taken the trouble to slice it and dice it and feed it to the sharks (appropos to the movie's ending). Leonard Maltin calls it "DA BOMB" (no stars, not even half of one). If anyone has a complimentary word to say about this movie, I don't know whom that person is nor where he or she said it.

That's where I come in. I think this movie is funny! Well, some of the time, anyway. It's not a laugh riot but it does have a lot of funny stuff in it, especially in the first half. It does start to run out of steam in the second half and by the time they get to the end, it appears that writer-director David Giler was just looking for some way -- any way -- to end it.

George Segal plays Sam Spade, Jr., San Francisco detective and son of his notorious father played by Humphrey Bogart in the original "The Maltese Falcon." And just as in the original, Jr. is once again involved with that black bird, trying to find out who wants it and what's the best price he can get for it. As far as plot goes, except for the ending, the plots of the two movies are fairly similar. And anyone who cares to razz the plot of "The Black Bird" as being nonexistent or worse should first take a close look at the plot of "The Maltese Falcon." The latter, just like the former, has an unfathomable plot. All of which is in no way to say that there is any quality comparison between the two movies. The original is filled with timeless characters, great setups and fabulous dialogue which will live for eternity. That's why it's such a great movie, even with an impossible-to-follow plot. "The Black Bird," on the other hand, is just a fairly decent movie with a number of funny moments and scenes.

George Segal does a good job as Jr. and has a lot of funny dialogue and shtick. Stéphane Audran makes for an alluring love interest and foil for Jr., playing the equivalent to Mary Astor's role in the original. But for me, there are two people who really stand out in this cast. One is old Lionel Stander, a constant thorn in the side to Spade, Jr. The other is none other than Lee Patrick. Just as she did in the original 34 years earlier, she is back once again as Effie, still playing Jr.'s secretary just as she was to his pop. Amazingly, she is much better in this latest version than she was in the original. That's because her later version is a powerhouse character with a ton of dialogue and shtick to go with it. That's something she didn't have in the orignal. But that is the ONLY improvement on the original.

I've seen "The Black Bird" about three or four times. And I still laughed at a number of things I'd forgotten since my last viewing. But I recommend seeing it no more often than about once every 8-10 years, at the most. Any more often than that and it can easily wear thin and lose its best humor.

There is one good thing, one advantage, to being one of only 18 people in America who like a particular movie: lots of elbow room!

"The Black Bird" (1975) is neither an all-out private-eye spoof in the style of Inspector Clouseau (there are very few laughs), nor an engaging "straight" private-eye yarn (the plot - if you can call it a plot, it's mostly just people going around in circles - is tiresome, the McGuffin ineffectual). It is a half-hearted, strained comedy, though at least it is well-shot (in San Francisco). Stephane Audran looks great in two brief lingerie (one black, one white) scenes, but otherwise this is a big comedown from her work with Claude Chabrol. For a better George Segal film in a somewhat similar vein, try "Who Is Killing The Great Chefs Of Europe?". ** out of 4.