" Ted settled into his seat when his elderly, sex-crazed female seat-mate (Ann Nelson - credited as Hanging Lady for good reason) noticed his anxiety as she glanced a few times at his crotch, and began questioning him:Hanging Lady: Nervous?Ted: Yes.[This was Wilder""s fourth nomination as screenwriter, after nominations forNinotchka (1939),Ball of Fire (1941)andHold Back the Dawn (1941).] The mysterious legend of the fabled, treasured statuette (a fictional account) scrolls up the screen (above the falcon) to set the stage: :In 1539, the Knights Templar of Malta, paid tribute o Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels- - - - - but pirates seized he galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day.Their current charter-boat client for over two weeks of fishing has been a cheap, incompetent and careless, opinionated American named Johnson (Walter Sande).The suggestion was that much of the film would be seen from the protagonist""s POV.Abruptly, this was followed by a close-up of the symbolic cracking of an aging female""s facial mask.She looked like a corpse lying immobile on a table, wrapped like a mummy in towels - in a sense, the patron was sacrificing herself on an altar to be made o be more attractive to men.