The Maltese Falcon
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 The cover of first edition of The Maltese Falcon (1930). |
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| Author | Dashiell Hammett |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Released | 1930 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Followed by | "A Man Called Spade" "They Can Only Hang You Once" "Too Many Have Lived" |
The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine "Black Mask". The story has been adapted several times for the cinema. The main character, Sam Spade, appears only in three lesser known short stories and this novel, yet is widely cited as the crystallizing figure in the development of the hard-boiled private detective genre. Spade was a departure from Hammett's perennially nameless and less than glamorous detective, The Continental Op. Sam Spade combined several features of previous detectives, most notably his cold detachment, keen eye for detail, and unflinching determination to achieve his own justice. He is the man who has seen the wretched, the corrupt, the tawdry side of life but still retains his "tarnished idealism".
Raymond Chandler based Philip Marlowe initially on Hammett's Spade and developed the character beyond its inspirational origin.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Private eye Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer are approached by Brigid O'Shaughnessy to follow a man, Floyd Thursby, who allegedly ran off with her younger sister. The two accept the assignment because the money is good, but Spade also implies that the woman looks like trouble, though she projects wholesome innocence.
That night, Detective Tom Polhaus informs Spade that Archer has been shot and killed while tailing Thursby. Even later that night, two officers visit Spade at his apartment and inquire about Spade's whereabouts in the last few hours. Spade asks what the visit is really about. The officers say that Thursby was also killed and that Spade is a suspect, since Thursby likely killed Archer. They have no evidence against Spade at the moment, but tell him that they will be conducting an investigation into the matter.
The next day, Spade gets a visit from Archer's wife, with whom he has been having an affair. The widow asks Spade if he killed off Miles so that they could be together. Spade dismisses her and tells her to leave, and coldly orders his secretary Effie to remove all of Archer's belongings from the office.
Later, Spade is visited by another man, Joel Cairo, who offers Spade $5000 if the private eye can retrieve a figurine of a black bird that has recently arrived. While Spade has no idea what the man is talking about, he plays along. Cairo leaves a card and tells Spade to contact him should anything develop. Following this, Spade is again contacted by Brigid O'Shaughnessy. She offers her sympathies for the death of his partner. Spade senses a connection between Brigid O'Shaughnessy and Cairo, and casually mentions that Cairo has contacted him. Brigid O'Shaughnessy gets extremely nervous when she hears this. She tells Spade that she must meet with Cairo, and asks Spade to arrange a meeting. Spade agrees.
When Cairo and Brigid O'Shaughnessy meet, they make references that the reader and Spade don't initially comprehend. Cairo says he is ready pay for the black figurine. Brigid O'Shaughnessy, however, says she does not have it at the moment. They also refer to a mysterious figure, "G" ("the fat man" in the film), whom they seem to be scared of. The two then continue talk about some events that happened overseas. Eventually, Cairo makes an insinuation that Brigid O'Shaughnessy simply uses her body to get what she wants, and the two begin to fight. At this point, the police drop by again, coincidentally. Spade greets them at the door, but refuses to let them in. The officers say they know Spade was having an affair with Archer's wife; just as they are about to leave, they hear Cairo and Brigid O'Shaughnessy screaming in the back. They force their way into Spade's apartment, and Spade invents a story that involves describing how Cairo and O'Shaughnessy were just play-acting. The officers seem to accept, if not believe, Spade's story, but they take Cairo with them down to the station for some "grilling". Spade sends Brigid to stay with Effie, where she will be safe.
The next morning, Spade makes his way to the hotel where Cairo is staying. Cairo shows up dishevelled, saying that he was held in police custody through the night. Meanwhile, Spade notices that he's being tailed by some kid named Wilmer Cook. He confronts the gunsel[1], and tells him that both he and his boss, "G," will have to deal with him at some point. He later receives a call from Casper Gutman, who wishes to meet with him. Gutman, a huge person weighing over 300 lbs, says he will pay handsomely for the black bird. Spade implies that he can get the item (though at this point this is a bluff), but wants to know what it is first.
Gutman tells him that the figurine was a gift from the Island of Malta to the King of Spain a few hundred years ago, but was lost on ship in transit. It was covered with fine jewels, but acquired a layer of black enamel at some time, to conceal its value (estimated to be in the millions). Gutman learned of its whereabouts seventeen years ago, and has been looking for it ever since. He traced it to the home of a Russian General, then sent three of his 'agents' (Cairo, Thursby and Brigid O'Shaughnessy) to get it. The latter supposedly did retrieve the figurine, but learned of its value and decided to keep it for themselves. Spade starts to get dizzy at this point (Gutman has drugged him), and when he goes to leave, Wilmer trips him and knocks him out by kicking his temple.
When Spade awakens, he returns to his office and tells the story of the Maltese Falcon to Effie. Soon afterwards, an injured man, identified as Captain Jacobi of "La Paloma," shows up at the office; he drops a package on the floor and then dies of gunshot wounds. Spade opens the package, and finds the figurine falcon. Sam is called away from the office (in the novel, Gutman's daughter offers information; in the film, Brigid claims to be in danger). To prevent losing the item, Spade stores the package at a bus station lost luggage counter and mails himself the collection tag. He first goes to the dock where "La Paloma" was anchored, but learns that a fire had been started on board. He then proceeds to the place Rhea Gutman (or Brigid, in the film) said she was when she phoned earlier, only to find no sign of her. He realizes that it was a decoy, and returns to his apartment.
As he arrives, he finds O'Shaughnessy in a shadowy doorway. Inside, Wilmer, Cairo, and Gutman are there waiting. Gutman hands Spade $10,000 in cash in exchange for the bird. Spade takes the money, but in addition says that they need a "fall guy" to take the blame for the murders of at least Thursby and Jacobi, if not Archer as well. Reluctantly, both Cairo and Gutman agree to make Wilmer the fall guy. Gutman proceeds to tell Spade the missing pieces of the story. The night that Thursby was killed, he was first approached by Wilmer and Gutman. The latter attempted to reason with him, but Thursby remained loyal to Brigid O'Shaughnessy and refused to cooperate. Later things escalated, then Wilmer shot Thursby. Also, Brigid O'Shaughnessy had seduced Captain Jacobi and hid the Falcon with him. Later, Brigid O'Shaughnessy instructed Jacobi to deliver the package to Spade. Once Gutman learned of this fact, he attempted to remove Spade from the situation with the spiked drink. Wilmer managed to shoot the captain, but Jacobi still got to Spade's office to deliver the figurine. After finishing his story, Gutman warns Spade to be very careful with Brigid O'Shaughnessy as she is not to be trusted.
Spade places a call to his secretary, Effie, and asks her to go the office and pick up the figurine. Effie brings it to Spade's apartment, and Spade hands the package to Gutman, who at this time is overwhelmed with excitement. He checks the figurine, but quickly learns that it is a fake, most likely created by the Russian as a decoy. During this time, Wilmer manages to escape from Spade's apartment. Gutman quickly regains composure, and decides to go back to Europe to continue the search. Before he leaves, Gutman asks Spade for the $10,000. Spade returns $9000, saying he's keeping the remainder for his time and expenses. Then Cairo and Gutman leave Spade's apartment.
Immediately after Cairo and Gutman leave, Spade phones the police department and tells them the entire story. Wilmer killed Jacobi and Thursby. He also tells them what hotel Gutman is staying at and urges them to hurry, since Gutman and Cairo are leaving town soon. Afterwards, Spade angrily asks Brigid O'Shaughnessy why she killed Miles Archer. At first, Brigid O'Shaughnessy acts horrified at this accusation, but seeing that she cannot lie anymore, she drops the act. She wanted to get Thursby out of the picture so that she could have the Falcon for herself, so she hired Archer to scare him off. When Thursby didn't leave, she killed Archer and attempted to pin the crime on Thursby. When Thursby was later killed himself, she knew that Gutman was in town and that she needed another protector, so she came back to Spade.
However, she says that she's also in love with Spade and would have come back to him anyhow. Spade coldly replies that the penalty for murder is most likely twenty years, and he'll wait for her until she gets out. If they hang her, Spade says that he'll always remember her. He goes on to say that while he despised Miles Archer, the man was his partner, and that he's going to turn her in to the police for his murder as that was a line he could not cross in the industry of detective work. Brigid O'Shaughnessy begs him not to, but he replies that he has no choice. When the police get Gutman, Gutman will finger Sam and Brigid as accomplices. Thus the only way Spade can avoid getting charged is to say he played both sides against each other. He tells Brigid O'Shaughnessy that he has some feelings for her, but that he simply can't trust her. Just before the police arrive, Brigid O'Shaughnessy asks Spade if the Falcon had been real, and he'd gotten the entire $10,000, would it have made a difference. Spade replies that, while she shouldn't be so sure that he's crooked, more money would have been one more item on "her side."
When the police finally show up at Spade's apartment, Spade immediately turns over Brigid O'Shaughnessy as Archer's killer. They tell Spade that the kid Wilmer was waiting for Gutman at the hotel and shot him when he arrived. Spade also hands over the $1000 in bill, and the falcon to the police as evidence.
Later, when Spade arrives back at the office, he tells his secretary, Effie, the entire story. She asks Sam if he sent Brigid O'Shaughnessy to jail. He smugly replies "Your Sam's a detective." She is disgusted by his actions, and asks him not to touch her. The novel ends when Archer's widow again shows up at the office.
[edit] Analysis
In this novel, Hammett redefines many of the conventions of the "Hard Boiled" Detective genre. Spade is a bitter, sardonic character who lets the police and the criminals think he is in with the criminals while he works singlemindedly to catch the crooks. Brigid O'Shaughnessy is the classic femme fatale. The other crooks are manipulative and self-centered (or merely self-centered) with no concern for anyone's well-being except their own.
However, unlike some other hard-boiled detectives who have a strong sense of idealism underneath the cynical shell, we are never given a clear statement of Spade's notion of morality. He attempts to explain himself to Brigid O'Shaughnessy with the Flitcraft parable, in which Hammett makes an oblique reference to the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, but O'Shaughnessy and most readers have no idea what he is getting at.
At the time of Miles Archer's death, Spade is having an affair with Archer's wife. And while he does "do the right thing" in the end, it is somewhat ambiguous as to why he does so. It is left unclear whether he does this because the money was simply not enough ("...a lot more money would have been one more item on your side") for the risk.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel has been filmed three times, twice under its original title:
- The Maltese Falcon (1931), the first version, pre-Code production starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels
- Satan Met a Lady (1936), a light-comedy adaptation starring Bette Davis, with Sam Spade becoming Ted Shane.
- The Maltese Falcon (1941) the third version, considered to be a film noir classic, starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet.
There have been many spoofs and sequels, including 1975's The Black Bird, a spoof sequel featuring George Segal as Sam Spade, Jr., and Elisha Cook Jr. and Lee Patrick reprising their roles from the 1941 version.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Erle Stanley Gardner claims that gunsel - meaning "gun-carrying hoodlum", previously meaning "young, inexperienced homosexual" - took on its new connotation because of Hammett's book.
[edit] See also
- The Apartment of Dashiell Hammett and Sam Spade
- The Pickwick Hotel in San Francisco was the featured location in the novel.
