Spade and the Falcon- An Amateur Detective Case

Spade and The Falcon

An Amateur Detective Study

Sam Spade <--

The picture chosen actually shows Dashiell Hammett. Hammett himself was an operative for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and based his representation of Spade off of his own experiences- and what he called the "dream man" the detectives he knew aspired to.

Tracing the movement of the Maltese falcon:

1. Malta-it's creation.
2. Algiers-intercepted on its way to Spain by Barbarossa.
3. Sicily- carried away by Sir Francis Verney.
4. Turin- in the possession of Victor Amadeus II.
5. Paris- moved to Paris by a Carlist fleeing Spain.
6. Constantinople- in the home of a Russian general, Kemidov.
7. Hong Kong- O'Shaughnessy and Cairo have retrieved the falcon- she runs to Hong Kong with a man named Thursby. How is Cairo kept from following?
8. San Francisco- Brigid brings it to America with the help of a Captain Jacobi. Jacobi runs with the falcon to escape Gutman- the falcon ends up in the hands of Sam Spade.

The Fat-man.

Mr. Gutman

Dashiell Hammett's Social Vision

Casper Gutman is wealthy, determind, and obsessed with obtaining the Maltese Falcon. He is outwardly jovial and suave, but will ruthlessly stop at nothing to get what he wants. He has a daughter by name of Rhea- seemingly not a close relationship. Employed Joel Cairo and Wilmer Cook to retrieve the Falcon- betrayed by Cairo with the help of O'Shaughnessy. But then where did the falcon go? A major player through money alone.

This analysis is not wrong- largely because Casper Gutman is the most easily understood in the entire novel. He lies as well as the others, but his motivations and morals are so clearly portrayed there is no mistaking his character.

• He acts as a physical manifestation of the interactions between business, capitalism, money, and greed. His singular obessesion with obtaining the Falcon is the mirror of capitalistic gain and the endless work towards it. His unchecked greed is the lead into moral corruption for all the novel's characters- inspiring the hunt for the Falcon- a distinct criticism of how the American capitalist pursuit can corrupt the individual. In fact, the discovery of the fake Falcon is of little set-back, as he happily plans to go back to Constantinople- there is no achievement of sucess or satisfaction; the pursuit of wealth is endless.

• He is an explanation of how the market begins to govern the American family, its control over domestic life, and essentially how associates of money and trade replace the close family. He shows Wilmer, essentially an employee, a degree of fondness, equating him to a son, but easily excuses handing him in to save his own skin and retrieve the falcon- "if you lose a son it's possible to get another - and there's only one Maltese Falcon" (190). Similarly, he shows little care for his real daughter, mentioning her only briefly, and then drugging her to make his escape, causing her to cut her own body to stay conscious. His only comment on the act is the "suave purring" of "it served its purpose" (169).

• Every feature of the man is a caricature of greed, an on-the-nose joke; the name 'Mr.Gutman', the "fat man... flabbily fat", bringing up money in every conversation.

• Effie Perine acts wholly as a symbol of maternal trust and emotional reason. She is everything Brigid is not- the two sides of the female character. Unsexed, unfeminine, it is her boyish masculinity that allows Spade to rely on her. The femininity of the other women is founded in lying, manipulation and reactive emotion- the use of sex as a tool, the batting of eyelashes, and betrayal are all supposedly female traits, and so by removing her femininity she is trustworthy. "A lankey sunburned girl... eyes.. playful in a boyish face" (1). Spade fears no competition from Effie- she is unattractive to him, and therefore powerless.
• At first glance insiginificant to the plot, Effie is in fact a central pillar of Spade's character. With no insight into his mind,the greatest sense of emotion we recieve from him is in his interactions with Effie. She an emotional compass, a comfort firmly placed in the context of 'mother', and the only character capable of advising Spade, as she poses no threat to his sense of superiority; "She licked it, twisted its ends, and placed it between Spade's lips...rested his cheek wearily against her hip"(25); "you let her down...I'll never forgive you, never have any respect for you"(40); "You'll have to get a doctor. You can't walk around with a head like that" (128).

The Assistant.

EFFIE PERINE

Spade's office assistant. A loyal woman, boyish face- reasonable and trustworthy. She supported Spade clerically in his investigation; is she insignificant otherwise? Brigid O'Shaughnessy was supposed to abide with her briefly, but she never turned up.

SAM SPADE

The Hard-Boiled Detective.

The clear focal point for this investigation, Spade is integrous, cunning, and cool. Sexually desired yet emotionally unshakeable, physically tough yet mentally keen, and the epitome of manly uprightness; he is the model private detective. With total loyalty to the bonds of his partnership, I read this case as not simply a search for a stolen artifact, but a quest for moral justice and the defense of the deceased Miles Archer.

This follows Hammet's own view of Spade as the model P.I, and his effect on future archetypes and genres of hard-boiled fiction- he is in many ways, the blueprint. In truth, though, this character is not so simply described.

• His quest is perhaps not one of moral righteousness, but personal ego. His personality is a caricature of superiority—physically "six feet tall" (2), "like a bear" (10), his face a defined "v motif" (1). He is emotionally superior to those around him, one moment assured, almost mockingly confident, the next threatening and tough ("Spade winked at his partner" (5), "...grinned wolfishly, showing the edges of his teeth" (8), "put the cigarette in his mouth, set fire to it, and laughed smoke out" (20), "People lose teeth talking like that" (91).
• Some literary studies do analyze Spade to be a staunch moralist—see Stanley J. Solomon, Thomas Schatz—but the evidence presented turns his so-called 'moral code' into a simple set of egocentric principles. Yes, he turns in O'Shaughnessy, but his actual reasoning is flimsy at best—he professes "You'll never understand me. When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it" (209) but otherwise shows no loyalty or respect for the man, calling him "a son of a bitch" (209), having an affair with his wife, and not bothering even to investigate his body. Similarly, we see him easily lie his way through the story, motivated most often by money and greed—not obligation.
• In turning her in, he follows not justice, but a simple belief in the comrade versus the wife—the female counterpart, the 'wife' is a side feature, an emotional prop for the male, and the comrade-in-arms is considered the principal symbol—a concept which can be found as far back as Homer's Iliad. Imagined duty trumps emotion, as the prime totem of competitive 'manliness'—to avenge is to win.
• This ego-based narrative is prompted not just by Spade, but by the reader's own self. The third-person point of view and lack of personal insight allow the reader to easily identify with Spade—they place themselves in the center and project their own feelings onto his blank canvas. We ourselves become 'heroes', and even as we stumble our way through a web of lies we feel superior knowledge over the characters through Spade. It is the ideal masculine fantasy. See Brigid's breathless monologue, page 33, in which she begs and compliments Spade—she speaks for so long that the reader can almost feel she speaks to them, ignoring his presence.

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and the Neurotic Knight: Characterization in "The Maltese Falcon"

This view of Brigid O'Shaughnessy falls directly in line with what the minds of the novel provide us with, and is not inaccurate. However, to appropriately understand her place in the novel it is impossible to examine her as a character in her own right- she is more functionally a symbol, an archetype, rather than a whole person.

• The epitome of the evil sexual woman, her femininity and the sexual possibility she represents are the true focus of her character. To Spade, she is dangerous because of her sexuality- he is made vulnerable through attraction to her.
• It serves then, that she should act as his immediate foil- hyper-feminine versus hyper-masculine. Except, the archetypes we are presented with are not 'the Detective' and 'the Criminal', but rather 'the Detetive' and 'the Woman'- a pair seen throughout the genre of crime and noir to this day. Her siginificance is only that of her gender, and, in fact, the powerful and cunning deeds she performs are almost always out of shot or historical. She is spoken about as a threat, but in script poses little importance than a few easily seen through characters and lies, moving the plot forward through general movements. By the end of the novel, she is almost embarassingly subdued, either speechless or over-emotional, stripped of dignity, and come full circle to the helpless woman she originally pretended to be- "Can't you see that if you make me you'll - you'll be killing something" (192), "Brigid O'Shaughnessy, dressed again...took a step toward the living room, turned around, went to the kitchen, and turned on the light" (193), "...not raising her head" (194), "'How's the food coming along? 'It's coming,' she said, and went back to the kitchen" (195), "raising her face roughly... growled into her face" (198), "You didn't care- ar all? You didn't- don't- l-love me?" (207). It becomes difficult for a reader to view her as dangerous to anyone, even as we are aware of her presentation as a liar.
• We can explain this again through her role as a sexual object- once Spade has already entered a relationship with her, she is no longer a dangerous sexual possibility, but an already gained sexual conquest. She loses all power to seduce or control Spade.

The Femme-Fatale

Brigid O'Shaughnessy

Sex/Knowledge/Power in the Detective Genre

A master liar and manipulator, O'Shaughnessy introduced herself to Spade originally through the alias of 'Miss. Wonderly'- I have her on record under multiple names. She tricks Casper Gutman, she tricks Floyd Thursby, she tricks Miles Archer, and she tricks Sam Spade. She is an incredibly dangerous woman, and her involvement in with the Maltese Falcon is what complicates this plot thoroughly.

The Maltese Falcon was transformed into films of the same name twice- once in 1931, and once in 1941. The pictures chosen to represent these character have been taken from this adatation. Read more on its adaptation into cinema below:

The Transfer from One Medium to Another: "The Maltese Falcon" from Fiction to Film

The Levantine

Joel Cairo

An employee of Gutman, he worked with the others to steal the Falcon from Kemidov, the Russian general. Recorded as of Middle Eastern descent, effeminate and not particularly physically imposing. He appears to be a capable player through cunning and subtlety alone. He's not entirely trusted by Gutman and the others under his employ- there remains tension with them all.

Cairo is in many ways, the direct opposite of Sam Spade. Where Spade is masculine, physically violent, brusque, American, and sexually viable, Cario is effeminate, perfumed and jewelled, non-violent, polite, distinctlty 'foreign', and insinuated to be gay- and thus, against the sexual 'norm'.

• His function is, in many ways, to add legitimacy to Sam Spade's hyper-masculine hyper-capable character. His intial attempt to hold Spade at gunpoint fails almost instantly, and simply provides the oppurtunity for Spade to show off his physical prowess- "Fist, wrist, forearm, crooked elbow, and upper arm seemed all one rigid piece ... the fist struck Cairo's face."- which is sharply contrasted by Cario's humble incapability- "Cairo coughed a little apologetic cough and smiled nervously,", "There were tears in his dark eyes".
• Similarly, his percieved sexuality provides extreme contrast to Spade's own sexual relationships with women. We have seen in the case of Brigid O'Shaughnessy that in this novel sexual attractiveness equates to power- thus, through Cairo, Spade's sexual power over women is even more enforced. It conversly allows Cairo to act as a dangerous wild card; he is immune to the manipulation of women like O'Shaughnessy.

The Maltese Falcon

Hammett's Physical Falcon, or, What Exactly Did the Emperor Give?

The driving force behind the plot, the Falcon each character fights for turns out, in the end, to be a fake. The entire story is thrown into irony by its apparent worthlessness- but it bears the question, what is the Maltese Falcon, and what is it actually worth?An object with arbitrary value, it is worth only what it can be exchanged for- if it is intended to be sold, is the object itself actually important, and if it is intended to be kept, how can it be worth anything? In fact, once coloured black to hide its value, the object is no longer even one of beauty, and can be easily equated with the fake.It is in intself a parody of the capitilist ideal, the commoodification of nothing just for the sake of chasing money and greed. Its discovered worthlessness is a wry look at the futile chase of success and wealth. All that has been achieved is the throwing away of personal relationships, obligations, and trust; yet Gutman and his associates are all too happy to continue the endless loop. It is perhaps a reflection of Hammet's own communist ideals and identity, and the landscape of a modern capitilist America he experienced.

The jewell-encrusted statuette of history. Supposedly worth an incredible amount, it would change the life of any who got their hands on it. The fact that none of these people ever had their hands on the real statue greatly undercuts its value- is it truly worth all of this harm?