Word: spades
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...murders and a frantic search for, strangely enough, the Maltese Falcon, a sixteenth century jewel encrusted gold statue worth an estimated two million dollars. The film's most notable feature, however, is not the mystery of its plot but the awesomely rugged character of its hero, private detective Sam Spade...
...Spade is the quintessence of the heartless pragmatist--the sardonic, self-interested loner who rolls his own cigarettes, and who just happens to operate within the limits of the law most of the time because he knows he's better off that way. He's so callous he hardly reacts when he hears his partner has been murdered. He doesn't bother to look at the body. Asked if the partner were married, he replies curtly, "Yeah, with 10,000 insurance, no children, and a wife who didn't like him." His only immediate concerns after the murder...
...film ends, Spade casually "sends over" his former client and paramour to the police for a murder (she's guilty), explaining coldly, "Your're taking the fall. One of us has got to take it - I won't play the sap for you." He dismisses the possibility that "Maybe you love me and maybe I love you," as inconsequential in the long run: "I'll have some rotten nights - but that'll pass...
...movie has been brilliantly cast. Bogart surely "born to play" Sam Spade. The detective's bitter lines get sharp emphasis from Bogart's smug grin and sour lisp, making Spade probably the most thoroughly intimidating character Bogie ever portrayed. Sydney Green-street is just right as the jovial, pedantic Fat Man, obsessed with the "black bird." His great line: "Well, by Gad, if you lose a son it's possible to get another, but there's only one Maltese Falcon," is perhaps the best in a movie full of great lines. Peter Lorre is suitably effete and prim...
Irresistible Combination. The best detective-heroes have always been superbly attuned to their own age. Sherlock Holmes splendidly reflects a Victorian-Edwardian belief in rationality and cool logic; Dashiell Hammett's hard-nosed Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe were right for the Depression years...