The Falcon of Malta

For the film adaptations, to see the Maltese Falcon (page of homonymy)

the Falcon of Malta (original title: The Maltese Falcon ), sometimes republished under the title the Maltese Falcon , is a Detective novel of Dashiell Hammett, published in 1930 (1936 for the first French translation).

The character of Sam Spade, present in this novel and three news of the same author, was preceded by the anonymous detective of the preceding novels of Hammett, the Continental COp . The detachment of the character, his attention with the least detail, and its determination to return justice according to a very personal design make of him the prototype of the figure of the private detective in the Roman black (the kind hardboiled , in English). Spade is the hero who, pilot of misery, the defect, of corruption, however lets himself always direct by an idealism shifted, like a few years later the hero of Raymond Chandler, Philip Marlowe, inspired of Spade.

The novel was adapted several times to the cinema.

Intrigue

Sam Spade is approached by a certain Wonderly Miss, who asks them to follow a man, Floyd Thursby, with which his/her sister would be flees. Spade does not deal personally with the business, its associate Miles Archer agrees to take care some. In the night, Spade is awaked by the telephone. The police officer Tom Polhaus announces to him that Miles was killed during its spinning mill. Spade requires of Effie, its secretary, to warn the woman of Miles, Iva. Then it receives the visit of Polhaus and lieutenant Dundy. They announce in Spade that Thursby was also killed, and do not hide their suspicions in his connection.

The following day, Spade receives the visit of Iva, with which it maintains a connection. It returns it curtly, fearing that their relation is not retained against them in the death of Miles. Effie believes in the culpability of Iva. Spade, him, sorrow to find Wonderly Miss, who however contacts it since another hotel, where it resides under the name of Miss Leblanc. Spade visits him: she acknowledges to him actually to be called Brigid O' Shaughnessy and request with Spade of the assistance. She reveals very few things with Spade: that she knows Thursby, that they came together from HongKong, that they were associated in a business but that it had betrayed it. She also says to be unaware of which killed Thursby. She pays it finally so that it protects it.

Spade also consults its own lawyer, Sid Wise, in order to prevent that the police force does not blame it, which would compromise its investigation. From return to his office, the detective receives Joel Cairo, homosexual who offers five thousand dollars to him to find a statuette of black bird. The evening, while realizing that it is followed, Spade will see Joel to the Belvedere hotel Cairo which promises to him not to have nothing to do with this spinning mill, then he sows his prosecutor and returns visit to Miss O' Shaughnessy. She admits to know Cairo, but seems anxious that Spade can help this one. She agrees to meet Cairo at Spade. There, they reveal to be known in Constantinople, and to seek both the black bird. O' Shaughnessy evokes also certain “G” which could be the assassin of Thursby. At this moment, Dundy and Polhaus knock on the door of Spade, which opens to them without letting them enter. The two police officers question it on its bonds with Iva Archer. Spade defends their suspicions, when an argument bursts between Cairo and O' Shaughnessy: the police officers enter and threaten to embark everyone. Spade tries to minimize the situation, which exasperates Dundy which strikes it. Polhaus prevents Spade from retorting and the two agents set out again. Cairo benefits from it to eclipse too. Spade obtains Miss O' Shaughnessy of new details on the business: charged by a Russian, Kemidov, to find the statuette of falcon, it would have entered in possession of the object to Constantinople before Thursby does not betray it. But Brigid admits not to say all the truth, before embracing Spade…

The following day, Spade excavates the hotel room of Brigid, but does not find the bird there. It voluntarily leaves traces before going to the View-point. Cairo is absent since the day before, but Spade notices the young man who followed it: it with the intuition of him to speak about “G”. Cairo returns about midday and tells to be questioned all the night by the police force, without to have acknowledged anything. Spade returns to its office where Iva and “G” called. Miss O' Shaughnessy is there: having noted with anguish that its room was excavated, Spade proposes to him to put it at the shelter at Effie. Left only, Spade receives a call of Casper Gutman which proposes to him to see it later fifteen minutes to the Alexandria hotel. Iva passes at this time, acknowledges to have sent the police force at his place the day before and explains why his/her brother-in-law Phil Archer suspects them. Spade sends it at its Sid before going to Gutman where it is accommodated by the young man who followed it, Wilmer Cook. Spade affirms in Gutman that he works for his account, and Gutman to reveal to him the secrecy of the falcon in exchange of the object itself. In front of the hesitation of Gutman, it leaves while pretending anger. Spade returns visit in Sid which teaches him that Iva followed her husband by jealousy right before his murder. From return to its office, Spade learns from Effie that Miss O' Shaughnessy did not come to it. Spade finds the taxi driver of Brigid, which affirms to have led it to the port. Spade is then approached by Wilmer which brings back it to Gutman, after having disarmed it. Gutman tells the history of the statuette, which under a coat of paint dissimulates a gold falcon encrusted with invaluable stones, offered by the order of Hospital to king d' Espagne, to XVIe century, repurchased by Gutman with Kemidov, but concealed by its emissary. Gutman proposes 50.000 dollars, that is to say a quarter of its value, to find the bird. Spade carries out whereas it has just been doped, it flees and is made strike by Wilmer.

When Spade awakes, it turns over to its office and asks Effie to consult his cousin, professor of history, in connection with the history of the falcon. Spade visits then several unfruitful: nobody at Brigid O' Shaughnessy, nobody in Alexandria (where it is informed it that Gutman, his Rhea daughter and Wilmer Cook left), and nobody with the View-point. There, he excavates nevertheless the room of Cairo and finds there only one newspaper cut out. The cut corresponds on arrivals of boats, in particular “Paloma”. At its office, Effie learns in Spade that the history of the falcon can be true, and that a boat burns in the port: “Paloma”. Later, Spade discusses with Polhaus and the District Attorney (prosecutor) which convened it: the police force seems part on false tracks and Spade sets out again reassured for the peace of its investigation.

Spade loses the trace of the various actors of the history: it notes that Cairo left the View-point, and learns that Miss O' Shaughnessy met Gutman, Cairo and Cook before the fire of “Paloma”. He tells that in Effie, at the office, when a failing man enters. Touched several balls, he dies before to have been able to say a mot. Under his arm, a parcel: the falcon. At this time, the telephone sounds: Miss O' Shaughnessy calls for the aid but the communication is cut. Spade leaves, and requires of Effie to prevent the police force without mentioning the statuette, which it carries with him. It will put the bird in an instruction of the station of Picwick and sends the ticket by the post office towards a box of which it with the key. Then it goes to the place where Miss O' Shaughnessy is supposed to need assistance: on the spot, it finds only the girl of Gutman, Rhea, apparently doped, and who sends it towards a false address. On her return the girl left. Spade returns then at his place, where Brigid awaits it. They return in the apartment, where Gutman, Cairo and Cook preceded them and await them.

Spade negotiates skilfully. Gutman proposes 10.000 dollars to him which he considers insufficient but, especially, Spade claims a scapegoat that he can deliver to the police force as a culprit. He proposes Wilmer Cook, that Gutman and Cairo end up betraying. At seven o'clock in the morning, Spade requires of Effie to bring back the falcon for him. This one appears finally a forgery out of lead. At this time, Wilmer escapes. Cairo and Gutman from go away too. Spade then calls Polhaus to denounce the trio. Then it obtains from Brigid of the full confessions: Wilmer Cook is the assassin of Thursby, but it is it which killed Miles Archer to make stop Thursby and get rid some before the falcon does not arrive by “Paloma”, thanks to Jacobi, the captain of the boat. In front of Brigid incrédule, Spade announces that it will deliver it to the police force, because it is guilty, and that it owes that in Miles. Spade as learns from the police force as Gutman died with the hand of Wilmer Cook. In the course of the day, Spade takes stock of the business with Effie, and receives the visit of Iva…

The morality of hard to cook

In the Falcon of Malta , Hammett defines or redefines many conventions of the novel of detective hardboiled (literally " hard with cuire"), generally compared to the Romance black in French. The character of Sam Spade is not only hard, it is characterized by its cynicism and its vision full with bitterness on the world which it attends. The police force like the criminals think that it is corruptible, that it is side of the Gangster S, whereas he never separates his efforts to confuse the culprits. Brigid O' Shaughnessy incarnates as for it the femme fatale traditional. The other gangsters (Gutman, Cairo) are manipulators, egoistic, without another concern that their own good.

Contrary to certain detectives characteristic of the hardboiled , we do not have however here any clear proof of the moral vision of Spade. The remote parabola of Flitcraft reference to Charles Sanders Peirce in which Spade tries to explain its vision of the destiny and its role with Brigid, is obviously not included/understood by the female character - and undoubtedly it in the same way for the majority of the readers goes from there.

Other behaviors of Spade maintain this moral blur. At the time of the assassination of Miles Archer, Spade maintains a connection with his Iva wife. Amoral? But the conclusion of the novel lets guess that Spade is not so insensitive to Iva that it seemed it throughout the investigation.

Especially, Spade concludes its investigation by making " the good choix" , but its motivations remain ambiguous. After doesn't all, betray Brigid (and this Juste after having humiliated it by forcing it to undress itself to find a ticket of which it knows that it does not have it)? It makes because there was not enough money concerned (" … more money would have been an argument in your faveur") ? Is its fidelity in Miles, even dead, sincere (and she is not contradicted by the report/ratio with Iva)? As many interrogations which contribute to the complexity of the detective, and with the force of the character, mysterious for the reader as much as for the police force or the gangsters, unforeseeable, and triumphing thanks to that.

The language of Hammett

French translations

Film adaptations

the Maltese Falcon (film, 1941)

There exists about it however of different:

Random links:Turanga Leela | Joel CRESSON | Pierre Foldes | Francisco Lima | NBA AlStar Game 1997 | Y.S._Rajasekhara_Reddy