Episode 28: The Maltese Falcon

It's the big one here: Sam Spade and The Maltese Falcon. With this classic, Hammett pushed himself and the boundaries of the hardboiled genre he'd already mastered to create a gem of a novel that still resonates today, nearly 100 years after its publication. The inimitable cast of stylized characters swim against an undercurrent of noir cynicism that finally defeats them all.

Plus, it's got a cool statue of a bird.

Works cited this episode:

The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
The Glass Key, Dashiell Hammett
Reservoir Dogs, dir. Quentin Tarantino
The Maltese Falcon, dir. John Huston
Satan Met a Lady, dir. William Dieterle
The Black Bird, dir. David Giler
Return of the Maltese Falcon, Max Allan Collins
Monsieur Spade, created by Scott Frank and Tom Fontana
The Big Sleep, dir. Howard Hawks
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
The Da Vinci Code, dir. Ron Howard
“The Big Knockover,” Dashiell Hammett
“$106,000 Blood Money,” Dashiell Hammett
“This King Business,” Dashiell Hammett