Sam Spade Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional private detective and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel, "The Maltese Falcon". Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. "The Maltese Falcon", first published as a serial in the pulp magazine "Black Mask", is the only full-length novel in which Spade appears. The character, however, is widely cited as a crystallizing figure in the development of hard-boiled private detective fiction—Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, for instance, was strongly influenced by Spade. Spade was a departure from Hammett's nameless and less-than-glamorous detective, The Continental Op. Spade combined several features of previous
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going in the first year of voting. Roger Ebert added it to his "Great Movies" list. American Film Institute recognition The DVD was re-released on June 1, 2006, with a new Dolby Digital mono soundtrack. It includes the original theatrical trailer. The DVD also includes an essay, "A History of the Mystery", examining the mystery and "film noir" genres through the decades. Also included on a second and third disc are two previous film versions of the Hammett novel: "The Maltese Falcon" (1931) and