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 (1931 film) well and give her whatever she wants. When the matron asks who will pay for the special treatment, Spade tells her to send the bill to the D.A.'s office: "I'll OK it." "The Maltese Falcon" was not the first Hammett story to be adapted into a motion picture. Both "Red Harvest" (filmed in 1930 as "Roadhouse Nights") and "City Streets" (1931), based on a short story and starring Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney, preceded it. Working titles for the film were "All Women", "A Woman of the World" and "Dangerous Female". Some scenes in the film were shot on location