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) at a flea market in New Jersey in 1991 by Emmy-winning producer/director Ara Chekmayan. Adam Savage, co-host of "MythBusters", has gone to great lengths to create an accurate replica. The Maltese Falcon is considered a classic example of a MacGuffin, a plot device that motivates the characters of the story, but otherwise has little relevance. Following a September 1941 preview, "Variety" called it "one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form": Unfolding a most intriguing and entertaining murder mystery, picture displays outstanding excellence in writing, direction, acting and editing—combining in overall as a