The Maltese Falcon (novel) The Maltese Falcon (novel) The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 detective novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine "Black Mask" beginning with the September 1929 issue. The story is told entirely in external third-person narrative; there is no description whatever of any character's internal thoughts or feelings, only what they say and do, and how they look. The novel has been adapted several times for the cinema. The main character, Sam Spade (who also appeared later in some lesser-known short stories), was a departure from Hammett's nameless detective, The Continental Op. Spade combined several features of
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) on such films as "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948), "Key Largo" (1948), "The African Queen" (1951), and "Beat the Devil" (1953). Bogart's convincing interpretation became the archetype for a private detective in the "film noir" genre, providing him near-instant acclaim and rounding and solidifying his onscreen persona. It was "The Maltese Falcon" that Ingrid Bergman watched over and over again while preparing for "Casablanca", in order to learn how to interact and act with Bogart. The role of the deceitful "femme fatale" Brigid O'Shaughnessy was originally offered to Geraldine Fitzgerald, but went to Mary Astor when Fitzgerald decided