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 Falcon Takes Over a craven bid to cash in on the popularity of the Warner Bros. hit, "The Maltese Falcon", turning Marlowe into a detective called the Falcon (played by George Sanders) and releasing the movie with the title, "The Falcon Takes Over". The Falcon Takes Over The Falcon Takes Over (also known as The Falcon Steps Out), is a 1942 black-and-white mystery film directed by Irving Reis. The B film was the third, following "The Gay Falcon" and "A Date with the Falcon" (1941), to star George Sanders as the character Gay Lawrence, a gentleman detective known by the sobriquet the Falcon.