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) 1989, but that version is no longer available. CBS/Fox Video released a 101-minute black-and-white version of the film on laserdisc in 1982. The music was written by Adolph Deutsch, who later went on to win an Academy Award. The recording was re-released in 2002 along with other film soundtrack works by Deutsch, including "George Washington Slept Here," "The Mask of Dimitrios," "High Sierra" and "Northern Pursuit." Perhaps the earliest radio adaptation of "The Maltese Falcon" was on the "Silver Theater" broadcast on the CBS radio network on February 1, 1942, with Bogart as star. "Philip Morris Playhouse" staged an adaptation