Jack,
Re your comments below:
> I'm not sure, but this might be a chicken or
the
> egg kind of question:
>
> Are Hammett's characters so good because of
the
> way he wrote them or because of the way they
were
> portrayed in the Bogart version of the
movie?
>
> I think Hammett made them work and in the
Bogart
> version, the actors took them off the
page.
I think it was Hammett who made the characters so good.
FALCON was considered a ground-breaking novel long before the
Huston/Bogart version was made, and the fact that the first
two versions are little-remembered today (despite the fact
that the first version, with Ricardo Cortez as Spade, usually
run as DANGEROUS FEMALE, was actually almost as faithful to
the book as the '41 version) indicates that the novel is
great independent of its film versions.
> A few months ago, I saw all three versions of
the
> story. Neither of the first two were as
on-target
> at the Bogart vesion--or should I call it
the
> John Huston version?
>
> In the first, Gutman was a woman.
Actually, it was in the second that the Gutman figure was a
woman, Bette Davis was the Brigid figure, and the Falcon
itself became a jeweled cross.
The first one was actually quite faithful to the novel. Not
as faithful as the Huston/Bogart version, but still quite
faithful. Dwight Frye made a good Wilbur. Cortez was no
Bogart, but he didn't embarass himself as Spade and was a bit
more of a ladies man(though he looked silly in those
polka-dot pajamas).
Dudley Diggs, a kind of Guy Kibbee look-alike, played Gutman
in the first version. Diggs was chubby, but not nearly as
much of a heavyweight as Greenstreet, and he lacked
Greenstreet's air of polish and posh which was so much a part
of Hammett's original character.
Some of the plot surprises were telegraphed early in the
movie. In the scene where Spade confronts the DA, the DA says
something about Brigid being the prime suspect in Archer's
murder, which vitiates the final renunciation scene.
There's also a final scene original to the movie, in which
Spade visits Brigid in jail and tells her he's given up the
PI business to become a cop. He's now the DA's Chief
Investigator!
> In the second Brigid was Bette Davis, as I
often
> say, "when she was good looking." Both
were
> played for humor. In the second version
Brigid
> "kind of" planned an escape from jail for
her.
I've never seen this version, because everyone says it's so
awful, though I've seen a couple of clips, which I found
pretty unimpressive. Interstingly, in this version, SATAN MET
A LADY, the Spade figure is named "Ted Shayne." I've often
wondered if Brett Halliday, whose Mike Shayne closely
resembled Spade, particularly in his earliest appearances,
might have deliberately borrowed Shayne's name from the
movie.
> Using my old argument, that Spade deduced
almost
> immeditately that Brigid killed Archer, Spade
in
> version two, discusses "something" with an
old
> Chinese Gentleman in the alley after Archer
is
> found dead.
>
> In retrospect, and knowing the story, it
seems
> that was when Spade knew. I thought it was
a
> matter of decuction.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
In one of the short stories from which Hammett borrowed plot
elements for use in FALCON, "Who Killed Bob Teal?," the Op,
investigating the murder of his partner, rookie Continental
agent Bob Teal, who's killed in circumstances paralleling
those of Archer in FALCON.
At the end of the story, the Op says, "Well, FIRST OFF
(italics mine), I knew the answer to the question 'Who killed
Bob Teal?' could have only one answer." Then goes on to
explain that, though he was a rookie, Teal was too sharp to
be caught in a remote place like that with his gun holstered,
unless he was with someone he trusted. So he had to have been
killed by someone he trusted. That meant the killer HAD to be
the Continental Agency's client.
This indicates that Spade probably DID know, at least at some
level, who the killer was right from the start.
On the other hand, in the short story, the Op doesn't have to
concentrate on anything but the murder case. In the novel,
Spade has a lot of distractions diverting him from the
question of who killed Archer. Arguably, with the prime
suspect in Archer's murder dead early in the book (and Spade
a suspect in that death), Spade's not really focused on
finding Archer's killer, because everyone, perhaps including
Spade, ASSUME that the killer's already dead.
END SPOILER ALERT END SPOILER ALERT END SPOILER ALERT
You can find "Who Killed Bob Teal?" in the recent Hammett
short story collection NIGHTMARE TOWN.
JIM DOHERTY
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and
Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~-->
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 01 Oct 2004 EDT