I can't confirm it (as I don't have a copy to check), but I
wouldn't be surprised if the Flitcraft episode was based on
something contained in Duke's _Celebrated Criminal Cases of
America_ which is the book on Sam Spade's bedside table in
Chapter 2 of the novel (when Spade receives the telephone
call telling him Archer has been killed), and is also visible
in Huston's 1941 film.
As far as 'motive' goes--Hammett's, not Spade's--let's not
forget that Hammett had asked for more money from Black Mask
and was turned down
(Shaw advised Hammett to wrote *longer stories*) so one way
of adding to a story's length is to include an anecdote or an
extended passage, such as the Flitcraft episode in _The
Maltese Falcon_ or the Packer story in
_The Thin Man_ (which *is* acknowledged as coming from
_Celebrated Criminal Cases of America_).
ED
------------------------ 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 : 27 Nov 2004 EST