Sam Spade

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Sam Spade is a hardboiled private detective and the leading character in Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon (1930) first published as a serial in the pulp magazine Black Mask. Sam Spade also appears in three short stories by Hammett.

Sam Spade is most closely associated with actor Humphrey Bogart, who played the character in the most famous film version of The Maltese Falcon. This was the third and most well known movie version of the book, made in 1941 and directed by John Huston in his directorial debut. Spade was played by Ricardo Cortez in the 1931 version and with the central character renamed Ted Shane in the second, 1936, version). Despite a number of perceived flaws and misteps - Bogart failed to dye his hair to the characteristic blonde called for by the novel, was considered to be too small and dark for the role, with the wrong facial structure, and was even slighted for not being enough of a lecher - he turned out not only to have succeeded, but in fact to have created the archetypal private detective, one which has influenced "film noir" characters ever since.

George Segal played Sam Spade, Jr., son of the original, in the 1974 spoof The Black Bird. The character was also parodied as Sam Diamond, played by Peter Falk, in the 1976 comedy Murder By Death.

In the radio productions, Sam Spade was played by Edward G. Robinson in a 1943 Lux Radio Theatre production, and by Bogart himself in a 1946 Academy Award Theatre production, both on CBS. A 1946–1951 radio show called the Adventures of Sam Spade (on ABC, CBS, and NBC), starred Howard Duff (and later, Steve Dunne), and took a considerably more tongue-in-cheek approach to the character.

Contents

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Novel

  • The Maltese Falcon (1930)
    • Serialized in 5 parts, in the September 1929 to January 1930 issues of Black Mask
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Short stories

  • "A Man Called Spade" (1932, The American Magazine; also collected in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories)
  • "Too Many Have Lived" (1932, The American Magazine; also collected in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories)
  • "They Can Only Hang You Once" (1932, The American Magazine; also in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories)
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Anthologies

  • A Man Named Spade and Other Stories (1944) (contains three Sam Spade stories from The American Magazine -- listed above)
  • The Novels of Dashiell Hammett (1965) (contains The Maltese Falcon)
  • Nightmare Town (1999), Vintage, ISBN 0-375-40111-3, (contains three Sam Spade stories from The American Magazine -- listed above)
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Films

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Radio

  • Lux Radio Theatre: "The Maltese Falcon" (1943, CBS) - a 60 minute version of the novel, starring Edward G. Robinson as Sam Spade and Laird Cregar as Casper Gutman
  • Academy Award Theatre: "The Maltese Falcon" (1946, CBS) - 30 minute version of the story, starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet
  • Suspense: "The Kandy Tooth Caper" (January 10, 1948? episode) - 60 minutes, starring Howard Duff
  • The Adventures of Sam Spade, starring Howard Duff and Steve Dunne as Sam Spade
    • The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946, ABC) - 13 30-minute episodes
    • The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946-49, CBS) - 157 30-minute episodes
    • The Adventures of Sam Spade (1949-50, NBC) - 51 30-minute episodes
    • The Adventures of Sam Spade (1950-51, NBC) - 24 30-minute episodes
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Comics

  • The Maltese Falcon (1946, Feature Books #48, David McKay Publications) Artist: Rodlow Willard
  • Sam Spade Wildroot Hair Tonic Ads (1950's)
    • Single page comic strips, appeared in newspapers, magazines, comic books. Tie-in with radio show The Adventures of Sam Spade, which Wildroot also sponsored. Artist: Lou Fine.
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External links

fi:Sam Spade

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