Aces WildIf there's a bird that's strange, and you're a girl who looks good, who you gonna call? No ghosts to bust here, so you'd better call Private Detective Sam Spade. In The Maltese Falcon, we...

Alias Brigid O'Shaughnessy is no Jennifer Garner, but she does have a few aliases of her own. She enters Spade's office as Ms. Wonderly. She takes a hotel room as Ms. LeBlanc. But her real name is...

It's Not Over Until the Fat Man SingsGutman has been pursuing the Falcon for a long time. We're not sure exactly how long, or how many people he's eaten to get to it. Okay, that is a cheap fat joke...

With his gardenia-scented calling cards, his curly hair, his one glove (years before Michael Jackson tried the same look), and his fretting over his appearance at all times, Joel Cairo is coded a...

Have Gunsel, Will Travel Wilmer is Gutman's lackey. Toadie. Stooge. Or gunsel, a word Spade uses to describe Wilmer. The word gunsel could mean either "cheap thief or criminal" or a young homosexua...

Effie's TrinketEffie is the one responsible female character in the movie. Brigid is manipulative. Iva Archer is histrionic. But Effie's levelheaded and intelligent. Spade relies on her to roll his...

Black WidowWe barely get to know Spade's partner, Miles Archer, before Miles is murdered and Spade has his name removed from the office window (which is just one example of Spade's characteristic c...

Cop OutThe cops in 1941 San Francisco don't seem to be very effective…is it all the fog in the City By the Bay that's clouding their judgment? They must have a history with Sam Spade, because t...