Calling a Spade a Spade

Contrary to what I wrote in last Tuesday's post, I did not wait until I had finished reading Swann's Way before beginning Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. As a matter of fact, after reading The Maltese Falcon I went on to another of Hammett's works - also available at fadedpage.com - The Adventures of Sam Spade and other stories.

For the most part, The Maltese Falcon film, with Humphrey Bogart, follows the novel rather well.There are a few differences, however. For example, the character portrayed by Peter Lorre - Joel Cairo - is openly homosexual in the novel. More surprisingly, in the novel, Joel Cairo has a homosexual relationship with Kasper Gutman's flunky, Wilmer Cook.

Other difference in the novel is the appearance of Kasper Gutman's daughter Rhea and Gutman's murder by Wilmer.

The wikipedia article covering Hammett says Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time". Unfortunately, Hammett does not live up to that praise in The Adventures of Sam Spade and other stories. The seven short stories in this 1924 collection are not, by any means, on the same level as The Maltese Falcon. Of course, following the The Maltese Falcon, I couldn't resist reading his earlier stories. I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed.