Spade Archer

The stunning prequel to Dashiell Hammett's crime classic THE MALTESE FALCON. When Sam Spade gets drawn into the Maltese Falcon case, we know what to expect: straight talk, hard questions, no favours, and no way for anyone to get underneath the protective shell he wears like a second skin. We know that his late partner, Miles Archer, was a son of a bitch; that Spade is sleeping with Archer's wife. What we don't know is how Spade became who he is. Now SPADE & ARCHER completes the picture. 1921: Spade sets up his own agency in San Francisco and clients quickly start coming through the door. The next seven years will see him dealing with booze runners, water-front thugs, stowaways, banking swindlers, gold smugglers, bumbling cops, and the illegitimate daughter of Sun Yat-sen; with murder, other men's mistresses, and long-missing money. He'll bring in Archer as a partner, though it was Archer who stole his girl while he was fighting in World War I. He'll tangle with a villain who never loses his desire to make Spade pay big for ruining what should've been the perfect crime. And he'll fall in love - though it won't turn out for the best. It never does with dames...

A wonderfully dark, pitch-perfect noir prequel to The Maltese Falcon, featuring Dashiell Hammett’s beloved detective, Sam Spade. It’s 1921—seven years before Sam Spade will solve the famous case of the Maltese Falcon. He’s just set up his own agency in San Francisco and he gets off to a quick start, working cases (he doesn’t do domestic) and hiring a bright young secretary named Effie Perrine. When he’s hired by a prominent San Francisco banker to find his missing son, Spade gets the break he’s been looking for. He spends the next few years dealing with booze runners, waterfront thugs, banking swindlers, gold smugglers, and bumbling cops. He brings in Miles Archer as a partner to help bolster the agency, though it was Archer who stole his girl while he was fighting in World War I. All along, Spade will tangle with an enigmatic villain who holds a long-standing grudge against Spade. And, of course, he’ll fall in love—though it won’t turn out for the best. It never does with dames.

Only Toby Peters stands in the way of a plot to murder Albert Einstein A dentist dangles from the window of a swanky Park Avenue hotel. Toby Peters, a Los Angeles detective who’s very far from home, clutches the man by his jacket, which tears slowly, stich by stich. A dead man lies on the bed, while his killer batters the room door, which is going to pieces as quickly as the dentist’s jacket. Somehow, this entire mess is Albert Einstein’s fault. Two nefarious groups have been threatening the great physicist. One, a ring of blackmailers who claim to have evidence that he has been passing nuclear secrets to Russia. The other, a gang of Nazi assassins intent on doing away one of the most famous opponents of Hitler’s rule. Einstein hires Toby Peters to nip both problems in the bud. But if Einstein can’t figure it out, what chance does Toby have?

The fragrant Miss Wonderley hires Sam Spade, a private detective, to track down her sister, who has eloped with an immoral man called Floyd Thursby. But trouble finds Spade when his partner Miles Archer gets shot while on Thursby's trail. "The Maltese Falcon" is a classic mystery novel that shaped how writers told detective stories.

Few films have had the impact or retained the popularity of The Maltese Falcon. An unexpected hit upon its release in 1941, it helped establish the careers of John Huston and Humphrey Bogart while also helping both to transform the detective genre of movies and to create film noir. This volume includes an introduction by its editor and a shot-by-shot continuity of the film, as well as essays on its production, on literary and film traditions it drew upon, and on its reputation and influence over the last half century. Included are reviews from the time of the film's original release, the enthusiastic French response in 1946 that helped define film noir, and a close formal anaylsis of the film. In addition, the volume contains a comparison of this version to earlier film versions of the Dashiell Hammett novel, and helpful explorations of cultural, historical, and psychoanalytic issues. Like Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon has attained iconic status; this volume will contribute to the pleasure its many fans find in viewing the film again and again. William Luhr is a professor of English at St. Peter's College in New Jersey. He is the author of Raymond Chandler and Film and co-author of Blake Edwards and other books.

Our fifth edition of the Actors Series, highlights quasi-horror man Peter Lorre. Peter Lorre made many horror film appearances, but was never actually considered a horror film star. Instead, it was Lorre's persona, that of a quirky, deviant little man, sometimes charming, sometimes boiling over with venom, that made him a perfect match for horror films. Lorre felt just as comfortable enacting supporting roles in A films as he did starring in the Bs. This book takes an in-depth look at the film work of this versatile performer by providing analyses of films such as M, Mad Love, The Face Behind the Mask, The Maltese Falcon, Silk Stockings, The Raven and The Comedy of Terrors as well as many of the other films that made Peter Lorre a film legend.

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Argues that understanding Huston’s film adaptations of literary works is essential to understanding his oeuvre as a filmmaker. John Huston as Adaptor makes the case that adaptation is the salient element in Huston’s identity as a filmmaker and that his early and deep attraction to the experience of reading informed his approach to film adaptation. Thirty-four of Huston’s thirty-seven films were adaptations of literary texts, and they stand as serious interpretations of literary works that could only be made by an astute reader of literature. Indeed, Huston asserted that a film director should be above all else a reader and that reading itself should be the intellectual and emotional basis for filmmaking. The seventeen essays in this volume not only address Huston as an adaptor, but also offer an approach to adaptation studies that has been largely overlooked. How an adaptor reads, the works to which he is drawn, and how his literary interpretations can be brought to the screen without relegating film to a subservient role are some of the issues addressed by the contributors. An introductory chapter identifies Huston as the quintessential Hollywood adaptor and argues that his skill at adaptation is the mark of his authorial signature. The chapters that follow focus on fifteen of Huston’s most important films, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The African Queen (1951), The Night of the Iguana (1964), Under the Volcano (1984), and The Dead (1987), and are divided into three areas: aesthetics and textuality; history and social context; and theory and psychoanalysis. By offering a more comprehensive account of the centrality of adaptation to Huston’s films, John Huston as Adaptor offers a greater understanding of Huston as a filmmaker. Douglas McFarland is a retired Professor of English at Flagler College. Wesley King is Assistant Professor of English at Flagler College.