The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett

I've watched The Maltese Falcon twice now, but I had never read the book itself until this weekend. A coworker finished it and loaned it to me. It's a fast read, never bogs down. In some ways, the story goes faster reading it than watching it, especially near the end. I think I can read dialogue faster than Bogart speaks it.

I did wind up picturing the characters as they appeared in the film, as far as I could, anyway. Hammett describes Spade's face as being a series of Vs running from chin, to mouth, to eyebrows, and I spent a little time trying to picture that on Bogart's face. It helps in some ways. Spade gets cruel sometimes, and I think Bogart had a gift for delivering dialogue in a way that blunted the cruelty just enough we don't turn against him. He could be cruel, when it was called for ("You killed my husband, Sam, be kind to me. Jesus Christ."), but it has to reined in occasionally.

I notice the movie cut out certain things, mainly related to Spade's romantic life. As my coworker noted, it definitely played down the affair with Iva Archer. So in that regard, the book helps quite a bit, because it explains more clearly why Spade didn't care about Miles' death. I remember watching the move and being surprised by how disinterested Spade was. It seemed like a contrivance, a way to make the cops suspicious of Spade. In the book, it makes more sense, and the reason Spade can't explain why he's not moved makes sense, too.

The other bits the movie excised were Gutman's daughter, Rhea, who to be fair, appears in only one scene, and wasn't really needed. And the matter of Joel Cairo's sexuality. Not really surprised that would be downplayed in the movie, either.

One thing I did notice reading the story was Hammett's consistent use of the word "lighted". Spade lighted many cigarettes, when I felt it should say he lit them. I don't know whether Hammett was being grammatically correct or not, but it certainly felt like a needlessly awkward choice. It's the only awkward thing about the writing. I'm envious of his ability to describe people in colorful ways that still make sense. When he describes Gutman as having fleshy cones for arms, I can visualize what he means by that, and even if I can't quite see it on Bogart's face, I understand the description of Spade's face as a collection of Vs.