The Bird Has Flown

Where’s Sam Spade when you really need him? The San Francisco Chronicle reports that some worthless schmuck “broke into a locked cabinet on the second floor” of John’s Grill, a historic eatery on Ellis Street “and took a signed reproduction of the Maltese Falcon--one used for publicity stills for the movie--along with several vintage and signed books by and about Maltese Falcon author Dashiell Hammett.”

John’s Grill, of course, was mentioned in Hammett’s 1930 novel as a place private eye Spade frequented. The author apparently ate there, too. Which makes John’s Grill something of a shrine to the world’s numerous Hammett enthusiasts.

Owner John Konstin tells the Chron that somebody noticed the disappearance on Saturday afternoon, so the theft probably took place late Friday or early in the weekend. “The black statue was signed by actor Elisha Cook Jr., a San Franciscan who played the role of Wilmer the Gunsel in the movie,” the newspaper explains. “He presented it to the restaurant after Konstin and [longtime] San Francisco private investigator Jack Immendorf failed in their attempt to buy the original bird that was used in the movie.” Reporter John Coopman notes in a subsequent piece that the original Falcon used in the 1941 Humphrey Bogart flick “was made of lead and heavy like the stone you’d tie around a dead man’s neck before you tossed him into the bay. They said Bogey dropped it on his toe and limped through the whole picture. The movie people made a couple others, for publicity, out of plaster. This was one of those.”

Konstin has offered a $25,000 reward for anyone who returns the bird and the books. “No questions asked,” adds the restaurant proprietor.

(Hat tip to Mark Coggins.)

READ MORE: “Maltese Falcon Disappears in a Real-Life Mystery,” by John M. Glionn (Los Angeles Times).