Being a resolute fan of the 1941 film version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, I always think of that as the definitive big-screen presentation. But of course, there were two previous cinematic interpretations: one that came out in 1931, under Hammett’s title, and the other released in 1936 as Satan Met a Lady.
In addition, that memorable story of greed and gumshoeing was adapted more than once for radio. As Evan Lewis reminds us today in his blog, Davy Crockett’s Almanack of Mystery, Adventure, and the Wild West, Hollywood luminary Edward G. Robinson played San Francisco private eye Sam Spade in an hour-long, Lux Radio Theatre production of Hammett’s yarn that aired on February 8, 1943. Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre—all of whom had starred in 1941’s The Maltese Falcon—reprised their roles in an abbreviated, 30-minute adaptation of the movie from September 1943. I also find on YouTube a slightly different, and shorter version—also starring Bogart—that was reportedly broadcast in July 1946.
I must now resist the compulsion to spend the remainder of this afternoon listening to each one of those, back to back.
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
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As you're a Falcon fan, my memorable off-shoot would be courtesy of long-departed Frank McAuliffe...not for his three novella collections of the exploits of one Augustus Mandrell, but rather for the other novella enclosed in the collection 'Men and Malice' (Crime Club, also Doubleday, edited by Dean Dickensheet, in which he drops Mandrell into the action of the Hammett story, thus managing to answer all the unanswered questions/coincidences that seemed to trouble even Hammett himself. By the by, the three collections referred to are also worth your time: Of all the bloody Cheek, Rather a vicious gentleman, For murder I charge more. These will give you a totally different perspective of the time around WWII. If dry wit and acerbic twists are your thing...enjoy.
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