“The Maltese Falcon” Hemmet in summary
In the reception of private detective Sam Spade appears a young and beautiful woman. She appears as Miss Wonderly and reports that she came to San Francisco after the sister who had fled with her lover. She wants to return her home, and tonight she will meet with a young man who promises to then take her to a runaway. Appeared in the office of Spade’s associate Miles Archer expresses his readiness to accompany Miss Wonderly to avoid a dirty trick from a certain Floyd Terzby.
Soon, Spade receives grim news: Archer is killed. A little later, Terzby is found dead. The police suspect Spade of keeping accounts. The same, protecting, as it should be a private detective, the interests of the client, refuses to disclose the details of the case. However, it soon turns out that Miss Wonderly has misled Spade about the story of her sister. Her real name is Bridget O’Shaughnessey, and the clouds are actually gathering over her head. She asks for protection, although she refuses
To Spade is a certain Joel Keiro. He is trying to return the thing that he had lost, which, according to his assumptions, may be with Spade. Making sure that his suspicions are groundless, Keira offers Spade to find this valuable item for a reward of five thousand dollars. When Spade talks about this visit to Brigitte O’Shaughnessy, she becomes confused and begs not to leave her to the mercy of fate. Spade arranges for her and Caro something like a confrontation, and the girl agrees to return for a certain amount of interest Keiro statuette depicting a falcon.
There are police officers and take Caro “to find out the circumstances,” and the girl says that the statuette was mined in Constantinople from the Russian General Kemidov. Suspecting that Caro was unlikely to pay for this job, she and Terzby hastily left Constantinople. However, she did not trust Terzby, believing that he would most likely try to cheat her. Between her and Spade there is more than business cooperation. They find themselves in bed. But in the morning, while Bridget is still asleep,
Spade notices that a certain young man is following him. His name is Wilmer, and he is the right hand of a man named Kaspar Gutman, who also wants contacts with Spade. It is Gutman who tells Spade what a statue is about, around which passions are seething. At one time it was made by the Knights of the Order of the Johnnites as a gift to the Emperor Charles V, who gave them the island of Malta. But the galley, on which, among other valuable cargoes, there was a statuette, did not reach the port of destination. The ship was captured by Algerian pirates, and then the golden falcon begins to wander through the white light, passing from hand to hand. Someone from the owners of precaution covers the falcon with black paint. Gutman goes to the track of the falcon, when he gets to the Greek entrepreneur. Until the cherished goal, it would seem, a stone’s throw, but the Greek dies under mysterious circumstances, and the figurine disappears from his house. After searching for seventeen long years, Gutman finally finds a falcon in Constantinople, but his current owner, a retired Russian general, does not want to part with a knickknack, whose true value he does not seem to represent. Then it is necessary to go to theft, nevertheless in the hands of Gutman the falcon does not fall. Gutman has no doubt that only Miss O’Shaughnessey knows the location of the falcon, and since her traces are lost in San Francisco, he offers Spade considerable money for help in finding the falcon. But a tempting offer turns into a bluff: Spike is drugged into the whiskey, he’s been unconscious for several hours and, waking up, realizes that he was simply taken out of the game in order to catch Bridget without hindrance. Gutman finally finds a falcon in Constantinople, but his current owner, a retired Russian general, does not want to part with a trinket, whose true value he does not seem to represent. Then it is necessary to go to theft, nevertheless in the hands of Gutman the falcon does not fall. Gutman has no doubt that only Miss O’Shaughnessey knows the location of the falcon, and since her traces are lost in San Francisco, he offers Spade considerable money for help in finding the falcon. But a tempting offer turns into a bluff: Spike is drugged into the whiskey, he’s been unconscious for several hours and, waking up, realizes that he was simply taken out of the game in order to catch Bridget without hindrance. Gutman finally finds a falcon in Constantinople, but his current owner, a retired Russian general, does not want to part with a trinket, whose true value he does not seem to represent. Then it is necessary to go to theft, nevertheless in the hands of Gutman the falcon does not fall. Gutman has no doubt that only Miss O’Shaughnessey knows the location of the falcon, and since her traces are lost in San Francisco, he offers Spade considerable money for help in finding the falcon. But a tempting offer turns into a bluff: Spike is drugged into the whiskey, he’s been unconscious for several hours and, waking up, realizes that he was simply taken out of the game in order to catch Bridget without hindrance. judging by everything, does not represent. Then it is necessary to go to theft, nevertheless in the hands of Gutman the falcon does not fall. Gutman has no doubt that only Miss O’Shaughnessey knows the location of the falcon, and since her traces are lost in San Francisco, he offers Spade considerable money for help in finding the falcon. But a tempting offer turns into a bluff: Spike is drugged into the whiskey, he’s been unconscious for several hours and, waking up, realizes that he was simply taken out of the game in order to catch Bridget without hindrance. judging by everything, does not represent. Then it is necessary to go to theft, nevertheless in the hands of Gutman the falcon does not fall. Gutman has no doubt that only Miss O’Shaughnessey knows the location of the falcon, and since her traces are lost in San Francisco, he offers Spade considerable money for help in finding the falcon. But a tempting offer turns into a bluff: Spike is drugged into the whiskey, he’s been unconscious for several hours and, waking up, realizes that he was simply taken out of the game in order to catch Bridget without hindrance.
Bridget disappears somewhere, and Spade has to work hard before he realizes that she most likely went to meet the steamship Paloma, who arrived from Hong Kong. When a fire breaks out aboard the Paloma, Spade realizes that this is only the first link in the chain of new dramatic events. Meanwhile, Spade’s police report that Archer was shot with Terzbi’s weapons, which even before had had troubles with US law enforcement agencies. About the one who killed Terzby, there is still no clarity and suspicions from Spade have not yet been lifted.
Spade manages to establish that Bridget O’Shaughnessy saw Jacobi, the captain of Paloma, but then Gutman joined them with the company. While Spade and his secretary are reflecting on what could have happened to Bridget, a tall, thin man with a bundle in his hands appears on the threshold of the office. Having failed to explain anything, he falls dead – death came as a result of multiple bullet wounds. In the convolution the same Maltese falcon, because of which the whole mess had happened..
The phone rings. Bridget O’Shaughnessy is in the hotel “Alexandria” and asks to come – she is allegedly threatened with a terrible danger. After putting the falcon into the storage room, Spade leaves to rescue the girl, but the alarm turns out to be false. Spade returns to his home, where he is already waiting for Gutman, Keira, Wilmer and Bridget.
Trading begins. Spade is ready to take in exchange for a bird ten thousand dollars, but demands that Wilmer be handed over to the police as the killer of Terzby and Jacobi. After long negotiations, Gutman agrees. Soon, Secretary Spade brings a package with a falcon. With tears of emotion in front of Gutman unfolds the paper, begins to scrape off the black paint with a knife, but, to the general shock, under the black protective layer is not gold, but lead. The jewel turns out to be a fake. Gutman, however, does not long despondency. He expresses his readiness to continue searching until the end. Spade returns most of the amount he has received, Gutman, Keira and Wilmer are removed, but after their departure, Spade contacts the police and hands over the entire trio. However, the police find only Keiro and Wilmer alive,
Now Spade makes Bridget O’Shaughnessey tell how it was really. Her story is a bizarre combination of truth and lies, but Sam Spade is difficult to circle. Thanks to its suggestive questions, amendments and comments, the truth finally emerges, which can not be called light.
Miles Archer shot Bridget O’Shaughnessy, not Floyd Terzby. And this was done on a cold calculation. Fearing her accomplice, she decided to take him out of the game in any way. After killing Archer out of his weapon and knowing about the uneasy relations that Terzby had with the American police, she thereby almost completely removed him from the chase for the falcon that they had obtained by joint efforts in Constantinople, and then had to hurry away from Gutman and the company. Then she thought of sending the statuette in a roundabout way through Hong Kong to “Paloma”. But the too rapid appearance in San Francisco of Gutman again made her turn to the detective agency of Sam Spade. The insidious intriguer, mercilessly using people to achieve his personal goals, and then discarding them as unnecessary, she still hopes to get out of the water, hoping to play on the feelings that Spade has for her. But that genuinely cool detective and does not give emotions the upper hand. He understands that, having saved Bridget from danger now, he will remain her hostage for life. The love of this woman is just as false as the Maltese falcon. And the police in the finals take into custody the fatal Bridget.
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