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The Maltese Falcon

The Changing Of Characters


Many time in our lives, we have seen the
transformation of novels into movies. Some of them
are equal to the novel, few are superior, and most
are inferior. Why is this? Why is it that a story
that was surely to be one of the best written
stories ever, could turn out to be Hollywood
flops? One reason is that in many transformations,
the main characters are changed, some the way they
look, others the way they act. On top of this,
scenes are cut out and plot is even changed. In
this essay, I will discuss some of the changes
made to the characters of the Maltese Falcon as
they make their transformation to the �big
screen.�

The first character that we read or see is Sam
Spade. In the book he is written as being tall and
lanky with blond hair, and a recurring v-motif
that makes him out to be what Hammett describes as
a �blond Satan.� With these descriptions, we can
easily make out a powerful image of what Sam Spade
must look like in our heads. When we have an image
of what something is going to be like and it turns
out to not at all be what we expected, we are
often let down, disappointed.This is due to the
casting of Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade. His hair
is brown, and his, round, soft face is the
farthest a face can come from having a satanic
v-motif. Although Humphrey Bogart�s acting was
very good, it was intruded by my perception of
what Sam Spade was supposed to look like.

Brigid O�Shaunessey is the villianess of this
story, the �femme fatale�
as we sometimes refer to her in class. She is
always lying and scheming to get what she wants.
In the book, her quest is aided very well by her
gorgeous looks. The first image we get of Miss
O�Shaughnessey is...

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