Dashiell Hammett's SAM SPADE is surely one of the most important figures in the entire private eye genre. He made his debut in 1929 in the pages of Black Mask, in the serialized first part of The Maltese Falcon, and the genre has never been the same. He's a "hard and shifty fellow," a partner in the Archer and Spade Detective Agency of San Francisco. He doesn't particularly like his partner, and he's not above sleeping with his wife, but when Miles is murdered, he swings into action, and ends up mixed up with a quest for a priceless statuette, a rara-avis, called the Maltese Falcon.
Three film adaptations were based on it in 1931, 1936, and 1941. The first two were not all that great, but the third time was the charm. The Maltese Falcon, released in 1941 by Warner Brothers, written and directed by John Huston, and starring Humphrey Bogart as Spade was an amazing, powerful piece of work.
And in the forties, Spade was a staple of the airwaves, thanks to The Adventures of Sam Spade, a popular radio show, featuring Howard Duff in the lead role, and sponsored by Wildroot Hair Oil. In fact, a series of single-page comic strip/hair tonic ads appeared in magazines, newspapers and comic books, featuring Spade shilling for Wildroot Hair Oil. (The ads were drawn by Golden Age artist Lou Fine, who later went on to do the Peter Scratch comic strip.)
In fact, the only real sequel to The Maltese Falcon was not produced for either prose or film, though, but for radio. Both The Adventures of Sam Spade and the great mystery anthology show Suspense were both produced by the same man, William Speir. During the first year or two that Sam Spade was on the air, Suspense was an hour show, hosted by Robert Montgomery. To get fans of Suspense listening to Sam Spade, Speir produced a special one-hour Spade episode called "The Kandy Tooth Caper" and aired it on Suspense.
"The Kandy Tooth" from the popular old time radio series "Suspense." aired January 10, 1948 on CBS starring Howard Duff as Sam Spade. Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett. The story of the return of the "Fat Man!" A sequel to "The Maltese Falcon," with "Joel Cairo," Wilmer's younger brother, and other characters from the film. This time, it's a search for a treasure worth more than the "Maltese Falcon!" William Spier speaks after the drama.
Suspense 48-01-10 (279) The Kandy Tooth (HQ)
Comments