My Scrapbook Owen Smith Does BART (Another one rides the bus) “I like the idea of reading a book and losing yourself on your train ride.” -- Owen Smith Four years after artist Owen Smith was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission to do a series of paintings to create a series of posters, Dashiell Hammett’s … Continue reading My Scrapbook: Owen Smith Does BART
Tag: The Maltese Falcon
My Scrapbook: Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco by Owen Smith
My Scrapbook Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco by Owen Smith In 2008, artist Owen Smith was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission to do a series of paintings to create a series of posters, Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco, for their annual “Art on Market Street” poster series. The over-sized posters featured moments and characters from Hammett's The … Continue reading My Scrapbook: Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco by Owen Smith
Sam Sumida/Jimmy Park (Woman With a Blue Pencil)
Created by Gordon McAlpine Pseudonyms include Owen Fitzstephen Your first instinct might be to run when you hear the high-minded praise for this “brilliantly structured labyrinth of a novel—postmodernist in its experimental bravado,” as Joyce Carol Oates calls it. But relax. In Woman With a Blue Pencil (2015), Gordon McAlpine doesn’t just write just for the … Continue reading Sam Sumida/Jimmy Park (Woman With a Blue Pencil)
Rita Gaspereaux (The Big Man’s Daughter)
Created by Owen Fitzstephen Pseudonym of Gordon McAlpine Owen Fitzstephen's book is called The Big Man's Daughter, and it doesn't really have a detective in it, but... Explaining one of Fitzstephen's books is a bit like skiing about soup. This is really just the author playing fast and loose (and possibly avoiding lawsuits from the … Continue reading Rita Gaspereaux (The Big Man’s Daughter)
On the Trail of The Black Bird…
The Whereabouts of the "Real" Maltese Falcon As of March 1995, the original movie prop (two were made, but only one was used) from John Huston's 1941 classic The Maltese Falcon had finally gone home to roost in San Francisco, site of the film and the original novel by Dashiell Hammett. The leaden statuette emerged … Continue reading On the Trail of The Black Bird…
George Webb
Created by Graham Swift "The things people ask you to do..." Who'd a thunk it? Remember, at the end of Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, when Sam Spade tells Brigid O'Shaughnessy, just as she's being carted off to prison, that he would wait for her? Well, with that concept in mind, Booker Prize-winning author Graham Swift … Continue reading George Webb
Sam Spade, Junior
Created by Don M. Mankiewicz and Gordon Cotler With a heavy debt to Dashiell Hammett Why is everyone after George Segal's bird? --tagline for the film In The Black Bird (1975, Columbia), an occasionally entertaining tribute/spoof of the classic John-Huston directed, Bogie-starring gumshoe classic flick from 1941, The Maltese Falcon (based, of course, on Dashiell Hammett's equally … Continue reading Sam Spade, Junior
Ted Shane (Sam Spade)
Created by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) "Honey, it blows!" TED SHANE was the name given to Sam Spade's character in Satan Met a Lady (Warner Bros., 1936), the second film version of the Hammett classic, The Maltese Falcon. Generally considered not as good as the first, which starred Richard Cortez, and not even in the same … Continue reading Ted Shane (Sam Spade)
Sam Spade
Created by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) “When a man’s partner is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it. It doesn’t make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you’re supposed to do something about it. And it happens we’re in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets … Continue reading Sam Spade