Welcome to the first in a series of weekly literary trivia, tidbits, and useless factoids. A lot of people have either seen or read The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, but I think even more probably just recognize the name as one of those classics they’re supposed to be embarrassed about being unfamiliar with.
The novel opens with a physical description of the protagonist, Sam Spade:
“Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down–from high flat temples–in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan.”
Sam is played by Humphrey Bogart. The resemblance is extraordinarily lacking. But, that’s Hollywood. There isn’t an endless supply of actors with v-themed faces running around, and Bogart does a fantastic job in the movie.
