The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) Quotations

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film about Sam Spade, a private detective, who gets involved in a murderous hunt for a valuable statuette. The screenplay was written by the film's director, John Huston, but a great deal of the dialogue for the movie was taken almost directly from the Dashiell Hammett novel it is based on.

Sam Spade

We didn't exactly believe your story, Miss O'Shaughnessy; we believed your two hundred dollars...I mean, you paid us more than if you'd been telling us the truth, and enough more to make it all right.

My guess might be excellent or it might be crummy, but Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children dippy enough to make guesses in front of a district attorney, and an assistant district attorney, and a stenographer.

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 killed, it's-it's bad business to let the killer get away with it, bad all around, bad for every detective everywhere.

Others

Kasper Gutman: Ah. That's wonderful sir, wonderful. I do like a man who tells you right out he's looking out for himself. Don't we all? I don't trust a man who says he's not.

Dialogue

Brigid: You've got to trust me, Mr. Spade. Oh, I'm so alone and afraid. I've got nobody to help me if you won't help me. Be generous, Mr. Spade. You're brave. You're strong. You can spare me some of that courage and strength surely. Help me, Mr. Spade. I need help so badly. I've no right to ask you, I know I haven't, but I do ask you. Help me.

Spade: You won't need much of anybody's help. You're good. It's chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like "Be generous, Mr. Spade."

Brigid: I deserve that. But the lie was in the way I said it. Not at all in what I said. It's my own fault if you can't believe me now.

Spade: [smiling] Now you are dangerous.

Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready, huh?

Spade: What do you want me to do - learn to stutter?

Gutman: We begin well, sir. I distrust a man who says "when". If he's got to be careful not to drink too much, it's because he's not to be trusted when he does. Well, sir, here's to plain speaking and clear understanding. [They drink.] You're a close-mouthed man.

Spade: No, I like to talk.

Gutman: Better and better. I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice.

Polhaus: [lifting the fake falcon] It's heavy. What is it?

Spade: The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.

Note: bolded line is ranked #14 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

Taglines

A story as explosive as his blazing automatics!

A guy without a conscience! A dame without a heart!

He's as fast on the draw as he is in the drawing room!

He's a Killer When He Hates!

Cast

Humphrey Bogart - Sam Spade
Mary Astor - Brigid O'Shaughnessy
Gladys George - Iva Archer
Peter Lorre - Joel Cairo
Barton MacLane - Det. Lt. Dundy
Lee Patrick - Effie Perine
Sydney Greenstreet - Kasper Gutman
Ward Bond - Det. Tom Polhaus
Jerome Cowan - Miles Archer
Elisha Cook Jr. - Wilmer Cook

Quoternity