The Maltese Falcon

Bye-bye, honey. I'll see you later.

Effie.

Yes, Sam.

Honey,

have I any more important engagements this afternoon?

Not that I know of.

Yes, sir.

There's a girl outside to see you, Sam. Her name's Wonderly.

-A customer? -I guess so.

You'll see her anyway. She's a knockout.

Okay, honey, send her in.

Will you come in, Miss Wonderly?

How do you do? Won't you sit down?

Thank you.

Mr. Spade, could you...

I thought...

I mean, I...

Perhaps it would be easier if you started from the beginning.

That was in New York.

She met him there.

-She? -My sister.

Oh, I see. Then it's your sister you're concerned about.

Terribly. And I must get her back home

before Mother and Father return from Europe.

-When will that be? -The first of the month.

That's two weeks. Oh, that's plenty of time.

Spade and Archer.

Hello, Effie, this is Iva Archer speaking.

Say, is my husband there?

No, he isn't, Iva. He isn't back from his trip yet.

Well, then put Sam on the phone.

He is in conference now.

Well, that's all right. Tell him it's very important.

All right, hold the wire. I'll switch your call to his office.

Excuse me.

Mrs. Archer on the phone. She says it's important.

Will you excuse me just a minute?

-Hello? -Hello, Sam.

Oh, I'm terribly lonesome, and I just had to talk to you.

Yeah.

Oh, hello, Mr. Archer.

Have a good trip?

Yeah, yes, I had a good trip.

Found out what I wanted to know.

Effie,

will you put these in on my desk, please?

And get out the other papers in the case, too, will you?

Yes, Mr. Archer.

Now you be sensible about it. Please.

Don't do anything rash.

Things will work themselves out.

You sound so cold.

Don't you love me anymore?

Is there somebody there that you can't talk to me like you used to?

Yes. Yes.

Goodbye, honey. Call me soon. I'll be waiting.

Very strange case.

Woman lost a dog last night and wants us to find it for her.

-Excuse me. I thought you were alone. -Come on in.

Miss Wonderly, my partner, Miles Archer.

How do you do?

How do you do, Mr. Archer?

Miles, Miss Wonderly's sister ran away from New York

with a man named Floyd Thursby.

-Thursby? -Yes.

They're here in town.

She located Thursby, but he won't tell her where her sister is.

-Is that right? -Yes.

She wants a man to follow Thursby

until we find out just where he's hiding her sister.

Well, how do we pick up this man Thursby?

Miss Wonderly's gonna meet him tonight at her hotel at 8:00.

And I think it would be safe for you if you met him in the lobby.

But you must be careful.

I'm so afraid of what he might do...to her.

You think he's dangerous?

I don't think he'd stop at anything to save himself.

We know how to take care of him, all right.

Now, don't you worry, Miss Wonderly.

Mr. Spade,

could either you or Mr. Archer...

Could either of you handle this matter personally?

I'm so afraid about the whole thing,

and I'd feel so much safer.

I'd be willing to pay most anything if you would.

Would that be enough?

Oh, yes. I'll look after this myself.

-Thank you so much, Mr. Archer. -It's all right.

-And thank you, Mr. Spade. -Not at all.

You've both been very kind.

-Goodbye. -Goodbye.

-Goodbye. -Goodbye.

Any phone calls for me, Sam?

-Oh, yes, your wife called. -Yeah?

What did she have to say?

Oh, wanted to know when you were coming home.

And she said she missed you an awful lot.

Yeah?

Hello?

Hello.

Yes, speaking.

What?

Dead?

Yes, I'll be right over.

Yes, I'll hurry.

Dead?

-Hello, Sam. -Hello, Tom.

I thought you'd want to take a look at the body before we took it away.

Got him right through the pump with this.

And fired so close, the powder burned his overcoat.

Archer didn't have time to draw.

His gun was tucked away in his hip pocket.

-Better take it. -I don't want it.

I know how you feel.

I guess it's up to you to break the news to the widow, ain't it?

Yeah, I guess so.

Say!

Ain't you gonna take a look at him before you go?

What's the use, Tom? You've seen him.

Nothing I can do to bring him to life.

Come on in, precious.

-Who were you expecting, darling? -You, sweetheart.

Was Archer working tonight, Sam?

Supposed to be tailing a guy named Thursby.

What for?

Well, for the swell reason

that we've got a client that's paying us

good old-fashioned American coin to have him tailed.

Did you break the news to Archer's wife, Sam?

-Yeah. -How did she take it?

I don't know much about these women.

The devil you don't.

I warned you your foot would slip sometime, Spade.

Everybody's foot slips sometime.

Yeah, and this is your time.

-What kind of a gun do you carry? -None.

You don't happen to have one around here anyplace?

No.

-Are you sure of that? -Well, have a look around.

If you find one, I'll make you a present of it.

I told you I didn't have any.

You've told me a lot of things tonight that didn't mean anything.

I tell just what I wanna tell.

You'll tell me just what I wanna know,

or you'll tell it in court.

This is murder, and don't you forget it.

Listen, Dundy,

it's a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn't like me.

Yeah?

Well, you listen to me, Spade.

At 1:00 tonight, Archer was murdered.

Another man named Floyd Thursby

was shot down in front of his hotel

35 minutes after you left Archer in the alley.

Take your dirty paws off me!

What have I got to do about all this?

Tom says you were in such a hurry

you didn't even stop to look at your dead partner.

I couldn't get sentimental over Archer, dead or alive.

And you didn't go to Archer's house to tell his wife.

You sent the girl from your office.

Well, now that you got it all figured out,

maybe you can tell me how I killed Thursby. I've forgotten.

As he started to go into his hotel, he was shot three times in the back

with a.45 from across the street.

Nobody saw it, but that's the way it figures.

You may as well know it, if you don't.

Thursby died before he could tell anybody who shot him.

I never saw Thursby dead or alive.

Now get out of here and let me get some sleep, will you?

You can't give us the runaround this way.

-The D.A. is gonna hear about this. -Yeah?

Well, what I said to you goes for the D.A., double in spades.

What do you think of that, Mr. Dundy?

-Who is it? -Mr. Spade.

-Good morning, Mr. Spade. -Hello. How are you?

I didn't expect to see you. I thought Mr. Archer was to call.

Mr. Archer couldn't come.

-Won't you sit down? -Thanks.

Too bad we couldn't find that little sister of yours.

Mr. Spade,

I have a terrible confession to make.

That story I told you yesterday wasn't true.

We didn't believe you.

But we believed your $200.

You know, darling, for that amount of money, I'd let you tell me a lie every day.

Well, when I told you that I expected Mr. Archer,

I lied again. I know what's happened.

But you'll go on with the case just the same, won't you?

That all depends.

There have been two murders committed.

That stirs up the police and makes things more expensive

and harder to handle.

You don't think I had anything to do with those murders?

-I forgot to ask you that. Did you? -Oh, no! Of course not.

Good!

Say, listen.

There are a flock of policemen, assistant district attorneys and reporters outside,

running around with their noses to the ground.

What are we gonna tell them?