Reading the book The Maltese Falcon in class and getting to watch it was an interesting experience. It allowed me to view the book in my own mind and then see someone else’s version. Although the movie did follow the book in a lot of ways there were some significant differences.
The book has Sam Spade sleep with Brigid O’Shaunessy and when he awakes he finds her still sleeping. Spade takes a key from her pocket and sneaks off to her place to search it. This scene taking place in the book puts us even deeper into Spades character. It shows how far he will really go. I think one of the possibilities to why the movie does not have this scene is that Spade found nothing at her place. Since he found nothing they may have felt there was no real outcome to this scene so no need to add it.
Another major difference between the book and the movie is that the movie cuts out Gutmans 17 year old daughter entirely. I also believe although in the book it was an interesting piece to read in the movie it did no justice. I feel the director did a good job at capturing what he needed to directly from the book and left out things that he felt didn’t add to the movie.
One other difference that I think did make a slight difference in the movie had to do with Archer’s wife. In the book when she spots Spade with Brigid she confronts Spade. Wanting to talk to him and know what’s going on. In the movie she doesn’t confront him she just sees him and they pan the camera back to Spade and Brigid. This part I feel took away from Archer’s wife’s character. Her stopping him made us see how in love with Spade she was. Although it might not have an impact on the movie it defiantly gave us a sense of her character and I feel that was missing in the movie.
The movie and the book were pretty close. The differences for the most part still kept the movie true to the book. The little things that were different could be interpreted for many reasons. I just felt that from...