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Originally Posted by Mike L
Getting back to the book (as opposed to films and radio series) .....
One thing I always found hard to swallow was the need for a "fall guy""
This is a central part of Spade's strategy. If he and Gutman can between them decide on a "victim", the police will accept it, and take the pressure off the others. It has to be part of the deal for handing over the falcon.
So, here we have Gutman - a notorious villain - and Spade - who is still himself a suspect in at least one of the murders, and we're asked to believe that the police (and subsequently a jury) will accept their word for who the real murderer is.
Doesn't sound very likely, does it?
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I was fine with that part of it since the book wasn't overly realistic to begin with. And that brings me to one of my favourite aspects of the book - the ambiguity of if Spade would follow through with that or not. It seems as he's plotting it (with my 21st century sensibility knowing how these things work out in most recent stories/tv shows/movies of this type) that it's only to get them to confess. It well could have been, but I love that the author leaves it deliberately vague - if things had gone differently perhaps Sam may well have colluded with Gutman.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike L
Talking of the "fall guy" scene, I'd like to nominate as the best line in the book Gutman's speech when he agrees that it should be Wilmer:
"Well, Wilmer, I'm sorry to lose you, and I want you to know that I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son; but - well, by Gad - if you lose a son, it's possible to get another - and there's only one Maltese falcon"
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I loved that line too.