I don’t think this has aged well. It started off fine, with effective descriptions and stage-setting, but it turned into self-parody, especially as it started to repeat itself. Just how many times did we need to read about Spade’s yellow eyes (seriously?
) glowing and his wolfish smile? Or Gutman’s fat wobbling?
Similarly, plotwise it was tight,
except when Captain Jacobi, riddled with holes, fell into Spade’s doorway and literally dropped the dingus at Spade’s feet after staggering up and downhill through half of San Francisco. Spade didn’t even have to find it.
With the punchy dialogue and great visuals, this was a much better film than book. The book is more interesting as a groundbreaker than as a great novel in itself.