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Performing (in) The Maltese Falcon
- Source: Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance, Volume 17, Issue 1, Mar 2024, p. 79 - 90
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- 04 Aug 2023
- 26 Jan 2024
- 22 Jul 2024
Abstract
This article uses the self-performances of characters in Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon to advance four propositions about the novel and its three screen adaptations: that Brigid O’Shaughnessy, the novel’s most often remarked role-player, is joined by Sam Spade and most of its other characters in self-performance; that the novel and its first two screen adaptations, Dangerous Female and Satan Met a Lady, treat Spade’s self-performance in three different ways; that Spade’s theatricality in the first two of these adaptations cannot be attributed to Brigid’s behaviour because it predates his first meeting with her; and that the characters’ inveterate habit of self-performance in all versions of Hammett’s story have important implications for the status of adaptations as performances of the texts they adapt.