Started: April 29
Finished: May 1
Notes: I'm not well read in Hammett, so I can't consider myself a huge fan, but I have been meaning to dip into his writing more. Besides, I have enjoyed the Humphrey Bogart movie based upon this novel, so I feel I will probably enjoy it.
Mini review: I had never been one to think of Bogart as a great actor, believing him to be a good actor but basically one dimensional in his talents. Now, after having read this novel, I have to admit Bogart did an excellent job of portraying the Sam Spade character, following through perfectly on the dialogue and mannerisms of the character as drawn up by Hammett. This was an excellent read, my favorite of the few things I've read of this author, and I'll looking forward to reading him again eventually.
3 comments:
While I haven't read this one, I have read much of Hammett. He's well worth reading, esepcially the Continental Op short stories. From what I understand, there's a key scene where Spade is discussing a prior missing persons cases that reveals something about his character that was omitted from the Bogart version of the movie. Bogie's version was the third film adaptation, BTW.
Keith, I think I know which scene it is, though I'm only halfway through the novel so far. I won't go into details and ruin things for you, but this prior case is quite interesting and I don't remember a mention of it in the Bogart movie.
I read this only a couple of years back myself. Enjoyed it and read a few others. Red harvest is my favorite by him.
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