Private Dick Sam Spade would sell his own mother for a few bucks so it’s no surprise he trades his soul for a “golden goose”, which goes over like a lead falcon. Roy Del Ruth’s competent and enjoyable Pre-Code adaptation of Hammett's novel is forever overshadowed by John Huston’s legendary version, and Ricardo Cortez’s portrayal of the amoral Detective tarnished by Bogart’s classic depiction against which all others are now measured.
I won’t suffer the tumultuous plot mechanics of “who murdered who” and why, I’ll just point out some rather enjoyable Pre-Code details that make this worth your time. To begin with, the film opens with a panorama of San Francisco and cuts to a silhouette of a kissing couple and a pair of female legs, skirt hiked up, adjusting her stockings as a woman leaves Spade’s office. We get a cute-as-a-button Una Merkel as Spade’s secretary Effie who, for some reason, is smitten with her womanizing and amoral employer. Spade is sleeping with his partner’s wife and, when Archer is gunned down in a filthy alley, is happy to have Archer’s name removed from their office door as quickly as possible! Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade is much different than later representations and quite possibly more akin to Hammett’s vision. Cortez plays him as a grinning Grifter, a man who loves money more than mercy, a two-timing cheater whose only concern is himself. And he’s proud of it. His ethical toxicity isn’t shrouded in a world-weary cynicism or latent trauma, he’s just a smirking asshole that manipulates people for profit. Cortez plays him so well that even though you don’t trust or respect him, you still find the character interesting. Thelma Todd as Iva Archer his recently widowed squeeze and Bebe Daniels as his mysterious client Ruth Wonderly are both wonderful in their parts, both selfish and scheming which fits the story’s moral pattern quite well. The only innocent is Effie, yet in this Pre-Code affair it’s insinuated that she’s sleeping with the Boss (out of Wedlock, mind you). We get Ms. Wonderly naked in Spade’s bathtub and later she is forced to strip in his kitchen! So much for integrity. This version depicts the homosexual relationship between Casper Gutman (Dudley Digges) and Wilmer Cook (Dwight Frye) as a little more than subtext, as Gutman is emotionally burdened about turning his cohort in as a Fall Guy. I just wish Dwight Frye had a larger part; he’s one of my favorite supporting actors of the era! Interesting to note that all four murders are elided, and we are only privilege to the cunning consequences. Which leads to the film’s major weakness: the dialogue is slowly paced and enunciated which alters the tempo of the entire film. Sound recording and design in 1931 was still in its infancy (or Terrible Twos, I suppose) and here it becomes nearly insufferable. Each sentence is articulated then seconds pass before a response as if to make sure the microphone recorded the dialogue. This could have been minimized with a subtle score that dramatized these breaks, or with physical acting that could fill these voids. Alas, this is a typical early sound film, and the actors are stuck with rigid blocking.
Even the coda reveals what a narcissistic sociopath Sam Spade is and will always be. Interestingly, Roy Del Ruth shoots him in medium shot gripping the prison bars like he’s the one incarcerated which could be a visual clue that Spade is as trapped in his psychosis as Ruth Wonderly is by her unanimous verdict. Despite the flaws, this is an enjoyable film that is best considered on its own and not in comparison to later versions.
Final Grade: (C+)
