Sam Spade can also refer to a Network-Query tool designed to hunt down spammers.

Sam Spade was the leading character in the novel and movie The Maltese Falcon (1931). The original novel was written by Dashiell Hammett, and was first published as a serial in the pulp magazine Black Mask.

Sam Spade is most closely associated with actor Humphrey Bogart, who played the character in the most famous film version of the The Maltese Falcon (this was the third film version of the book, with Spade played by Ricardo Cortez in the 1931 version and with the central character renamed Ted Shane in the second, 1936, version). While Bogart failed to dye his hair to the characteristic blonde called for by the novel; was considered to be too small and dark for the role; and was even slighted for not being enough of a lecher, he turned out not only to have succeeded, but in fact to have presented the archetypal private detective, one which has influenced "film noir" characters ever since.

George Segal played Sam Spade, Jr., son of the original, in the 1974 spoof The Black Bird.

On the radio, Sam Spade was played by Edward G. Robinson in a 1943 Lux Radio Theatre production, and by Bogart himself in a 1946 Academy Award Theatre production, both on CBS. A 1946-1951 radio show called the Adventures of Sam Spade (on ABC, CBS, and NBC), starred Howard Duff (and later, Steve Dunne ), and took a considerably more tongue-in-cheek approach to the character.

Novel

• The Maltese Falcon (1930)
  • Serialized in 5 parts, in the September 1929 to January 1930 issues of Black Mask

Short Stories

• "A Man Called Spade" (1932, The American Magazine ; also collected in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories)
• "Too Many Have Lived" (1932, The American Magazine; also collected in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories)
• "They Can Only Hang You Once" (1932, The American Magazine; also in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories)

Anthology

• A Man Named Spade and Other Stories (1944) (contains three Sam Spade stories from The American Magazine -- listed above)

Films

• The Maltese Falcon (1931, Warner Brothers) (AKA Dangerous Female), starring Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade
• The Maltese Falcon (1941, Warner Brothers), starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade
• The Black Bird (1975, Columbia), starring George Segal as Sam Spade, Jr.

Radio

• Lux Radio Theatre: "The Maltese Falcon" (1943, CBS) - a 60 minute version of the novel, starring Edward G. Robinson as Sam Spade and Laird Cregar as Casper Gutman
• Academy Award Theatre: "The Maltese Falcon" (1946, CBS) - 30 minute version of the story, starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sidney Greenstreet
• Suspense: "The Khandi Tooth Caper" (January 10, 1948? episode) - 60 minutes, starring Howard Duff
• The Adventures of Sam Spade, starring Howard Duff and Steve Dunne as Sam Spade
  • The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946, ABC) - 13 30-minute episodes
  • The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946-49, CBS) - 157 30-minute episodes
  • The Adventures of Sam Spade (1949-50, NBC) - 51 30-minute episodes
  • The Adventures of Sam Spade (1950-51, NBC) - 24 30-minute episodes

Comics

• The Maltese Falcon (1946, Feature Books #48, David McKay Publications) Artist: Rodlow Willard
• Sam Spade Wildroot Hair Tonic Ads (1950's)
  • Single page comic strips, appeared in newspapers, magazines, comic books. Tie-in with radio show The The Adventures of Sam Spade, which Wildroot also sponsored. Artist: Lou Fine .

External link

• Thrilling Detective Website