The Changing Of Characters
Many time in our lives, we have seen the
transformation of novels into movies. Some of them
are equal to the novel, few are superior, and most
are inferior. Why is this? Why is it that a story
that was surely to be one of the best written
stories ever, could turn out to be Hollywood
flops? One reason is that in many transformations,
the main characters are changed, some the way they
look, others the way they act. On top of this,
scenes are cut out and plot is even changed. In
this essay, I will discuss some of the changes
made to the characters of the Maltese Falcon as
they make their transformation to the “big
The first character that we read or see is Sam
Spade. In the book he is written as being tall and
lanky with blond hair, and a recurring v-motif
that makes him out to be what Hammett describes as
easily make out a powerful image of what Sam Spade
must look like in our heads. When we have an image
of what something is going to be like and it turns
out to not at all be what we expected, we are
often let down, disappointed.This is due to the
casting of Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade. His hair
is brown, and his, round, soft face is the
farthest a face can come from having a satanic
v-motif. Although Humphrey Bogart’s acting was
The Essay on Sam Spade – Character Analysis
The mystery and the crime in are obviously paramount in the development and success of a good crime fiction novel, but anther key concern must certainly be the protagonist. Especially in hard-boiled fiction, where the detective is your eyes to the unknown world in which the novel is placed. Dashiell Hammett has constructed Sam Spade in a way so the protagonist has become a feature of the book, ...
very good, it was intruded by my perception of
what Sam Spade was supposed to look like.
Brigid O’Shaunessey is the villianess of this
as we sometimes refer to her in class. She is
always lying and scheming to get what she wants.
In the book, her quest is aided very well by her
gorgeous looks. The first image we get of Miss
O’Shaughnessey is that of a tall redhead with long
legs, red hair, and beautiful red lips. This image
of her may have been influenced by the picture
that is on the cover of the book, but the
publishers wouldn’t have pout it there if that
wasn’t the image they got of her either.
The movie does not do Miss O’Shaughnessey justice
as the novel very well does. In the novel, she is
portrayed as a young, voluptuous, beautiful woman.
Although she is somewhat beautiful in the movie,
she does not reach the standards that are set for
her in the novel. The legs that Sam Spade sees as
she enters his office offer an idea as to what
kind of person Miss O’Shaughnessey is: someone who
uses her sexuality to persuade others. This is a
very important part of the story, and the movie
failed to deal with it. A technological
disadvantage that the movie had was the absence
color. In the novel, Miss O’Shaughnessey’s hair is
develop a devilish theme that goes along very well
with her intentions and her personality. This is
also missed in the movie.
The character Joel Cairo is one of the most
interesting in the book, and the movie as well. I
thought he was perfectly cast by the production
crew and they did a very good job of including the
necessary details about him: the perfumed business
card, the white handkerchief, and his girlish
voice. I thought the portrayal of Cairo in the
movie was better than that of the book largely due
to the fact that he was a homosexual. We could
hear his voice and see his movements much better
in the movie. When we hear a voice, if it is
flagrant enough, we can almost automatically tell
The Essay on Sir Henry Movie Book Stapleton
Imagine if you had to read about the Titanic, instead having the pleasure of watching it. Wouldn t it be boring That s why movies are preferred over books. Movies have everything. A s ance, romance and suspense are all parts of a good movie. Books can only help the reader imagine the plot, but the movie actually takes the reader there. The movie version of The Hound of the Baskervilles starring ...
if someone is a homosexual. The same goes for the
movements that they make, or how they react to
being hit or punched. These things cannot be
picked up in the book and I think they are
important to his character. I believe that the
movie has a better portrayal of Joel Cairo than
the book does.
Samuel Spades secretary, Effie Perine, is one of
the most important characters in the novel.
Constantly she is taking care of Sam, making sure
he knows what he is doing. You could say that she
is somewhat of a conscience for him. Sam trusts
her very much. In fact, she is the only one that
he does trust. I believe that the movie and the
novel are very close in their portrayals of Effie
Perine. The one thing that was not good about her
portrayal in the movie was her appearance. In the
book, Effie is portrayed as a small, petite,
mousy, kind of tomboyish woman. This helps to
make her be the kind of woman that Sam could never
fall for. Yet in the movie, she in a tall, blond,
voluptuous, sexy woman that is in no way the Effie
Perine that we have in our minds eye.
is Gutman’s right hand man and handles all of his
dirty work for him. The movie and the novel are
quite equal in their portrayal of Wilmer. He
looks, talks, walks, and acts like he did in the
book. They did a good job making Wilmer come to
Now that brings us to Casper Gutman. The
mastermind (or shall we just say mind) behind this
escapade. His name is a rather comical play on
words as Mr. Gutman is a large man with a very
large gut. The movie did a very good job in making
Casper Gutman into a movie villain. Everything
that he is in the book, he is in the movie. The
director uses camera very well to accentuates the
size of Gutman’s belly which is quite amusing.
Casper Gutman in the movie is exactly how I
pictured him to be in the book. I was very pleased
and I don’t think that the movie audience will
miss a thing about him.
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In this essay I will cover main differences between the book and the movie giving my opinion of why these changes were necessary in the making of this film. I will discuss the purpose of Mowat writing this book and explain how the movie gets the point across. Mowat feelings and my own on the movie verses the book will be shared at the end of the document. In the beginning of the movie we dont know ...
I must say that The Maltese Falcon is one of the
best books i have ever read. I also must say that
the movie was nothing special, although I enjoyed
it. The Maltese Falcon in no way strays from the
stereotype that movies which are made from novels
are not of the same quality as the novel. The
movies usually do the books a disservice as
characters are changed and often scenes are left
out. I think that it is terrible how Hollywood
changes the plot and characters from what the
author originally intended. The result is missing
plot, and absence of necessary theme. When t
