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Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade Returns in the Stylish ‘Monsieur Spade’

Although private investigator Sam Spade only appeared in a single novel and a handful of short stories, he remains one of author Dashiell Hammett’s most renowned creations, thanks primarily to Humphrey Bogart’s portrayal of him in the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon. It’s Bogart’s version of Spade that creators Scott Frank and Tom Fontana are adapting in Monsieur Spade, their six-episode AMC/Acorn TV series that takes place 20-plus years after the events of The Maltese Falcon.

Clive Owen takes over from Bogart as Spade, but he wisely declines to do a Bogart impersonation, even though his hairstyle and fashion sense are clearly modeled after Bogart’s look. It wouldn’t be difficult for Frank and Fontana to change a few names and tell this exact same story with a new character, but that’s not necessarily a problem. Any viewer completely unfamiliar with The Maltese Falcon can readily appreciate Monsieur Spade with no prior knowledge, and even someone who’s seen the movie multiple times will only catch a handful of references.

One of those references is to Brigid O’Shaughnessy, the femme fatale played by Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon. Monsieur Spade opens in 1955 with Spade traveling to the town of Bouzouls in the South of France with a four-year-old girl named Theresa, who he says is the daughter of Brigid and French criminal Philippe Saint Andre (Jonathan Zaccaï). Brigid’s last act before her death was to hire Spade to deliver Theresa to her father, but when Spade arrives in Bouzouls, he’s not exactly welcome. 

Philippe’s mother pulls a shotgun on Spade and denies that Theresa is her granddaughter, and Patrice Michaud (Denis Ménochet), the local chief of police, tells him to get out of town. Lucky for Spade, he meets wealthy widow Gabrielle (Chiara Mastroianni) on the side of the road, and she agrees to hire him to resolve her own dispute with Philippe. Cut to eight years later, and Spade is still in Bouzouls, living in Gabrielle’s house. In the intervening years, Spade married Gabrielle, who’s now been dead for two years, leaving him her entire estate. Now a teenager, Theresa (Cara Bossom) lives at a convent just outside of town, along with other orphans.

When six nuns are found murdered at that convent, Spade is drawn back into his old profession of crime-solving, and the twist-filled case connects back to Theresa’s parentage and Philippe’s shady activities during the French war in Algeria. There may be a few too many twists over the course of the six episodes, but that kind of dense plotting is a nod to Hammett and other noir mysteries, which Monsieur Spade evokes without feeling like a throwback. The sunny South of France is miles away from the foggy San Francisco of The Maltese Falcon, both literally and figuratively, but Monsieur Spade still embraces the dark alleys, smoky nightclubs, and moral ambiguity of classic noir.

The aging Spade has been diagnosed with early-stage emphysema from his years of smoking, and he’s not the same man who blithely rushed into dangerous situations in his younger years. But Owen’s Spade is still quick with a quip, and he’s still usually one step ahead of the criminals he faces. Owen’s American accent occasionally falters, but he otherwise effectively embodies the classic noir detective. Frank and Fontana give Spade new dimensions without straying too far from that archetype.

The other characters aren’t always as compelling, but Bossom makes for an entertaining foil as Spade’s surrogate daughter and potential protégé, and Ménochet is perfect as the weary cop who becomes Spade’s reluctant ally. Frank, whose credits as a writer and/or director include top-notch crime films Out of Sight, The Lookout and Get Shorty, directs all six episodes, mostly keeping the pace lively and throwing in regular cliffhangers.

The story ends with a bit of a deus ex machina from a high-profile guest star, but that also emphasizes how Spade has always been a sort of jaded bystander to the activities of powerful people. There’s a supposedly mystical child as the equivalent to the Maltese Falcon here, a mysterious, highly prized MacGuffin for the characters to chase, but the heart of the story is the relationships that Spade has established in Bouzouls. 
Monsieur Spade tells a complete story and is billed as a limited series, but the playful ending teases the possibility of more adventures for this mature version of Spade. Hammett may have tapped out after one major Spade story, but Frank and Fontana could easily keep going.

Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He’s the former film editor of Las Vegas Weekly and the former TV comedies guide for About.com. He has written about movies, TV, and pop culture for Vulture, Polygon, CBR, Inverse, Crooked Marquee, and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.