The Maltese Falcon (1931)

Ricardo Cortez: Sam Spade

Photos 

Quotes 

• Effie Perrine : Sam, it's a gorgeous new customer.

  Sam Spade : Gorgeous?

  Effie Perrine : A knockout.

  Sam Spade : Send her right in, honey.

  Effie Perrine : [to the off-screen customer]  Will you step in, please?

  [Joel Cairo walks in.] 

• Sam Spade : Holy wars? I'll bet that was a great racket!

• Casper Gutman : You're a close-mouthed man, sir.

  Sam Spade : No, I like to talk.

  Casper Gutman : We'll talk if you like. And I'll tell you right now that I'm a man who likes to talk to a man who likes to talk.

• Sam Spade : Say, what's on your mind beside your hat?

• Casper Gutman : You are here, Mr. Spade, as Miss Wonderly's representative?

  Sam Spade : No, I'm here looking out for myself.

• Sam Spade : [Asking operator for telephone exchange]  Berkeley double o seven.

• Sam Spade : Come on in, precious.

  Police Lt. Dundy : [walking in]  Who were you expecting, darling?

  Sam Spade : You, sweetheart.

• Ruth Wonderly : I know I haven't any right to ask you to help me blindly. But I do ask it. Oh, be generous, Mr. Spade.

  Sam Spade : You won't need much of anybody's help. You're pretty good. As a matter of fact, you're very good. It's chiefly your eyes, I think, and the throb you get in your voice when you say, "Oh, be generous, Mr. Spade."

• Sam Spade : I don't care who loves who! I won't play the sap! I won't walk in Thursby's, and I don't know how many others' footsteps! You killed Miles and you're going over for it.

• Sam Spade : You can take my bedroom. I'll sleep out here.

  Ruth Wonderly : [Seductively]  I hope I won't be putting you out.

• Sam Spade : Say, you had the money last, now, one of the bills is missing. Where is it?

  Ruth Wonderly : I didn't take it, Sam.

  Sam Spade : Maybe you didn't, but I have to find out.

  Ruth Wonderly : You won't take my word for it?

  Sam Spade : No, I won't take your word for it. Take off your clothes.

  Ruth Wonderly : I will not!

  Sam Spade : Oh, yes you will.

  Ruth Wonderly : Well, I certainly won't!

  Sam Spade : All right, I'll have them take them off for you.

  Ruth Wonderly : Sam! Very well.

  [starts taking off her clothes] 

• Sam Spade : He'd have gone up that alley with you, honey.

  Ruth Wonderly : Sam, don't talk to me like that!

  Sam Spade : And if you had asked him to go up that alley with you and he, you knew no one else was there, he would have gone. And then you could have stood with your body up close against his and he would have grinned from ear to ear.

• Sam Spade : [First lines]  Effie.

  Effie Perrine : Yes, Sam.

  Sam Spade : Honey, have I any more important engagements this afternoon?

  Effie Perrine : Not that I know of.

  Sam Spade : [Kisses the back of his secretary, Effie's, neck and gazes at her behind as she walks away]  Yes, sir!

• Sam Spade : We didn't believe you. But we believed your $200. You know, darling, for that amount of money, I'd let you tell me a lie every day.

• Ruth Wonderly : You don't think I had anything to do with those murders?

  Sam Spade : I forgot to ask you that. Did you?

  Ruth Wonderly : Oh, no. Of course not.

• Ruth Wonderly : You won't go to the police, will you?

  Sam Spade : Go to them? Why, all I have to do is stand still and they'll be swarming all over me like a bunch of bees.

• Sam Spade : Well, if I'm peddling it, I'm selling to the highest bidder.

• Ruth Wonderly : You don't love me.

  Sam Spade : Oh, I think I do.

• Sam Spade : Listen, Dundy, it's a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn't like me.