The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.

Sam Spade: When a man’s partner’s killed, he’s supposed to do something about it. It doesn’t make any difference what you thought of him, he was your partner, and you’re supposed to do something about it. And it happens we’re in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed, it’s – it’s bad business to let the killer get away with it. Bad all around. Bad for every detective everywhere.

From the New York Times: In his writing, Hammett was obsessive, almost comically so, about San Francisco geography. Locations pile up like elements in a chemical equation: “Pine Street, between Leavenworth and Jones”; “the Garfield Apartments on Bush Street”; “walking over to California Street.”

But no location holds a more essential place than our next stop, Burritt Street, where, in “The Maltese Falcon,” Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, is shot and killed by the book’s femme fatale, Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Continue reading the main story and view the slideshow.