The Maltese Falcon quotes

View Quote (To Brigid O'Shaughnessy) You're good, you're very good.

View Quote (To Effie Perrine) You're a good man, sister.

View Quote Effie Perine: Do the police really think you shot this 'what's-his-name'? Do they? Look at me, Sam. You worry me. You always think you know what you're doing but you're too slick for your own good.

View Quote Kasper Gutman: By gad, Sir. You are a chap worth knowing, an amazing character...

View Quote Kasper Gutman: Well, Wilmer, I'm sorry indeed to lose you, but I want you to know I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. Well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese falcon. When you're young, you simply don't understand these things.

View Quote Titlecard: In 1539, the Knights Templar of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels- - - - - but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day.

View Quote Brigid: Do they have to know about me, I mean - can't you shield me so that I won't have to answer their questions...I can't tell you now. I will later when I can. You've got to trust me, Mr. Spade. Oh, I'm so alone and afraid. I've got nobody to help me if you won't help me. Be generous, Mr. Spade. You're brave. You're strong. You can spare me some of that courage and strength surely. Help me, Mr. Spade. I need help so badly. I've no right to ask you, I know I haven't, but I do ask you. Help me.
Spade: You won't need much of anybody's help. You're good. It's chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.'
Brigid: I deserve that. But the lie was in the way I said it. Not at all in what I said. It's my own fault if you can't believe me now.
Spade: [smiling] Now you are dangerous.

View Quote Brigid: Don't, Sam. Don't say it even in fun. Ha, ha, ha. Oh, I was frightened for a minute. I really thought...You do such wild and unpredictable things.
Spade: Don't be silly. You're taking the fall.
Brigid: You've been playing with me. Just pretending you care to trap me like this. You didn't care at all. You don't love me!
Spade: I won't play the sap for you!
Brigid: Oh you know it's not like that. You can't say that.
Spade: Do you ever fight square with me for half an hour at a stretch since I've known you?
Brigid: You know down deep in your heart and in spite of anything I've done I love you.
Spade: I don't care who loves who!! I won't play the sap for you. I won't walk in Thursby's - and I don't know how many other's - footsteps. You killed Miles and you're going over for it.
Brigid: How can you do this to me, Sam? Surely, Mr. Archer wasn't so much to you as... [crying]

View Quote Brigid: It's more than I can ever offer you if I have to bid for your loyalty.
Spade: That's good coming from you. What have you ever given me beside money? Have you ever given me any of your confidence, any of the truth? Haven't you tried to buy my loyalty with money and nothing else?
Brigid: What else is there I can buy you with?
[Spade kisses her roughly]
Spade: I don't care what your secrets are. But I can't go ahead without more confidence in you than I've got now. You've got to convince me that you know what this is all about, that you aren't just fiddling around, hoping that it will all come out right in the end.
Brigid: Can't you trust me a little longer?

View Quote Brigid: You know I never would have placed myself in this position if I didn't trust you completely.
Spade: That again?
Brigid: You know that's true, you know.
Spade: You don't have to trust me so long as you persuade me to trust you. Don't worry about that now. He'll [Cairo] be along any minute.
Brigid: You are a god-send.
Spade: Oh, now don't overdo it.

View Quote Brigid: You know whether you love me or not.
Spade: Maybe I do. Well, I'll have some rotten nights after I've sent you over, but that will pass. If all I've said doesn't mean anything to you, then forget it and we'll make it just this: I won't because all of me wants to, regardless of consequences, and because you counted on that with me the same as you counted on that with all the others.

View Quote Cairo: [after Spade disarms him] This is the second time that you've laid hands on me.
[Spade forcibly grabs Cairo and slaps him three times]
Spade: When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it!

View Quote Cairo: And why, if I may ask another question, are you willing to sell it to me?
Brigid: Because I'm afraid. After what happened to Floyd, I'm afraid to touch it except to turn it over to somebody else.
Cairo: What exactly did happen to Floyd?
Brigid: [while knowingly shaking her head and looking down] 'The Fat Man.'

View Quote Cairo: Will you please clasp your hands together at the back of your neck? I intend to search your offices.
Spade: Why, sure. G - go ahead, I won't stop ya.

View Quote Gutman: That would amount to a vastly greater sum.
Spade: How much greater?
Gutman: Who knows? Should we say a hundred thousand? Would you believe me if I name a sum that seems a probable minimum?
Spade: Why not?
Gutman: What would you say to a quarter of a million?
Spade: And you think the dingus is worth a million, huh?...That's a lot of dough....Minimum, huh? What's the maximum?
Gutman: The maximum I refuse to guess. You'd think me crazy. I don't know. No telling how high it could go, sir. It is the one and only truth about it.