Sam Spade Is Innocent (The Maltese Falcon Movie Review)

Evidence one states, “Eva Archer, a neighbor of Sam’s who knows Sam well, testified that she saw Sam at the grocery store at 8:40 pm on the day the burglary took place.” This gives him a good 20 minutes to buy a newspaper before the store closes. And, 8:40 is approximately an hour and a half before the crime, so it is unlikely he committed it.

Sams’s other neighbors add; “Sam is a loud and insensitive neighbor. He often plays music late at night and has repeatedly ignored their requests to keep quiet.”

While purchasing the newspaper he left a fingerprint on the counter which leads us to evidence 3; “The police dust for fingerprints one hour after the burglary was discovered. One of Sam’s fingerprints was found on the counter of the store.”

After this, Sam must have gone to his close pal’s house to play poker. “Evidence Both Sam and Sam’s best friend Joel testified that they were playing poker together from 10:30 pm. until midnight on the night of the crime. They both said they were playing at Joel’s apartment, which is 20 miles from the store that was robbed. Joel stated that Sam won about $400 during the game.” 

After gaining all this money, Sam decided to spend it at the races the next day. “Evidence 2: Sam was seen spending a large amount of cash at the horse races the day after the robbery.”

All these pieces of evidence connected to prove the model B was accurate. The first piece of evidence shows Sam left his house at 8:40 and went to the grocery store. The next piece of evidence shows Sam is a bad neighbor. This is significant because it proves that Eva wouldn’t be biased or lie about Sam’s actions. She wouldn’t want him to be proved innocent, so she would most likely be telling the truth. We are also told she knows Sam well. After being seen by Eva at the grocery store, Sam decided to buy a newspaper. When doing so, he left a fingerprint on the counter. After the purchase, he went to play poker with his friend and won 400 dollars. After this, he decided to celebrate and show off this success at the horse races, which were pre-scheduled before the robbery.