Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Sam Spade's Apartment-For Real

Mystery writer Mark Coggins takes you on a virtual tour of 891 Post Street, and the apartment where Dashiell Hammett lived and did some of his best work--the apartment that served as the model for Sam Spade's in The Maltese Falcon.

It's tiny, much smaller than I remember Spade's apartment being shown in the film. The tour definitely gives a new, claustrophobic feel to some of the scenes in the novel, especially the one where the cops visit Spade after Miles' murder.

3 comments:

Peter Rozovsky said...

I'll take a look. Apartments in American movies from the 1920s through maybe the 1950 or the late 1940s always look huge to me. I've always wondered whether that was Hollywood exaggeration, or people needed more space back then, or whether occupants lived large in the residence department and scrimped on clothes and food.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

JD Rhoades said...

It reminds me somewhat of the first time I actually got inside a World War II era B-17 bomber at an air show. Movies make it seem like they're fairly roomy inside, when in reality the quarters are quite cramped. Plus, in order to get from front to back (or to the waist gun positions), you have to walk hunched over on a narrow catwalk over the bomb bays.

Peter Rozovsky said...

Come to think of it, I seem to recall Hammett's apartment in the movie Hammett as nicer than I expected, if not larger.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot