RARA-AVIS: Spade's bed in the Falcon movie

From: William Denton ( buff@pobox.com)
Date: 12 Jul 2002


I saw the Bogart MALTESE FALCON last night, and loved it as much as ever
(especially, as always, Gutman's line about leaving the rara avis on the table as a memento for Miss O'Shaughnessy). Today I've been wondering about something: Spade's bed in his apartment. When he's woken up by the phone call telling him Archer's dead, he sits on the side of his bed as he takes the call and then calls Effie to ask that she break the news to Iva Archer. We can see the head of the bed, and it looks like it has a metal frame. Later that night, the cops come by, and sit in chairs facing the bed while questioning Spade.

When everyone's waiting all night for the falcon to arrive, there's no bed. Brigid reclines on a sofa, and it doesn't look like a pull-out sofa bed. Gutman sits in one of the chairs the cops sat in, but no bed faces it. Was the bed really a sofa-bed (it's not a Murphy bed), did the camera angles hide it, or did the set designer just get rid of it when it wasn't needed?

I can't deny this is a minor matter, but it's been bugging me.

Bill

-- 
William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.

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