And good old Jeopardy! has hit the Hammett Clew Pile again!
April 5, the category Avian Literature — you don’t have to be an expert in hard-boiled lit to just yell out “The Maltese Falcon!” before any hints get dropped.
Sure enough, the $800 clew: “In ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ this detective is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderly.”
Amy from Denver rang in and said, “Who is Sam Spade?”
Correct.
(I admit contemplating the use of “fragrant” in the statement for a few minutes, just long enough to check the novel but not long enough to pop the DVD of the Bogie version into the machine — my guess is that the clewsters kind of mixed up Brigid with Joel Cairo. Cairo is quite notably fragrant. Chypre in the book — maybe gardenias in the flick?)
I figured that was it for the episode, but they dipped into the gang of writers for Black Mask again before the end. Like Hammett, Raymond Chandler pops up in clews pretty often, but offhand I don’t recall a single show where they referenced both titans of that wood pulp.
The category “Before,” No After — $800 slot again:
It completes the title 1001 Books You Must Read. . . of which “The Big Sleep” is one
Again Amy from Denver answered, “What is ‘Before You Die’?”
Correct. I suppose The Maltese Falcon comes up in that list of 1001 books, too.
