So ridiuclous that it is GREAT !!! Mary Astor is ridiculous .. there is no passion between them .. Peter Lorre was Mr. Cairo all over again .. Sydney Greenstreet pure perfection … oh my !!!!
Do kids today enjoy this film as much as the older folks do? I wonder .. I hope you do ..
Goodbye.
Perhaps the OP just wants to reach out for some sense of community.
I adore this movie! I never felt Spade really loved Brigid. It's more like she entertains him. A totally pathological, inveterate liar. Caught in a lie, she tries to lie her way out. She kills, manipulates, and lies. There is no there, there. He lies right back to her in the end. Spade tells Gutman he took for granted "she" was lying...that's instructions, folks! She is not someone to relate to. If you need a good person, there is Effie, Sam's secretary--too good for him, and he knows it. And Tom the cop. I think he, Tom, is a good guy--he ought to ask Effie out...
Sam Spade's life is spent among the scum of the Earth. Apparently, he was having an affair with the sleazebag wife of his sleazebag partner. So he's a sleaze too, then. He does not like his partner, that is why he is a suspect in his death. But he is too smart to kill someone for a crazy unfaithful broad. He'll sleep with her, and tell her he loves her, but won't take a murder rap for her. He can't trust her. But you don't look for truth and honesty among the lowlifes.
Mary Astor was supposed to be ridiculous. I think the lack of chemistry was clear when the 1st dailies were viewed. So make her be one crazy, manipulative woman! One of those who think that life and happiness are synonymous with manipulating and controlling everyone in their orbit like pieces on a chessboard. They are broken. Scheming takes the place of relating to people. Control replaces love. And they flip out when they feel that control slipping through their fingers. She gets crazier and crazier as she finds the people not conforming to her plans. She's almost literally pulling her hair out by the end! Quite a contrast to her cool demeanor at the start.
When Miles and Sam are alone in the office after "Miss Wonderly" hires them, and Miles says maybe Sam saw her first, but he, Miles, spoke first--has dibs on her, Spade says "You have brains. Yes, you have." We know Archer hasn't a brain in his head! It's about the only thing we do know at this point in the movie. So Sam lies too, from the start. He knows he's lying. He is doing it because he needs his partner for their business, perhaps, but it sets the groundwork, because we hear Sam Spade lie, knows he lies, before we learn that Brigid O'Shaughnessy lies. So why believe him when he tells her he loves her, will wait 20 yrs for her. We know he avoids confrontation--has Effie tell Miles' wife he was killed... He's just getting her to go quietly. Mastering her at her own game.
You know, I enjoy this one a fair bit myself and agree almost entirely with everything you’ve said. The single sticking point for me has always been Mary Astor’s performance as the poor, put-upon Wonderly dame. Her whole spiel initially was so obviously a lie that it’s difficult to imagine anyone swallowing it for a minute – anybody, as you point out, except Miles Archer and (initially) Effie Perine.
I’ve always felt that there should have been one additional line of dialogue inserted for Spade, something like “Here y’are Sister. You take this $10 and go get yourself some acting lessons. Your method needs a little work.”
Once all the nonsense gets stripped away, the acting is totally fine. One of my favorite parts is when the behind-closed-doors fight breaks out between Brigid and Cairo and he yells for help.