Fwd: Maltese Falcon Redux

From: Belpedio, James <[email protected]>

Some years ago we engaged in a lengthy deries of discussions about the
film, The Maltese Falcon. Two of the unanswered questions involved thw
mysterious item that Miles Archer dropped from his hand when he walked into
the Spade and Archer office at the beginning of the movie, and the other
was the "fancy" cigarette lighter featured in this and other Warner
Brothers films of the forties. After recently reviewing this film in my
Studies in Film Analysis class, my students have come up with some
contributions to the discourse. The item that Miles Archer drops is
apparently a piece of transparent or near transperent paper, perhaps from
cigarette paper or a cigarette wrapper. It will probably remaina mystery.
The cigarette lighter is called a Ronson Touch-Tip lighter which was
manufactured in the thirties and forties and sold by the Ronson Company.
There were many versions of this item and some of them, along with some
advertising sheets, are available on E-Bay now.


James R. Belpedio
Professor, Becker College
Worcester, MA
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