Old detectives never die–they just fade away or… move to the South of France.
Welcome to Monsieur Spade, the year 1963, and the legendary detective Sam Spade (Clive Owen), yes, the main protagonist of Dashiell Hammett’s hardboiled novel The Maltese Falcon, is doing his best to enjoy his current life in the South of France—specifically Bozule, France, best known as the ‘French Town on the Edge of a Giant Hole’ which should tell you all you need to know about where we are in the story—a far cry from his days as a private dick on the mean streets of San Francisco. Settled into his new life, Sam is doing odd jobs here and there…mostly there, and has a built quiet life himself. However, with rumors of an old rival coming back to town for the murder of the town’s six beloved nuns at the convent, secrets begin to emerge, new lines are drawn, and Sam finds himself wading headlong into a mystery that seems to surround a child he was once in charge of keeping safe and her father.
Sam once said, “I don’t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.” As the mystery unfolds, you learn that reasonable took a bus out of town long ago. However, there are two things for certain and one thing is for sure, Sam will piss a lot of people off and get to the bottom of this mystery, usually with an open hand…to the face.
This series has the unenviable task of walking in the footsteps of arguably the greatest hardboiled detective writer in the mid-20th century—though Carroll John Daly, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler might argue. This is no sequel to The Maltese Falcon but merely a continuation of a detective who has been worn down by the muck and mire that humanity has thrown at him as a now quite famous “American” gumshoe. Clive Owen as the infamous Sam Spade is both melancholic and surprisingly endearing—well, as endearing as Sam Spade can be, he is still quick with a cutting oral jab at just the right time.
As this is a mystery, I am reluctant to give you too many details about the series; the best part of the series is the development of everyone’s backstory and how intertwined those stories are, whether directly or peripherally, and of course, who is this mysterious woman that crosses Sam’s path. Indeed, a mysterious always shows up like a punch in the gut. Like all mysteries, there is a wonderful cast of characters that revolve around Sam’s world, from the vivacious club owner Marguerite (Louise Bourgoin), her husband Jean-Pierre (Stanley Weber), who has a very palpable hatred of Sam for: reasons, and we will not forget the Police, Sam’s perennial albatross, headed by Chief of Police Patrice Michaud (Denis Ménochet). These are just a few of the characters that lie on the roadmap to solving the mystery. With innocence at a premium, everyone hastheir own agenda tmostly at the expense of Sam’s quiet life. Besides, if everyone was innocent, we would get nowhere.
So that is the mystery part of our story; Owens, who co-produced the series with Scott Frank of City on a Hill, Logan, and The Queen’s Gambit, creates a more multidimensional Sam Spade; Sam is not just a blundering hammer plodding away in a search for justice but a man at the twilight of his life—Sam is his 60 in the series, dealing with the things that entails. We see a man who has been there, done that hard life, and let’s face it, that can wear a man down physically and mentally. At this point in his life, we get to see what that hard life has done to him and how he made his peace with it, somewhat. Owns plays Sam contemplative, thoughtful, and full of the piss and vinegar we have come to love.
Overall, Clive Owens carries this series across the goal line. His delivery is solid and purposeful while being aware, sometimes too aware, of itself, which in a detective story is what you want. A hardboiled mystery is about corruption and knowing how to deal with it when most would rather hide under the covers. He is aware of his world and that even in an idyllic place like Bozule, giant hole aside, bad men still do bad things, usually with a gun.
