‘This Guy is Queer’: Words of Power in The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep

The presence of queer populations in hard-boiled detective fiction has often drawn criticism for insensitive portrayals. There is little doubt that authors like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were deliberately provocative in the language they chose, serving as a reflection and critique of their contemporary cultures. This is particularly true in Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1929) and Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1939). The detectives in each novel recognise that their world is fundamentally flawed and homophobic, and they approach their investigations ready to confront this societal prejudice and manipulate it to their professional advantage if necessary. Although the detective may sometimes speak in a way that appears biased, he is merely an actor playing a carefully scripted part. Hard-boiled detectives like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe understand that their world is filled with all kinds of people, many of whom are judged unsuitable for polite society, but they accept their existence all the same. This article shows that the hard-boiled detective’s insight into American society extends from simply acknowledging that queer people exist to assimilating them into his investigations. Indeed, it argues that his awareness of how toxic masculine traits, including homophobic language, can be leveraged to gain an advantage over his adversaries marks a struggle taking place within and between American masculinities, and anticipates social changes on the horizon.