# Swordfish ruined The Maltese Falcon for me!! (spoilers inside) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797 "2003-07-30T01:20:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/21 "2003-07-31T11:54:38Z")
When Guttman is telling Spade about the Falcon’s history, notice how he keeps putting his hand on Spade’s leg. I’m not kidding, either. Hmmm, now I’m wondering if “gunsel” came to mean “gun-carrying hood” based on this movie, by people who didn’t know the original meaning (as I didn’t until reading this thread). _Swordfish_ was a dopey movie, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/22 "2003-07-31T12:06:30Z")
On the meaning of “gunsel” and on Cairo and Wilmer being gay, see the movie **The Celluloid Closet**. There’s really no doubt about it – “gunsel” really did have only the meaning “homosexual” at the time (I suspect, as someone said above, that it picked up the meaning of “gun-toting hood” from people trying to figure out the term from context and the “gun–” part, and that it acquired that meaning \* because\* of this movie.) Cairo’s gayness is clear from his behavior, his perfume, etc. Pay attention to the positioning of that phallic cane handle near his mouth (something they point out clearly in The Celluloid Closet). That said, it’s not at all clear to me that Guttman is gay – the signals seem pretty weak to me. Wilmer can be Guttman’s “gunsel”, but that doesn’t mean that Futtman is, as well. Interesting point – this is the third filmed version of the book. In neither of the girst two versions – both pre-Code, IIRC, are there suggestions of honmosexuality. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/23 "2003-07-31T12:09:01Z")
Spade beat up Cairo because he had pulled a gun on him. He then gave the gun back at the end of the scene, and Cairo AGAIN told him to turn around “I intend to search your office.” To which Spade, laughingly replies, “Go ahead, I’m not going to stop you.” RE: Guttman and Wilmer, at the end, when Guttman decides to give Wilmer to Spade to feed to the cops, he says something along the lines of “You can always get another 'son,” but there’s only one Maltese Falcon." Still my all-time favorite movie. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/24 "2003-07-31T12:24:22Z")
Re: Spade beating up Cairo. Spade strikes Cairo twice: once to take the gun from him, a later after Bridgid slaps him (with a very interesting line in this context: “When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it!”). In neither case did the attack seem motivated because Cairo was gay. It also seems likely to me that the definition gunsel = gunman was highly influenced by the movie. There’s a description of the script at [Filmsite](http://www.filmsite.org/malt.html); you can see that many of the lines had a homosexual subtext. Finally, we’ve all been making the same mistake: it’s Wilmer, not Wilbur. Too much Mr. Ed. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/25 "2003-07-31T13:15:57Z")
Johnny LA, 'twas a time when Yiddish was America’s Second Language like Spanish is today–we couldn’t converse in it but much of the vocabulary (well, the insults, at least) had crossed over. OTOH, I wasn’t familiar with THAT definition of “gunsel,” though it explains why Wilmer nearly attacked Spade when he called him it. Didn’t make a lot of sense for a hired gunman to be offended at being called a hired gunman. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/26 "2003-07-31T13:21:35Z")
Let me get thist straight. (pun intended) You chose to see Swordfish befor you saw The Maltese Falcon? Are Ms. Berry’s breasts that magical? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/27 "2003-07-31T13:22:59Z")
I did not hit submit! I really was going to spellcheck that post. Just as some people should not post drunk, I should not post before my first two cups of coffee. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/28 "2003-07-31T13:28:44Z")
There’s a bit of discussion on the use of “gunsel” in **TMF** [here](http://www.takeourword.com/Issue073.html). They stop just short of crediting the movie with the change in meaning. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/29 "2003-07-31T13:46:12Z")
We’ve also discussed “gunsel” in this forum before. You could run a search and probably find it pretty easily. IIRC, Wilmer says “Keep riding me and they’re going to be pickin’ lead out of your liver,” when Spade continues to raze him. Spade, of course, laughs at him. “The cheaper the suit, the gaudier the patter,” or something like that is his response. I used to call my secretary “Effice Darling,” after Spade’s secretary, “Effie.” I finally had to lend her my copy of the tape so she’d get what I was talking about. Unfortunately, I could never get her to come into my office and roll my cigarettes for me. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797/30 "2003-07-31T14:14:15Z")
On a semi-related note, my father has toyed with the idea of assembling a gag reel of scenes in which Elisha (“Wilmer”) Cook jr. gets beaten up. Apparantly that happened a lot in his movies. This discussion is making me curious about the 1931 version of the film, starring Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez. Since if was pre-Hayes code, I wonder if the homosexual subtext could be even _more_ blatant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swordfish-ruined-the-maltese-falcon-for-me-spoilers-inside/191797.md?page=1)