SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The statue of the Maltese Falcon, perhaps the most storied bird in cinema, has returned to San Francisco for the 75th anniversary of Dashiell Hammett's novel.
The story, which helped create the "hard-boiled" American mystery genre, was first published in serial form in Black Mask magazine in 1929. It appeared as a novel on Valentine's Day, 1930.
The statue of the black bird that Sam Spade so doggedly pursued, actually the 50-pound lead prop used in the 1941 screen version, is now valued at $2 million, the San Jose Mercury-News said.
With two San Francisco policemen assigned to "bird-watching," the falcon will be on view at John's Grill, where Hammett may have written his most famous story, and then spend the night in a bank vault.
Gary Milan, a retired Beverly Hills dentist, owns the statue now. He also owns the piano from "Casablanca."
