How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Maltese Falcon.
Quote #4
SPADE: We've got to have a fall guy. The police have gotta have a victim, somebody they can pin those three murders on.
There is a subplot throughout the movie of the cops trying to pin Archer's and Thursby's murders on Spade. As a result, he's had to find any way he can to circumnavigate the police. This is a plan to get them off his back. He knows how the criminal justice system works.
Quote #5
SPADE: Well, if you get a good break, you'll be out of Tehachapi in twenty years and you can come back to me then. I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. The chances are you'll get off with life. If you're a good girl, you'll be out in twenty years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you.
Spade is pretty cool about all this. Maybe because he isn't the one who might face the gallows. But it proves that he does respect the law. We would think that "a man has to do what a man has to do" doesn't apply to women, but in Quote #1, we mentioned Dundy's insistence that no man—or no woman—is above the law.