Character Analysis
With his gardenia-scented calling cards, his curly hair, his one glove (years before Michael Jackson tried the same look), and his fretting over his appearance at all times, Joel Cairo is coded as (a super offensively stereotypical) gay man…as much as a movie in 1941 is allowed to allude to it.
But we can thank John Huston for toning down the dated flamboyance. Cairo's less an offensive stereotype than he is in the novel the film is based on, but he's still an effeminate criminal working for Kasper Gutman.
Cairo seems to want money, but we're not sure what else. He futilely tries to intimidate Sam Spade, who laughs at Cairo because he doesn't see the fey little man as dangerous. And he gets into a catfight with Brigid, which we imagine would contain a lot of slapping and hair pulling if Spade didn't break it up. Spade is cruel to the man, telling him, "When you're slapped you'll take it and like it." (Well, that's either cruelty or Spade channeling his inner Christian Grey.)
Despite his relative feminine uselessness against Spade's masculine force, Cairo is loyal to Gutman and leaves with him to continue their pursuit of the Falcon at the end of the movie. He is just as much a mystery then as he is when he first appears.