3. The femme fatale character was popularized by film noir, where she uses her independence, beauty, and charm to manipulate men. How convincing is Brigid in this role?

It seems to me that's all that Bridged does.  As far as I can tell, she does nothing but manipulate every man in the book.

She doesn't seem to have told the truth to anyone at any time.  As far as independence, I don't think she'd have gotten

very far on her own without the help of gullible men at every turn.

I agree. She tries sob story after sob story, playing the victim over and over, and half the time doesnt sound convincing.

Personally, she drives me up the wall.  :)  I don't really understand how she has lived as long as she has.  Femme Fatale?  Not sure about that.

I think Brigid uses being a spurious damsel in distress to advance her career as a femme fatale.  Manipulating every man in the book is pretty much the femme fatale job description.

In one of Hammett's Continental OP collections the stories "The House in Turk Street" and "The Girl With the Silver Eyes" feature excellent hard boiled femme fatales.

I am glad I was not the only one she drove up the wall - I just wanted to slap her at times. Not only did you use her looks and manipulation to get them all to run around for her, she used it as a way to get close enough to kill Archer. She could not have been that convincing since Sam turned her in at the end.

I think also, she used the time period to her advantage. At the time this was written, women were still very much the weaker sex. Men believed women like Bridget because women werent seen as capable of handling stressful situations, let alone comit crimes. She knew that and used it to her advantage.

Yes, Sam must have seen through her to turn her in at the end, but let's not forget that he had at least 2 other women (that

we know of) waiting in the wings.  He wasn't going to be lonely.

Just saw this book advertised on Amazon if anyone is interested in looking for it here.  It is a prequel to The Maltese Falcon and covers the time Archer spent with Spade, how he got there, etc. 

Having now completed the whole book, I can appreciate Brigid in the "femme fatale" role better.  She certainly uses "all she's got" to further her own ends.  I was quite relieved to see that Spade actually did see through her attempts to side track him and to get him on her side.  It was quite a good twist to find that she in fact killed Archer after feeling through the whole book that he was killed by Thursby.  That particular crime seemed to have been solved early, but obviously was not. 

However, she still did drive me up the wall. 

http://www.amazon.com/Spade-Archer-Prequel-Dashiell-Hammetts/dp/0307264645/ref=pe_24390_11342350_as_txt_1/