Maxfield, James F.  The Fatal Woman. Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996. 15-25.

The Fatal Woman puts The Maltese Falcon in a curious juxtaposition, because the movie is the only one mentioned in the book in which the femme fatale is not actually fatal.  In fact, in the chapter about The Maltese Falcon, the author goes to great lengths in describing how Sam Spade – the protagonist of the movie – does not allow himself to become ensnared by Brigid O’Shaughnessy; the movie’s would be femme fatale.

The chapter does explain, however, that Brigid O’Shaughnessy is a femme fatale in what she represents.  It describes a femme fatale as a female character who, should the protagonist chose to cave to her wiles and manipulations, would lead the protagonist to his doom.  Brigid had already led Floyd Thursby and Miles Archer to their deaths within the first ten minutes of the movie, and represented the femme fatale for both men.  She tries to similarly trick Sam Spade so that she won’t have to go to jail, but at the end the viewer realizes Sam is too intelligent to be trapped by her.  The chapter, by its conclusion, does not characterize Brigid O’Shaughnessy as an exact femme fatale; since the protagonist of the movie was smart enough to avoid being trapped.  The book suggests, however, that her personality is that of the archetypal femme fatale, willing to use whatever feminine powers she can to accomplish whatever she wants to.  This distinction helps classify an otherwise very hard to describe character, and also draws attention to the fact that Brigid was one of the first in what was to become an important character type, especially in later film noirs.