I love this shot. I could easily spend an hour examining each part of the image, the clock atop the book (the title of which I cannot read; maybe you can), the fact that both the face of the clock and the telephone earpiece seem to be staring at Sam Spade, the arrangement of papers under the phone, but mostly what fascinates me is speculation on what's going through Spade's mind.
I love The Maltese Falcon (1941). It's my favorite movie of all time, largely due to my relationship with it, which you can discover in this video:
The Maltese Falcon is now out on a 4K Ultra disc, and although I own a 4K TV, I don't own a 4K player. I used to tell people who asked why I don't yet own a 4K player that my eyes are so bad they probably couldn't distinguish the difference between a regular Blu-ray and a 4K disc. Maybe that's not true. After looking at some of the 4K images from the recent DVD Beaver review, I may have to get one.