Dundy

Dundy is the police lieutenant who repeatedly presses Sam Spade over the murders and the people connected to them. Their conflict is not simply personal: Dundy pursues the case through police procedure, while Spade insists on controlling what he tells the authorities and how a suspect is delivered to them. Their wary contest culminates in Dundy’s arrival at Spade’s apartment with a group of detectives, after Spade has decided that the police must receive a criminal to answer for the case.

Role in the Investigation

Dundy confronts Spade at the detective’s apartment, where Spade invites him to search the place but insists on a warrant. When Dundy asks what he wants, Spade’s voice and expression turn hard; the exchange establishes an adversarial relationship in which neither man is willing to defer. Tom Polhaus tries to soften the encounter, saying the police do not want trouble, but the effort does not erase the lieutenant’s challenge to Spade’s independence.

The dispute becomes explicit when Dundy asks who hired Spade and Miles Archer to follow someone. Spade refuses to identify the client before he has discussed the matter with that client. Dundy answers that Spade will either tell him or tell the court, emphasizing that the matter is murder. Spade rejects the ultimatum and asserts that he will decide whether to speak. The clash thus centers on competing claims of authority: Dundy invokes the demands of a murder inquiry, while Spade treats client confidence and his own judgment as obligations he will not set aside on command.

Dundy’s scrutiny is part of a broader effort to turn information into actionable police procedure. When Joel Cairo hesitates to provide facts, Dundy urges him to swear out a complaint so a warrant can be issued and the people involved can be detained. Spade responds by warning that Cairo can be met with a complaint against him as well, a move that would bring everyone into the same legal tangle. The scene shows Dundy seeking a workable route to arrest, while Spade sees the threat of reciprocal accusations as both a practical complication and a source of leverage.

Conflict with Spade and Polhaus

The tension persists after the immediate confrontations. Polhaus tells Spade that Dundy did not believe Spade had shot Miles Archer, but had to follow that lead; Polhaus adds that Spade would have acted the same way in Dundy’s position. Spade challenges the reassurance, asking what made Dundy think he was innocent and whether Polhaus himself believes it. Polhaus then states that Thursby shot Miles. The exchange distinguishes the lieutenant’s investigation from a personal verdict: even when Dundy does not believe Spade committed the murder, he continues to pursue the available lead.

Polhaus also describes Dundy as bullheaded, but Spade counters that Dundy only thinks he is. Their joking assessment does not dissolve the rivalry. Spade remains alert to how Dundy has treated him and to what the police can do with the information they uncover. When Polhaus begins to explain that Dundy never truly expected Spade to do something, Spade’s smile stops him; Polhaus changes course and mentions a record they have found on Thursby. In this exchange, Spade’s reaction directs what Polhaus says, while the record signals that the investigation is continuing beyond their argument.

The Police, the Fall Guy, and the Ending

As Spade negotiates with Casper Gutman, he explains that his way of handling the police is to give them a victim they can charge. He says he has weathered past confrontations with the law by remaining ready to produce a criminal when a reckoning comes. The plan is not simply to confess information to Dundy: Spade wants to shape the case presented to the authorities so that the police can pursue a defendant without taking control of the entire tangled affair.

Spade argues that District Attorney Bryan will prefer a case that can be tried and won over one made confusing by pursuing every accomplice. He proposes that the authorities be steered toward Wilmer Cook as the principal target, while the other connections to the falcon and the murders are kept from muddying the prosecution. When that proposal meets resistance, Spade suggests giving Cairo to the police instead, while admitting that it would take more work and would be less suitable than handing over Wilmer. These alternatives show how far his strategy departs from straightforward cooperation: he is trying to furnish Dundy and the prosecutors with a case they can use, while retaining control of which person becomes its focus.

At the close, Spade has taken the pistols from the table and holds the group in place while he goes with Brigid O’Shaughnessy to the bathroom to investigate a trick that has disrupted the negotiations. Once the matter is settled, Dundy arrives at the apartment with Polhaus and two other detectives. Spade greets Polhaus by asking whether they have got them; Polhaus answers that they have. The arrival completes the practical side of Dundy’s pursuit: the police are present to take the people Spade has gathered, though the investigation’s resolution has been shaped by Spade’s own decisions about what to disclose and whom to put forward.

Significance

Dundy represents an institution that can demand testimony, issue warrants, and pursue suspects, but the scenes do not make police authority identical with complete knowledge or uncomplicated justice. Spade withholds his client’s identity, contests Dundy’s demands, and proposes a selective path to prosecution. Dundy, in turn, keeps the murder lead alive even when Polhaus says he did not believe Spade guilty. The result is a working but uneasy relation: the police need a usable suspect and evidence, while Spade insists on managing the route by which they obtain both. His final delivery of the group to the detectives brings the immediate standoff to an end without making the process look like a simple restoration of order.