The Big Picture

Clive Owen successfully steps into Humphrey Bogart’s iconic role in Monsieur Spade with his own spin on the character. The show’s script doctor turned showrunner, Scott Frank, is just as much a driving force behind the project. Owen’s performance as a wearier version of Sam Spade carries the show, even with its flaws.

It is hard to imagine many actors proving themselves capable of stepping into an iconic role played by the great Humphrey Bogart, but that is precisely what Clive Owen succeeds in doing with the AMC series Monsieur Spade. A sequel of sorts to the classic 1941 noir film The Maltese Falcon and the story of Detective Sam Spade, it is a fascinating project in that it feels like almost everything about it shouldn’t work. Why stretch the story of a film that has endured for a reason beyond its already stellar ending? Well, that’s because it’s important to know another name concerning this story — specifically, longtime writer Scott Frank. Though Owen is great in Monsieur Spade, putting his spin on the smarminess by injecting it with melancholy, any evaluation of this project must begin with the script doctor turned showrunner.

Monsieur Spade The famous detective Sam Spade is now 60 and living as an expat in the south of France in 1963. Release Date January 14, 2024 Cast Clive Owen , Rebecca Root , Denis Menochet , Stanley Weber , Louise Bourgoin , Matthew Beard , Chiara Mastroianni , Clotilde Mollet Main Genre Mystery Writers Scott Frank , Tom Fontana Streaming Service(s) AMC+ Directors Scott Frank

For those who don’t know, Frank has been around for quite a while. He has written everything from the unsettling science fiction Minority Report to the shattering superhero road movie Logan before recently finding a creative outlet in the world of streaming television, with shows like the underrated Western series Godless and the solid chess drama The Queen’s Gambit. All of this is covered in The New Yorker’s fascinating profile of Frank, which was shared with me by a great fellow critic and drew me to check out this series in the first place. While Monsieur Spade is not his best work by any means, playing almost like a slower version of the regrettably canceled series Perry Mason, the way all the characters and dialogue end up coming together is great to chew on. Even when there are some less substantive morsels, the way the meal gets prepared is worth sitting down for.

What Is ‘Monsieur Spade’ About?

Taking place 20 years after the events of the novel The Maltese Falcon, this series builds itself around an older Sam Spade (Owen) who has left San Francisco behind and is now spending his days relaxing in southern France in 1963. In the first episode, we see he first came here on a job to deliver a young girl to her father. Following some unexpected trouble on the road, he ends up setting down roots, both romantic and otherwise, in the small town of Bozouls. For what seems like potentially the last chapter of his life, he swims, smokes, and mostly keeps to himself. Of course, this paradise will not stay peaceful forever, and trouble eventually finds Spade in the form of familiar faces from his past, the gruesome murders of a group of nuns at a convent, and his own mortality. The semi-retired detective then has to dust off his old hat (just metaphorically, as he largely doesn’t wear it after the pilot) in order to get to the bottom of who is behind all this trouble before it is too late for himself and those that he still cares about in a consistently cruel world that just takes.

There is an ensemble cast of characters around, all of whom have their own backstories and struggles that can feel a little diversionary, but the grounding force to it all is Owen as Spade. Rather than merely trying to impersonate Bogart, he embodies a more wearied version of the character. He still brings plenty of withering wit, with many a cutting comedic line that Owen delivers with an understated yet still effective vigor, but it is clear that this Spade is not the man we once knew. He, as well as many of the other characters we come to know, have lost quite a bit on the winding road that we call life.

They will lose more throughout the series, with some of Monsieur Spade’s scenes where characters sit in mourning carrying quite a bit of weight as they try to make sense of it all once again. Even as the war has ended, the lives they’ve attempted to build so that they can insulate themselves from pain are forever haunted by the long shadow of its devastation. Save for some flashbacks, Frank mostly plays pretty close to the chest and lets us gradually begin to understand the emotional topography of this city. It isn’t always perfectly teased out by any means, with the overarching narrative structure often feeling a bit stodgy. However, for any moments where it feels like the series is lacking in focus, Owen takes the wheel — sometimes literally, like when Spade is shot at by an unknown attacker while driving — and gets it all back on track.

Clive Owen Is Magnificent in ‘Monsieur Spade’
Image via AMC

Whether his character is grilling an attacker for information or trying to quit smoking, Owen never hits a wrong note. Though Monsieur Spade is only six episodes, he could have easily carried six more. Just like Frank, this is not the actor’s best overall work by any stretch of the imagination, but that is also because each has such stellar careers outside of this.

There’s something about just letting yourself get enveloped in a sturdy story that, with all its flaws, carries the day. At its core, Owen carves out a place for this character all his own. Even in the most simple dialogue scene, he grabs our attention and holds it with ease. Monsieur Spade doesn’t always reach the same heights as the original adaptation, but Owen remains fantastic. If this is the last we see of his Spade, or the character in general for a bit, what a farewell it proves to be.

Monsieur Spade premieres January 14 on AMC and is available to stream on AMC+ in the U.S. with episodes releasing weekly.

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