Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett’s iconic private detective, is forced out of retirement to solve shocking murders in 1963 Bozouls, France. Monsieur Spade is a superbly acted and gripping neo-noir mystery that will thrill fans of the classic character. Writer/director Scott Frank, the acclaimed screenwriter of Out of Sight and Logan, takes elements from The Maltese Falcon and weaves a sinister new narrative with fascinating characters.

Clive Owen mesmerizes as an older Sam Spade who hasn’t lost his investigative touch. But the character looks markedly different from the chain-smoking, trench coat and fedora-clad private dick popularized by Humphrey Bogart. Owen humorously comments, “My word to Scott throughout the series was I’ve been duped (laughs). I get no hat. I get no cigarette. There’s no gun. What is this?” Owen loved the original interpretation, but “the joy and the fun of this was to reinvent him.” He based “the essence of him from the Dashiell Hammett book and from Bogart,” but acknowledges that “[Spade] is different.”

Owen believes “it’s very hard to reinvent noir and to freshen it up, because we kind of feel like we’ve seen it.” The actor came onboard “when Scott pitched the idea of taking [Spade] completely out of his environment, put him in the south of France, trying to live a quiet life. Yes, he’s older. But sure enough, he gets pulled back into his old Sam Spade. He has to come back because of what’s happening around him.” Read on for our complete interview with Clive Owen.

A Quiet Life Interrupted

MovieWeb: Sam Spade is this iconic detective that people love, the classic private dick. Here, he’s in the 1960s, older, wiser, and facing a formidable mystery. Talk about working with writer/director Scott Frank and co-writer Tom Fontana on developing this character at a later stage in his life.

Clive Owen: It was a bit of a gift for me because I’m a huge Bogart fan. I’m a huge noir fan. And I’m a huge fan of Scott and Tom’s, so I was thrilled when they called me up and asked me to do this. I know, from previous experience. I was once attached, and I had the rights to play [Raymond] Chandler’s [Philip] Marlowe. It’s very hard to reinvent noir and to freshen it up, because we kind of feel like we’ve seen it.

Clive Owen: So when Scott pitched the idea of taking him completely out of his environment, put him in the south of France, trying to live a quiet life — already, we know it’s going to be different from the space that we’ve seen before. So that freshens it up. But at the same time, I wanted to be faithful to the source material, because I love it so much. We know where he’s from. We know his origins, but here he is trying to live a new quiet life.

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MW: When you think of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon and Humphrey Bogart come to mind, the cigarettes, his trench coat, and fedora. There’s this great scene in the pilot where you lose that outfit. Spade is a different man in a sports coat. He’s not smoking for a reason. Did you worry that Dashiell Hammett and Bogart fans wouldn’t accept this updated depiction?

Clive Owen: Well, my word to Scott throughout the series was I’ve been duped (laughs). Because I love the original one. I love all of that. I get no hat. I get no cigarette. There’s no gun. What is this? I need to go off and do it different. I need to go and play Marlowe next (laughs). But that was always the joy and the fun of this, was to reinvent him. The great thing about it is that, yes, he’s living in this different environment. Yes, he’s older. Yes, he’s trying to live a quiet life. But sure enough, he gets pulled back into his old Sam Spade. He has to come back out because of what’s happening around him. He’s going to have to get in there and try and sort it out.

MW: You’re pulling elements from The Maltese Falcon with Brigid O’Shaughnessy, and continuing that story. Many people have never seen or read The Maltese Falcon. They know who Spade is tangentially. Talk about the difficulty of creating a new story from the source material. You have to please die-hard fans, but also gain a new audience.

Clive Owen: You’re absolutely right. That is what the plan was. Scott and I are both huge fans of the original source material. But, if you’re going to attack something like this, you need a reason for doing it. You need to make it relevant in some way that we’re doing it now. Otherwise, there are plenty of noir stories with cool private detectives from the ’40s that you can go back and look at. It’s a double thing all the time. You’re being really faithful to where it all comes from and the origins of it, but you’re also trying to do something fresh with it and sort of take it into something else.

There’s no doubt that I base the essence of him from the Dashiell Hammett book and from Bogart in the original. But he is different. He is living a different kind of life. He’s older. There were all these new elements brought in. So it’s both. It’s about being faithful and trying to freshen it up.

Scott Frank’s Sensibilities

MW: Let’s discuss your supporting cast. Cara Bossom as Teresa, Brigid’s daughter, Denis Ménochet as the Chief of Police. Their performances are amazing. Talk about what they brought to the series. They have deep backstories. We get to know them really well.

Clive Owen: That’s true. That’s great writing. That’s Scott Frank. He’s just such a good writer. They’re so fully formed. All of those characters, you unearth their story and how they’re in their predicament and how they ended up there, not in a heavy-handed way. It just means that the world is rich and fully developed. And for me, as an actor, I thought he cast them brilliantly. There are different flavors to all of them. The relationships I have with all of them are different. He just makes it a joy to act. You’re not acting in your own bubble, just doing your own thing. You’re constantly engaging with these wonderfully varied characters with really top actors. So for me, it was really enjoyable.

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MW: The production design and setting play a big part of the story. It must have been so hard working in Bozouls [Southern France], and toiling in that beautiful vineyard every day (sarcastically).

Clive Owen: Oh, it was tough (laughs). It was really tough. It was a dream gig. The locations were beautiful. I mean, come on, shooting in the south of France with beautiful weather, beautiful locations, and beautiful towns. It was a brilliant sort of setting and really enjoyable to work there.

MW: Modern detective mysteries and thrillers are extremely violent. But even in the premiere, with the murder of six nuns, the series isn’t graphic. Talk about that effort to approach violence in a nuanced, sophisticated way.

Clive Owen: I think that is going to Scott’s sensibilities. I don’t think we need to see that. I think this is the suggestion of that. You need that in a murder mystery like this. But I don’t think it was anyone’s intention. It wasn’t about being violent. Even the violence in it, there’s a scene where I interrogate a guy. There’s a wit and humor to it. It’s never sort of dry and ugly, there just to be macho and hard. There’s wit and verve when there is violence. That’s really Scott’s sensibility.

Monsieur Spade premieres January 14th on AMC. You can stream it on AMC+ below:

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