Sidney Greenstreet IS the 'fat man.' Peter Lorre IS the queer. And it's hard to believe that they could have found a cast that fit the templates of the novel so perfectly. He gives practically nothing away, while gathering information from others simply by letting them talk, kind of like a shrink. Sam Spade is a marvelous character in this film. And I didn't love it quite so much until I'd read Harvey Greenberg's 'Movies on Your Mind.' But I now think that, within the strictures of its budget, it's about as good as it can get. I didn't love it until I'd watched it a couple of times.