In the film Sydney Greenstreet scrapes at one of them with a pen-knife, visibly peeling off some of the lead (it’s mentioned in the dialog that it’s lead). I wonder where that one is.
I watch a lot of Turner Classic Movies (…a lot…), and I guess they have some involvement with the auction. They’ve been running promos for it in-between movies, and last night they played some of the movies featured in the auction (including The Maltese Falcon) and I think displayed and discussed some of the things for sale in the introductions with Robert Osborne. I was busy and didn’t watch last night, though.
Anyway, there’s one promo I saw a few times where the current owner of this Maltese Falcon is shown and says that everything in his massive collection of Maltese Falcon is going in the auction. I guess he’s cashing out big-time.
