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Dashiell Hammett as The Thin Man
A good part of Dashiell Hammett‘s initial — and ongoing —success and popularity was not simply due to his writing, but also to the fact that Hammett himself was a former detective for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
He wasn’t no oil company exec, or a CPA, or, gawdforbid, an English Major. He was the real deal.
Truth is, though, Hammett’s time with the Pinks was relatively short. He worked briefly in the years just before and just after World War I, and details of the detective work he did during his short tenure is lost to history. There’s no doubt Hammett was a detective, but was he really involved in the Fatty Arbuckle case? Was he really asked to kill a union leader? Did he really know a man who stole a Ferris wheel?
The tales Hammett himself spun are hard enough to verify, never mind the half-whispered speculations from others, and the lines between reality and fiction have blurred further over the years. But even a little self-mythologizing can go a long way, and Hammett certainly played along with it.
The Continental Op in his early short stories and first two novels, Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, was largely reported as the type of detective Hammett himself had admired and worked alongside, while Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon shared not only Hammett’s first name, but his reputation as a free-wheeling lone operator and ladykiller, quick with a quip or a drink.
His cred as a detective was carefully cultivated, touted from his earliest days at Black Mask, and nourished throughout his career by publicists, editors, journalists, publishers and of course Hammett himself.
But the lines between fact and fiction got really hazy with the publication of his final novel, The Thin Man, in 1934. The story of Nick Charles, an aging former detective who had struck it rich, marrying a wealthy socialite, and spending his days and nights drinking and having a grand old time in the company of his young wife, weren’t all that far from Hammett’s status as an aging former detective and writer, who had also struck it rich, hooking up with younger playwright Lillian Hellman, and spending his days and nights drinking and having a grand old time in the company of his young lover.
It was easy to imagine the autobiographical aspects of the novel, even if Nick and Nora’s shiny happy relationship was a far cry from Hammett’s dark and fractious relationship with Hellman. When Nick and Nora got drunk, they got cute. Nobody ever accused a drunken Hammett and Hellman of being “cute”.
But those idealized autobiographical similarities were really brought home when Alfred A. Knopf decided to plaster Hammett on the dust jacket of the book, at a time when author photos were rarely used. It helped make Hammett himself a star.
And the confusion got even thicker when Hollywood picked up on the gimmick and ran with for the trailer of the film adaptation of the novel, released only months later. The film’s star, William Powell, who looked a bit like Hammett, plays both Philo Vance (a character whom Powell had previously played several times) and Nick Charles, literally stepping out of the book cover, to discuss the film.
Dashiell Hammett WAS Nick Charles!
No, William Powell WAS Nick Charles!
And Philo Vance!
No, William Powell WAS Dashiell Hammett playing Nick Charles!
No, Dashiell Hammett WAS The Thin Man!
No! The Thin Man WASN’T Nick Charles —he was Clyde Wynant, the suspected whom Nick is looking for in the novel and film.
No wonder people get confused.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- True Detective: From the Memoirs of a Private Detective
Dashiell Hammett’s Real Life Cases - My Scrapbook
A Cornucopia of Tear Sheets, Illustrations, Photos, Scribbles & Other Crap That I Think is Cool
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
