Writers Who Worked on the Hammett Screenplay "To have fifteen writers on a script and then shoot it and decide you've made a mistake — it shows a certain lack of foresight." — Ross Thomas (Spring 1986, The Armchair Detective) By almost all accounts, the writing of the screenplay of the Wim Wenders' film, Hammett … Continue reading A Look at the Works
Tag: Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett’s Introduction to The Maltese Falcon
From the 1934 Modern Library Edition If this book had been written with the help of an outline or notes or even a clearly defined plot-idea in my head I might now be able to say how it came to be written and why it took the shape it did, but all I can remember … Continue reading Dashiell Hammett’s Introduction to The Maltese Falcon
My Scrapbook: Dashiell Hammett as The Thin Man
My Scrapbook 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, … Continue reading My Scrapbook: Dashiell Hammett as The Thin Man
Richard Stone
Created by Max Allan Collins P.I. renaissance man Max Allan Collins has also crossed over into other genres, including a couple of short novellasfeaturing 1840s Chicago private eye, RICHARD STONE, which combine dark fantasy elements with the P.I. story. Collins considers the first Stone novella 1996's "A Wreath for Marley" his gene-splice of The Maltese … Continue reading Richard Stone
“The Kid” (City Streets)
Created by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) The almost forgotten City Streets (Paramount, 1931) was one of the few Dashiell Hammett stories written expressly to be adapted to film (a couple of Thin Man films were also in that group), and as such probably deserves our attention, even if it isn’t a private eye tale. I've no … Continue reading “The Kid” (City Streets)
Dashiell Hammett’s Introduction to The Maltese Falcon
From the 1934 Modern Library Edition If this book had been written with the help of an outline or notes or even a clearly defined plot-idea in my head I might now be able to say how it came to be written and why it took the shape it did, but all I can remember … Continue reading Dashiell Hammett’s Introduction to The Maltese Falcon
From Spenser to Yeats: Jane Yeats, That Is
Feminism's Version of the Hard-boiled Sleuth is on the Wagon and Rides a Harley An Essay by Jill Edmondson Start with one serving of fingertips severed during a rather unfortunate version of Miller time. Blend in a blinding hangover buttressed by a British beer. Add the roar of a Harley drowning out the raspy hacking … Continue reading From Spenser to Yeats: Jane Yeats, That Is
Ned Beaumont (The Glass Key)
Created by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) "I can stand anything I've got to stand." -- Ned Beaumont Unlike Dashiell Hammett's other novel-length protagonists, Sam Spade, The Continental Op and Nick Charles, NED BEAUMONT is not a private eye--not even a retired one. He's a political hanger-on and fixer, a cigar-smoking, hard-drinking gambler with a weakness … Continue reading Ned Beaumont (The Glass Key)
Secret Agent X-9
Created by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) and Alex Raymond (1909-56) Despite being a collaboration between possibly the greatest private eye writer of all time, and one of the all-time great comic strip artists, the action/adventure strip Secret Agent X-9 was always something of a disappointment. The strip was originally conceived by King Features to compete with … Continue reading Secret Agent X-9
Forgotten Hammett: A Long Lost Interview
House Burglary Poor Trade By Helen Herbert Foster Fall-Winter 1929, The Brooklyn Eagle Magazine Of all the men embezzling from their employers with whom I have had contact, I can't remember a dozen who smoked, drank or had any of the vices in which bonding companies are so interested. Nor have I have ever known … Continue reading Forgotten Hammett: A Long Lost Interview