Hammett Meets Hughes

Writer-director Rian Johnson on high school noir and Austin Film Festival highlight 'Brick'

"...It all came from this obsession I developed with Dashiell Hammett's books which came, oddly enough, from having seen..."

Oct. 21, 2005 Screens Feature by Marc Savlov

Brick

Brick transfers Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled universe to the modern high school campus with nary a clue that more than a half-century has passed since the Continental Op’s heyday.

"...Richard Roundtree. Talk about style to burn: Brick transfers Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled universe to the modern high school campus..."

April 7, 2006 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Thin Man

The characters are the invention of Dashiell Hammett, although the urbane chemistry between Loy and Powell as Nick and Nora Charles is the ultimate in dipsomaniacal detective mystery and screwball comedy.

"...and detective mystery. The characters are the invention of Dashiell Hammett, although the urbane chemistry between Myrna Loy and..."

Jan. 7, 2002 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

In Person: Robert Greer

Dashiell Hammet and Chester Himes in a Pickup Truck

"...well-drawn, his scenarios compelling and evocative -- think of Dashiell Hammett and Chester Himes in a pickup truck. Greer..."

April 11, 1997 Books Feature

One of the Great Ones

"...of Raymond Chandler's Playback, a neat facsimile reprint of Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon, at least half a dozen firsts..."

Nov. 6, 1998 Books Feature by Jesse Sublett

Review: The Big Book of the Continental Op

All of the Dashiel Hammett PI's cases in one energetic volume

"...hailed as American masterpieces. I’m talking in particular about Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, the leaders of the pack,..."

July 27, 2018 Arts Post by Jesse Sublett

Nightmare Town: Stories

"...by Dashiell Hammett..."

Feb. 18, 2000 Books Review by Jesse Sublett

Letters at 3AM

America's ideal of liberty shaped the country's finest authors

"...Like Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961). With the most no-nonsense vision of any..."

Aug. 14, 2009 Column by Michael Ventura

Jesse Sublett's Top Reads of 2015

The Theater of War leads a list that reminds us how ancient lessons about war continue to ring true today

"...9) Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett knocked me out when I re-read it, in..."

Jan. 1, 2016 Arts Feature by Jesse Sublett

Page Two: Die Another Day

On renewal, 'Red Cavalry,' and the joys of creating, despite the hostile storms and vicious seas

"...short story writer Isaac Babel and American hard-boiled-detective innovator Dashiell Hammett, in which more is achieved through less, is..."

Jan. 4, 2008 Column by Louis Black

July Is Crime Month: Raymond Chandler’s 'The Long Goodbye'

Sleuthing for a childhood relic

"...B. Parker (who completed Chandler’s Poodle Springs), and naturally Dashiell Hammett, though after the latter’s Maltese Falcon I just..."

July 11, 2014 Books Post by Raoul Hernandez

New Year, Old Films

Mid-20th-century must-sees: Part I

"...The first installment, based on the last novel by Dashiell Hammett and written and directed by W.S. Van Dyke..."

Dec. 30, 2005 Screens Feature by Louis Black

'Never the Same Again'

Jesse Sublett's 'Rock 'n' Roll Gothic': an excerpt

"...husband and wife), we had a four-month-old boy – Dashiell, named after the great American writer Dashiell Hammett. The..."

May 7, 2004 Books Feature

Page Two

An amalgam of influences with a life of its own, the Chronicle is smarter than we are

"...Ironically, two of my favorite writers are Dashiell Hammett and Isaac Babel, two of the greatest economical..."

Jan. 16, 2004 Column by Louis Black

The Dry

Murder and secrets in the Australian Outback

"...It’s all built around the same tensions that distinguished Dashiell Hammett’s contributions to detective fiction: that big conspiracies that..."

May 21, 2021 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

Intimate, semi-improvised last night at a dive bar sees delight in the dregs

"...everything turned to shit. It’s a masterpiece. To quote Dashiell Hammett’s tippling couple Nick and Nora Charles, “How do..."

July 24, 2020 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Mystery: What’s on Kleinfeld’s List?

10 classic solutions to which crimes are worth reading about

"...The Glass Key by Dashiell HammettThe most brutal and political of the Founding Father’s..."

Nov. 30, 2016 Arts Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

Page Two: Reporting for Duty

Anti-government patriots poised to fix government

"...– Sam Spade to Brigid O'Shaughnessy, in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon..."

Dec. 3, 2010 Column by Louis Black

The Brothers Bloom

Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo are cast as the best con men in the world whose current swindle involves an eccentric heiress (Rachel Weisz) in this sophomore effort by the writer/director of Brick.

"...nervy debut, Brick, was a high school suburban noir: Dashiell Hammett in the mouths of babes and a house..."

May 29, 2009 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Yojimbo & Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa

A double re-release from one of cinema's greatest director-actor duos

"...arranged a killing or two in my time," grouses Dashiell Hammett's weary Continental Op, "when they were necessary. But..."

Feb. 2, 2007 Screens Review

Page Two

'Sin City' may offer almost no suggestion of a moral substructure. But it insists there is morality, no matter how fragmented.

"...that to mean the work of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett – than the films that generated the term...."

April 15, 2005 Column by Louis Black

Sin City

This ultra-noir adaptation of Frank Miller’s black-and-white cult comic series is a visual feast ripped straight from the original medium’s blood-soaked pages.

"...pulp fiction: part Mickey Spillane machismo run amok, part Dashiell Hammett stripped down to the bare-knuckle essentials. The closest..."

April 1, 2005 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Page Two

A tainted prayer for the new year

"...regular basis. I would discover Lynd Ward, Isaac Babel, Dashiell Hammett, Maya Deren, Francois Truffaut, Diane Arbus, Bob Dylan,..."

Dec. 31, 2004 Column by Louis Black

Page Two

On love, culture, renewal, timelessness, and SXSW

"...and tasting the rum and coke as I read Dashiell Hammett for the first time, sitting outside at my..."

March 26, 2004 Column by Louis Black

No Good Deed

Samuel L. Jackson as an auto-theft detective, perhaps in over his head. Not reviewed at press time.

"...at the helm and a script based on a Dashiell Hammett story ("The House on Turk Street"), expect more..."

Sept. 12, 2003 Movie Review by Cindy Widner

'Bad Boy Brawly Brown' Reviewed

Has Walter Mosley's seventh novel in the Easy Rawlins series lived up to its predecessors? Jesse Sublett lets you know in his review of Bad Boy Brawly Brown.

"...of the best, most artful modern work in the Dashiell Hammett/Raymond Chandler detective tradition, but a body of American..."

Oct. 18, 2002 Books Feature by Jesse Sublett

The Maltese Falcon

"...Bogart, Mary Astor and Peter Lorre. Based on a Dashiell Hammett novel (adapted for screen by Huston, in his..."

May 23, 2001 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Dave Eggers' New Novel Sharks Its Way Into Your Social Brain

'The Circle' could teach Stephen King a few tricks about horror

"...Lethem or Mantel or Shakar or (RIP) Sturgeon or Hammett or Ballard or whomever...."

Oct. 14, 2013 Books Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

Location, Location, Location

Detective Fiction

"...became a defining characteristic, especially in the work of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. There is such a constant..."

May 5, 1995 Books Feature by Louis Black

Noir City Film Festival Returns

This year's Noir City Film Festival highlights a forgotten master

"...forgotten, outshone by the big bosses – Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain. "To be brutally honest,..."

May 8, 2015 Screens Feature by Richard Whittaker

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