As troubled productions go, this one takes some beating; With Francis Ford Coppola producing, Wim Wenders’ film started pre-production in 1975, but took seven years to hit the big screen, and only having been almost entirely re-shot. It’s hard to work out where the joins are, but it’s been suggested that the producer imposed the Zoetrope house-style of stylised interior studio sets; that seems right, because the brief, striking exterior shots are remarkable, but also seem to have come from a different movie. With Coppola promising to re-cut Godfather 3, it would be interesting if he’d dive back into his archives to find the original Hamett, and give us a look what remains of Wenders first version, since the glimpses here are tantalising.
Leaving production difficulties aside, Hammett is a pretty good detective movie with a post-modern twist. Dashiell Hammett was an ex-Pinkertons’ detective, and knew what he wrote from his own experience, and that of his colleagues. In a clever opening, we see Hammett’s friends play the roles of his characters in a fictional story, then cut to the writer moving away from his typewriter, encountering the real characters from his acquaintance. This film-within-a-film angle is interesting, and the film plays on the idea in subtle ways. Hammett is hired by an associate (Peter Boyle) to find a missing Chinese girl, but that’s only the start of the intrigue. It turns out that there’s a grand blackmail scheme going on, and the gumshoe only a small cog in a whirling machine of criminality.
Forrest is great as Hammett, terse, well-spoken and a super-pro, while Taxi star Marilu Henner reveals hidden depths as his librarian girl. There are also great little scenes for the likes of Roy Kinnear, Royal Dano, Elisha Cook Jr, Samuel Fuller and even Jack Nance (Eraserhead). And even if the plot gets a bit murky midway, the last few scenes bring things to a satisfying conclusion is proper noir style, there’s no pastiche here, just a loving genre tribute.
Hammett, perhaps because of a rather chequered past, is rarely exhumed or talked about, but it’s a really great little film that found no favour at all with audiences. I saw this on BBC 2 when I was at school, and liked it; a more mature watching reveals a caustic reflection of Hammett the man, and a tight little mystery to boot.
Thanks to Studio Canal for access to this title. Trailer below.
pretty good detective movie – I’d watch!
It’s a very unheralded film, but as an offbeat twist on the detective genre, it’s worth a look if you can find it!
Wow, seven years? That’s highly unusual isn’t it? At least I can’t think of a film in recent history that had that much problems. Doesn’t sound too bad though. I’m not a huge fan of detective type films, but there exceptions. Congrats by the way on hitting 750 WordPress followers! 😀😀
Thanks! It’s the cameraderies on WordPress that makes it worthwhile! And yes, this almost ends up like Boyhood or Before Sunrise, you can see the actors age!
It looks like a holodeck story on Star Trek The Next Generation ha sounds pretty decent to be fair and I love Roy Mitchell Kinnear. I will watch this if I have the opportunity. Nice review.
Thanks! Yes, I see the holodeck connection, and as I said in my review, the interiors don’t really match the exteriors, but it’s well worth seeking out, and Kinnear does more than his usual routine…
Hammett sounds like an interesting character, but not my thing so a nope.
-sigh, there’s no pleasing everyone…
Your bound to come across one that I might like. Hopefully before we shuffle off the mortal coil.
That may not be long the way we’re going, at least you’ll always have The Expendables…
Yep
Man, this looks like something I could get into. Would you consider this ‘grindhouse’? Just the presentation of the trailer and it’s style makes me like it.
You know, I didn’t think of this as grindhouse until you mentioned it, but there’s validity to that. It’s a very downbeat and grityy genre entry, much less glossy than most. The storyline is actually not far from grindhouse, quite sordid, but the tech aspects are as flash as Coppola’s Zoetrope label would suggest. This is a very hard film to locate, but it’s really worth it, so good luck!