Main Cast: Frederic Forrest, Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner, Roy Kinnear, Elisha Cook, Jr.
Release Year: 1982
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Director Wim Wenders made his American film bow with the ultra-stylish Hammett. Based on the speculative novel by Joe Gores, the story concerns real-life detective novelist Dashiell Hammett (Frederic Forest), who early in his career is involved in a complex mystery that will profoundly influence his later works. While hacking away for pulp magazines, Hammett is asked by Jimmy Ryan (Peter Boyle), his old boss at the Pinkerton agency (and the model for the writer's "Continental Op" character), to help out on a particularly difficult case. Before long, Hammett is prowling the nooks and crannies of San Francisco in search of a missing Chinese prostitute-blackmailer (Lydia Lei). Among the several delectable "inside jokes" in Hammett is the presence of Elisha Cook, who'd appeared in the 1941 film adaptation of Hammett's Maltese Falcon, as Eli the Cab Driver. Cinematographers Philip H. Lathrop and Joseph Biroc work overtime to invest Hammett with the "feel" of a classic 1940s detective yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Wim Wenders' film version of Joe Gores' novel, a conflation of elements of the writer's life with episodes from his work, is a fascinatingly stylized artifact which will likely be of more interest to the director's fans than Hammett's. More a meditation on the detective genre than an actual detective film, it bends Gores' novel to the deliberate pacing and meandering plotting of Wenders' characteristic theme of perennial wanderjahre. The casting of an actor with a persona as vulnerable as Frederic Forrest to play the laconic, hard-nosed Hammett of reality is just one of many unusual choices that take one into the realm of cult film and Marilu Henner, Forrest's wife of the time, also seems out of place here. But the rest of the cast, which includes veterans of Hollywood's golden age like Sylvia Sidney, Elisha Cook Jr., and Royal Dano, acquit themselves well. Philip Lathrop, a specialist in noir and crime films, and the 79-year-old Joseph Biroc, whose last feature this was, combine their talents in the film's stunningly dream-like visual texture. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Lydia Lei - Crystal Ling; R.G. Armstrong - Lt. O'Mara; Richard Bradford - Detective Bradford; Michael Chow - Fong Wei Tau; David Patrick Kelly - The Punk; Sylvia Sidney - Donaldina Cameron; Jack Nance - Gary Salt; Elmer L. Kline - Doc Fallon; Royal Dano - Pops; Samuel Fuller - Old Man in Pool Hall; James Brodhead - Man in Boardroom; Fox Harris - Frank, the News Vendor; Lloyd Kino - Barber; Lisa Lu - Miss Cameron's Assistant; Lloyd Nelson; Andrew Winner - Guard; Hank Worden - Pool Room Attendant; Mark Anger - Bartender in Cookies' Bar; Ross Thomas - Man in Boardroom; Alison Hong; James Quinn - Fong's Guard; John Hamilton - Man in Boardroom
Credit
Angelo P. Graham - Art Director, Leon Ericksen - Art Director, Ruth Morley - Costume Designer, Arne Schmidt - First Assistant Director, Ronald B. Colby - First Assistant Director, Wim Wenders - Director, Janice Hampton - Editor, Marc Laub - Editor, Barry Malkin - Editor, Robert Q. Lovett - Editor, Randy Roberts - Editor, Francis Ford Coppola - Executive Producer, John Barry - Composer (Music Score), Dean Tavoularis - Production Designer, Eugene Lee - Production Designer, Joseph Biroc - Cinematographer, Philip H. Lathrop - Cinematographer, Don Guest - Producer, Fred Roos - Producer, Ronald B. Colby - Producer, James Murakami - Set Designer, George R. Nelson - Set Designer, Steven Potter - Set Designer, Robert C. Goldstein - Set Designer, Richard Bryce Goodman - Sound/Sound Designer, James E. Webb, Jr. - Sound/Sound Designer, George More O'Ferrall - Screenwriter, Wim Wenders - Screenwriter, Thomas Pope - Screenwriter, Ross Thomas - Screenwriter, Joe Gores - Book Author
Hammett equation, based on the Hammett substituent constants sigma
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