Hammett **** (1982, Frederic Forrest, Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner) – Classic Movie Review 6,524

Wim Wenders’s eye-catching and very worthy 1982 neo noir film homage to the crime thriller and its great writer Dashiell Hammett has the tasteful stamp of its producer Francis Ford Coppola all over it. Coppola regular Frederic Forrest stars as Hammett. 

Director Wim Wenders’s eye-catching and very worthy 1982 neo noir film homage to the crime thriller and its great writing exponent Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) has the tasteful stamp of its producer Francis Ford Coppola all over it. Coppola regular Frederic Forrest stars as Hammett.

Looking the part, Frederic Forrest (in an authoritative turn) impersonates Sam Spade author Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), who is embroiled in Twenties San Francisco in solving a mystery that (ironically) resembles rival author Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister, when a Pinkerton agent (Peter Boyle) seeks Hammett’s aid in the case of a missing Chinese hooker, Crystal Ling (Lydia Lei).

Among an interesting B-movie cast, the late Roy Kinnear (1934–1988) gets to do a Sydney Greenstreet act as ‘English Eddie’ and Elisha Cook Jr (Wilmer Cook in The Maltese Falcon) turns up as Eli the Taxi Driver. Also in the cast are Marilu Henner, R G Armstrong, Richard Bradford, Sylvia Sidney, Royal Dano, Samuel Fuller, Jack Nance, Michael Chow, David Patrick Kelly, and Elmer Kline.

The story may be rather dim and muddled, but the production is absolutely stunning. The designer Dean Tavoularis has brilliantly re-created the Thirties studio look, beautifully photographed in exotic vintage-looking Technicolor by Philip Lathrop and Joseph F Biroc.

Based on a novel by Joe Gores, Hammett is a delight for the eyes and ears. It is written by Ross Thomas, Dennis O’Flaherty and Thomas Pope, produced by Coppola and Fred Roos, scored by John Barry, and designed by Dean Tavoularis and Eugene Lee.

The Little Sister was filmed as Marlowe.

Hammett was originally a detective before he was a writer, joining the Baltimore branch of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1915.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,524

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