The Film Noir Festival currently underway at the Castro Theater in
San Francisco concludes Sunday with a tribute to Dashiell Hammett. The
author of
The Maltese Falcon and other classic works of
detective and crime fiction will be celebrated with the screening of six
films based on his work. It is a not-to-be-missed all-day affair - and
one with more than one connection to Louise Brooks.
The
Film Noir Festival tribute is fitting.
Arguably, the noir aesthetic sprang from Hammett's work. His
hardboiled characters and grim plots - which served as a counterpoint to
the work of S.S. van Dine (another leading mystery writer of the time) -
set the tone for a good deal of the noir fiction and film which
followed. And secondly, Hammett lived in San Francisco in the 1920s. It
is here that he wrote the novels and stories for which he is still read
today.
Before beginning his life as a writer, Hammett worked for the
Pinkerton detective agency. And it was as a private detective that he
came to San Francisco. One of his assignments involved gathering
evidence for the defense of Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle at the time the famous
comedian was tried for murder.
Hammett wrote most of his now classic work during the eight years he
lived in San Francisco. From apartments on Eddy, Hyde, Monroe, Post and
Leavenworth streets he pounded out story after story, drawing
inspiration from almost everything around him. Notably, more than half
of Hammett's stories take place in the city, as do his novels
The Big Knockover,
The Dain Curse, and, of course,
The Maltese Falcon.
Also set in San Francisco is his longest series -- three novels and 28
stories -- concerning an unnamed operative for the Continental Detective
Agency.
In the single best source for information on the writer's time in San Francisco,
The Dashiell Hammett Tour: A Guidebook (City Lights, 1991 / expanded and revised edition 2010, Vince Emery Productions), Hammett expert
Don Herron wrote
, "Hammett's
San Francisco stands as one of the great literary treatments of a city -
it has been compared with Joyce's Dublin and Dickens' London for its
evocation of place and time. . . . In the Continental Op tales, the
nameless detective goes to every neighborhood in the city and encounters
every level of society, from bankers with wandering daughters in
Pacific Height's mansions to cheap gunmen living in furnished rooms in
Tenderloin hotels who do their drinking in North Beach speakeasies."
All told, some 32 films or television episodes have been based on a Hammett story or novel. On Sunday, the
San Francisco Film Noir Festival will screen six of them.
Roadhouse Nights(1930, Paramount, 68 min.)
At 12:00 noon: This rarely shown film - the first based on a Hammett
book - is loosely based on the author's classic gang-war novel
Red Harvest,
a story which proved too brutal and cynical for pre-Code Hollywood. In
this Hobert Henley-directedadaption, Hammett’s story becomes an
action-comedy starring sultry torch singer Helen Morgan, Charles
Ruggles, Fred Kohler (who played in the early gangster film,
The City Gone Wild), and newcomer Jimmy Durante. Not on DVD.
The Maltese Falcon (1931, Warner Bros. 80 min.)
At 1:20 pm: This first of three adaptions was made the year after
Hammett's landmark novel of the same name was published. This pre-Code
version, directed by Roy Del Ruth and sometimes titled
Dangerous Female,
flaunts a sexier tone than John Huston's more famous 1941 remake. Here,
Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels star as Sam Spade and Ruth Wonderly
(the Brigid O'Shaughnessy character), with other parts played by Una
Merkal and the doomed Thelma Todd. And don’t miss an “appearance” by
Louise Brooks, whose photograph hangs in Spade’s apartment as a curious
piece of set dressing.
City Streets (1932, Paramount, 83 min.)
At 3:00 pm: In
City Streets, Gary Cooper plays a carny
sharpshooter who goes crooked in order to free his love (played by
Sylvia Sidney) from prison. Paul Lukas, Willam Boyd and lovable Guy
Kibee round out the cast. This film was made from the only story Hammett
wrote specifically for the screen, and it's brilliantly realized by
director Rouben Mamoulian and cameraman Lee Garmes. Restored print
courtesy the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Not on DVD.
Mr. Dynamite (1935, Universal, 67 min.)
At 4:45 pm: Originally conceived as a second Sam Spade novel,
Mr. Dynamite
is the most rarely seen of all films based on Hammett's work. Edmund
Lowe stars as a disreputable private dick hired by a gambler to solve a
murder within the casino. The cast includes Jean Dixon, Victor Varconi
and lovely Esther Ralston (who starred in
The American Venus). Directed by Alan Crosland. Archival print courtesy of Universal Pictures. Not on DVD.
The Glass Key (1942, Paramount, 85 min.)
At 7:00 pm: Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake add lots of sex appeal to this second adaption of
The Glass Key,
Hammett's gritty behind-the-scenes novel of the dirty work that goes on
in big-city politics. Director Stuart Heisler is at his rapid-fire
best, eliciting terrific support from dashing Brian Donlevy and thuggish
William Bendix. Not on DVD.
The Maltese Falcon (1941, Warner Bros. 100 min.)
At 9:00 pm: Noir City's 10th Anniversary celebration closes with an
encore screening of the film version of the most influential work of
crime fiction ever written. This classic film features legendary
performances from Humphrey Bogart (whom Brooks knew and wrote about),
Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and San Francisco's own
Elisha Cook Jr. Written and directed by John Huston.
One other event Hammett fans won't want to miss takes place next
month at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco. On Tuesday,
February 21st, Myrna Loy biographer Emily Leider will speak about "
Nick and Nora's San Francisco." Leider's event will be presented by the San Francisco Historical Society and Museum.
According to the San Francisco biographer, whose
Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood was published late last year by the University of California Press, her talk will focus on three figures: Hammett, who wrote
The Thin Man and created its sleuthing characters Nick and Nora Charles; actor William Powell (who starred as Philo Vance in
The Canary Murder Case), who played Nick in the 1934 MGM movie of the book which spawned five sequels; and Loy (who played in
A Girl in Every Port), the actress who portrayed Nora in all six films.
Utilizing film clips and photographs, Leider will discuss Hammett’s
relationship with Nick, Nora and San Francisco, and the experiences of
Powell and Loy in The City while filming
After The Thin Man (1936) and
Shadow of The Thin Man
(1941) - two movies in the series shot in part in San Francisco. Leider
will also touch on San Francisco’s reputation as a “wet” city during
Prohibition, and on the impact of Prohibition’s repeal in 1933 on the
audience for
The Thin Man.
Dashiell Hammett character Nick Charles
confronts S.S. van Dine character Philo Vance (both played by William
Powell) in the trailer for The Thin Man. Curiously, both Hammett and van Dine did not care for one another or their writings, and they sparred in print.