Dashiell Hammett documentary

Samuel Dashiell Hammett (May 27, 1894 - January 10, 1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) and the comic strip character Secret Agent X-9. Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time".
Dashiell Hammett documentary
1999

[@adamodeo9320]

Kathleen turner's voice is a joy to the ears.

[@asharpmajor6740]

Great to have so many people who knew Hammett personally speaking in the documentary. Another ten years and it would probably have been too late for many of them

[@jabbermocky4520]

Agree. This is the only firsthand documentary commentary I've seen about Hammett. It's very well done. Another 10 years, man, and it never would have happened.

[@eawe]

I have just discovered this amazing channel. As an avid reader of the "vintage" authors, I truly appreciate these documentaries. Thank you.

[@appnzllr]

I respect Hammett for his writing and for knowing when to stop writing. Too many authors continue without the same level of story ideas.

[@MrEdWeirdoShow]

Hemingway also did a few short and sweet detective type things. But then brevity was already part of his style, anyway.

[@Rustsamurai1]

Didn't he keep trying? Is writing either manic or absent? If you cannot write, you do not write?And in not writing from no longer being able, one either drinks oneself to the grave, or becomes a brick layer's labourer; perhaps fooling oneself or others that the experience will be material for a story? Is carrying a bottle of vodka or a loaded hod not self-imposed punishment for not 'making the cut'/being 'washed-up'? A fascinating documentary.

[@normanCabral1]

A superb and enthralling study of the man, his life, work and demons, put forth via excellent narration.

[@henryj.8528]

The first atomic bomb (Fat Man) was named for a Hammett character (Caspar Gutman). The second was originally named the Thin Man after another Hammett character but the size was reduced and it became Little Boy. The gun-type bomb, Little Boy used a conventional naval gun barrel. It was heavy because it had to stand up to repeated firings. Eventually they figured out they could cut the weight b/c it would only be fired once. That also shrunk it in size.

[@doreekaplan2589]

Unable to write for 30 years would have been excruciating

[@indy_go_blue6048]

I'm lucky to have a single volume collection of all 5 of Hammett's novels. I bought it in '93 at B&N's discount section for $7.99.

[@Scapegrace74]

I read a couple of his novels decades ago, when I was reading plenty of fiction. This interesting documentary provides plenty of info about an unusual, distinctive life. Thanks again, Paul.

[@albertgrant1017]

Great video I loved The Continental Op and Sam Spade. His work as a detective made his novels and stories realistic !

[@JamesBrown-ij1px]

Outstanding. In maturity, so many 'dots' are being connected for me in learning more about Dashiell Hammett: his relationship with Lillian Hellman (which I first learned about in the movie 'Julia'), continuing the legacy of 'Detective' stories from my favorites Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle from the English tradition to that of the American, his involvement in the 'Red Scare' and the McCarthy Era, and establishing a cornerstone of the classic Hollywood 'Film Noir' genre. And, of course, seductively narrated by the incomparable voice and style of Kathleen Turner, who would continue the Film Noir tradition to a new generation (myself included) in the modern classic 'Body Heat'. Thank you.

[@AuthorDocumentaries]

Much welcome. Well said!

[@wellesradio]

I really don’t see the connection between Christie and Hammett. It’s like saying Oscar Wilde was influenced by Mark Twain.

[@joe18750]

I was born after the Golden Age of Radio. However, I access, The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective, nearly every day on my Echo Dot. Effie and Sam are great characters and Howard Duff as Sam, is my favorite. What great stories. Thanks for the inside baseball on a truly wonderful writer.

[@Daunou777]

Very well done. Kathleen Turner was the perfect narrator.

[@robertodelosangeles3247]

Ha! After pushing play and only listening without watching for opening credits or anything, for the first 8 minutes I coulda sworn it was Lauren Bacall! But then I read your comment and immediately realized you’re right. Kathleen Turner does have a very distinct, unmistakable voice!

[@matthewschwartz6607]

I didn’t even recognize her at first

[@seanwieland9763]

She’s not bad, she’s just drawn that way.

[@matthewschwartz6607]

@@robertodelosangeles3247 - Is she still acting?

[@robertodelosangeles3247]

@@matthewschwartz6607 She had a pretty amusing cameo as Michael Douglas’ wife in that Netflix series he did recently with Alan Arkin. But other than that I ain’t seen her

[@blackbird5634]

In 1992 I climbed out the window of my downtown Phoenix apartment and left behind a career, an apartment and a lifetime of connections to live in the Jemez mountains of New Mexico as an artist. I had never read about Flitcraft or what he did by way of Hammett's parable, but it now seems to apply rather sharply. I recommend anyone to do the same: climb out the window of your life, and start again. The ''second act'' of your play can have as little or as much to do with the first as YOU DECIDE.

[@cruisepaige]

100%! I was a corporate lawyer and I ditched it all to live the dolce vita as a translator in Italy!

[@JonathanBrown1]

Why did you climb out the window, instead of the door?

[@blackbird5634]

@@JonathanBrown1 Well first of all, I needed to get out of a bad situation. And 2nd, it is an apt metaphor for leaving behind a toxic and self damaging way of living in an unexpected, and imaginative way. So I climbed out the window, and later, when the coast was clear, I came back, packed my car, and took off. *My bills were paid, my job was done, there was nothing holding me to that particular town or state.

[@alidabaxter5849]

I climbed out of a terrible marriage - you may lose your possessions but you keep your mind.

[@AB-kg6rk]

Thanks for posting. Good stuff 😃

[@AuthorDocumentaries]

My pleasure

[@brianpurdy6072]

This documentary is a fine piece of work. It offers a balanced and nuanced view of the man, his work and the times in which he lived. It particularly benefits by the testimony of many who knew him as he was, not as the semi-mythic figure he became and even now, mostly remains. It would rate it as 'top drawer'.

[@QPRTokyo]

San Francisco changed a lot.. the biggest understatement of all time.

[@berhanegebriel3155]

Another one of the very BEST (A+) documentaries.

[@Denver_Risley]

"What's that man doing in my drawers..." I did the same thing he did!

[@tonydialsr7190]

What a great program. Just outstanding to have interviews that knew the man. Thanks so much.

[@ronniwright8315]

Great bio thank you

[@kengruz669]

If you are unable to provide captions for this, can you activate auto-subtitling?

[@janetsaeger8439]

Thank you. Very engrossing. Have read almost all Hammett's detective stories and of course have watched The Thin Man movie many times. Late '50s a tv series was created with Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk. While not as suave and polished as William Powell and Myrna Loy with snappy dialogue, still fun entertainment.

[@emmitstewart1921]

I remember. I loved that series at the time.

[@numbersix8919]

Nice documentary! I like all these interviewees, especially Joan Mellen and her take on Hammett's political commitment.

[@sifridbassoon]

I bet the San Francisco of Dashiell Hammett was wonderous.

[@donaldkelly3983]

That was great! Hammett is another favorite American writer of mine. Thanks for this video.

[@AuthorDocumentaries]

You're welcome. Same here! I love The Thin Man and have seen all six movies. (I like the first one best)

[@jacquetracy3194]

I love Dashiell Hammett! I try to find anything he has written ! So handsome 😍! I'm from Baltimore MD were he lived. I'm very proud of that . I didn't know that he went through the McCarthy torture !!! Dashiell Hammett fought in two world wars the man loved this country and McCarthy put him and other victims through hell! Dashiell we love you. Thank you for serving and your wonderful works 💗

[@Donjasoni]

He’s originally from St. Mary’s County. I live in bmore too. I didn’t realize he lived in bmore later. Im from St. Mary’s originally. There are still relatives of his there.

[@bovnycccoperalover3579]

While it's McCarthy who gets a rap deservedly, it's HUAC, run by J. Parnell Jones, who went after Hollywood people they thought were "reds". Jones, himself, was later arrested for embezzlement and served in the same prison as one of the Hollywood Ten. I call that irony. It irks me that this evil man as not as infamous as McCarthy. In many years, he did more damage. Hellman wrote a blistering letter to HUAC when summoned in 1952. Ah was blacklisted and lived and wrote in exile in Europe. She wrote a nonfiction book about it, " Scoundrel Time".

[@superglue6298]

Im here because everyone calls me this guy as my names Dashiell lol

[@averycardosia2486]

At least you were named after someone cool

[@user-lr4sg2ms7i]

Great documentary. I learned a lot. Thank you for this.

[@MrEdWeirdoShow]

Many if not most editors required a set page count from writers, as if they were ordering from a fast food joint. It was up to the writer to stretch the meal as close to the goal as possible, without overpowering readers with too much onion. Luckily I began at the end of the 20th century, and not the start.

[@steveculbert4039]

This is a fine video documentary about a man who has always interested me. Thank you.

[@kentjensen4504]

This documentary is perfectly done.

[@emmitstewart1921]

He could be regarded as the inventor of film noir. His Continental op, and Sam spade are the prototypes for the hard men in a merciless world that came to characterize the genre.

[@Amphy002]

What a great documentary. As intelligent as its subject.

[@dwaynebrue6028]

Dashiell Hammett was The Greatest!!

[@shangrila73eldorado]

Proclaiming New Orleans as an anti-Semitic city is based on what?

[@sgabig]

I guess since New Orleans is predominantly Catholic & its football 🏈 team is named the saints ... I guess it depends on how you define antisemitism

[@GeorgeSmileyOBE]

This is nuts. The New Orleans Jews are all over the place, Tulane has two Jewish fraternities, and Sophie Newcomb college is for jewish southern belles like Sweetbriar is for prosperous Presbyterian daughters.

[@allrounder7003]

Maybe they don't like other semites like Arabs.

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

@@GeorgeSmileyOBE INTERESTING. "OBE" is 4 out of body experience or Order Of The British Empire ? Sure u not talkin bout dem Khazars ....()(?). How come this dated 80 s doc can proclaim such an elementary lapsus ? Lillian Hellman loox like big sys of Lili Palmer .. .. .

[@jonathanmitchell9886]

Raymond Chandler made some genuinely bizarre, crabby, and ultimately inarticulate criticisms of Hammett. It was a lousy way to thank the man to whom Chandler owed his career.

[@sclogse1]

Many many fine things in this. Inspiring.

[@sondreeriksen9146]

Hammet is such an interesting figure in literary history, one I'm sure would never covet my ox.

[@kafkaesque7737]

Love your documentaries. Are there any documentaries about E. E. Cummings or surrealist poets/writers?

[@AuthorDocumentaries]

Thanks! I haven't found a good one on Cummings yet, but I'll look into him and those other ones. If not, I'll make a voice over mini-doc on Cummings for when I eventually run out.

[@kafkaesque7737]

@@AuthorDocumentaries thank you!!

[@bernardhayes4459]

Ok Im hooked, now I need a full biography of him.

[@texas1949]

I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me but a full length film starring Sam Shepard is excellent, imo.

[@jabbermocky4520]

Striking how he found his "Girl with the Silver Eyes" in Hellman, who very much lived up to the role. She was as narcissistic as any of his hardboiled anti-heroines. But he was harder. Sounds like a stand-off to the end between these 2 literary giants.

[@James_Bowie]

Very well made, thank you. So, can we expect one on the Master of the Mean Streets?

[@AuthorDocumentaries]

You're welcome. Hmm, are you referring to Raymond Chandler by any chance?

[@MementoMorituri]

Tragic yet somehow admirable and quietly heroic.

[@dierdresetser21]

well done

[@michaelgalea5148]

Dashiell Hammit was the best mystery writer period end of story.

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

@michaelgalea5148 ALL ranking is childish ! Dig up the Wenders work from 82. Wrote a long essay on it wayyybackkkk (dont like the bulldyke voice in this, like Mrs Amthor in the Dick Richards/Mitch flick in 75 ..).

[@irenemax3574]

"He (Hammett) created the terms of their relationship before they even met." I pause the video to try to figure out what that means. Hammett was playing a role in his relationship with Hellman: he played the strong silent withdrawn and withdrawing (of love, affection, flattery) type of guy. His behaviour elicits respones from Hellman that include whining, whinging, begging, berating, and clinging. ??? That interpretation doesn't allow Hellman any agency: she's nothing more than the embodiment of a fictional character from Hammett's novels. I see Hellman as more dominant than Hammett in that relationship, for the most part, in spite of her clingy, beggy aspects. Hammett wrote female characters that he could bleep to, and was attracted to a living woman who had many of those sexy (?) traits. The two of them together were toxically bonded with rituals of alcohol and argument.

[@mamiemonrovia7654]

i love that last line!

[@votemonty1815]

Splendid Noir 🔎

[@QPRTokyo]

It is interesting how the original Maltese Falcon movie was less censored than the 1941 remake. We know why.😂

[@yodservant]

Could be pre code production?? The censorship started in earnest in 1934

[@justthink5854]

love this

[@steveculbert4039]

Actually, there is a large Jewish population in New Orleans.

[@DrewSohl]

An amazing man,unfortunate that he drank,and had t.b.I wish he wrote more,but it wasn't in him.A camp counselor read Maltese Falcon,to my cabin,and it was incredible. Thanks,Dashell.

[@markpage9886]

A lot of writers drank...it was almost a hazard of the career. It was crazy.

[@kengruz669]

What a forward-thinking and erudite camp counselor. The world needs more of this thinking outside the box.

[@dianal.clausen8118]

Never knew all that about Lilian Helman. Thanks

[@orchidlilly7518]

Thank-you*

[@JonathanBrown1]

Who is the woman wearing the pearl necklace who comments in several places? She is brilliant.

[@jenniferbrown5688]

Sounds like a wonderful writer unique and special.

[@I_am_a_cat_]

Why can't anyone pronounce Dashiell correctly??? They always ignore the i as if it's not even there... the i isn't silent...

[@dr.barrycohn5461]

Maltese Falcon is an amazing movie. Love the word gunsil.

[@johnwagner91]

The word is gunsel.

[@thomasbell7033]

I've read Hammett's and Chandler's (admittedly small) output so many times I could never count. The first novel mentioned, Red Harvest, is the single bloodiest novel in our language I'm pretty sure. And it's fine literature by just about any measure.

[@patriciafeehan7732]

His girlfriend was Lillian Hellman a great writer herself.

[@nomadpi1]

I've been a voracious reader of all the detective story writers. I think he, like Hemingway, simply ran out of product. Alcohol was an excuse for both Hammett and Hemingway, and not a destroyer of their talent. Hellman had a style of her own and used it well. She produced writing for a living until she decided to quit. The interviewee who slammed Hellman isn't capable of astuteness, as she's protecting a bias of her own writing. In short, it's her opinion, nothing else. Hammett, like Hemingway, had his tome in the sun, and faded, as did all the writers who couldn't produce enough for Holly Wood's demands.

[@marysalerno467]

I seem to have missed the part about Hammett and Hellman being active members of the Communist Party.

[@bovnycccoperalover3579]

Hellman was well known as a staunch Stalinist! However, her literary output will be what defines her.

[@MB-vu3ow]

Kathleen Turner sounds like Patricia Neal.

[@michaelingleson1656]

I knew I headbanging in my kid days I know it means a good start when I was at work. Think o don't have knowledge like that it not agai st the law to get on top someone when he z I could.

[@hankworden3850]

Have another beer bro

[@markpage9886]

Read Red Harvest...you'll see what the fuss is about. He's the real deal.

[@alidabaxter5849]

Please read The Glass Key and The Dain Curse

[@kevinrussell1144]

Thanks; I thoroughly enjoyed your documentary. As a huge fan who has read just about everything he produced, but without agreeing with him politically, I still consider him a great, although very flawed American patriot. But as a writer of detective fiction, he has no superior, and he was a true original who lived according to his code.

[@bethbartlett5692]

What a name, it just sounds like his professional role. Important to realize, many whom have Physical Material Success, seem to also have a Life Journey ✓ on the subject of "Experiencing a Spiritual Awakening". Spiritual (not necessarily a Religion, or Religious Spiritual, although it encompasses a greater understanding of the area), Spiritual, in terms of, learning the greater reality of the Universal Laws, the Quantum Physics Science understanding, the who/what we truly are, that is we know as ourselves, and a conception of Nonphysical, of the Spirit/Soul/Inner Being/Higher Self, that which is washed from memory, in most, upon our entering into this Human Vessel and experiencing the Physical Journey. Discovering the "Universal Law of Attraction" being key, and realizing the fact it has such a full value in the whole of the Universe, certainly in Everyone's personal reality and Experiences. Often it requires a something poignant to initial the focus on the subject. The value of this will be Realized and known as far more important than the Material Successes. ... and then almost always, there's opportunities to again experience material monetary Abundance. Harmony and Higher Mind 🔑

[@Goodkidjr43]

Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot "discovered" the Universal Law of Attraction and became the most famous, powerful and successful men in human history. God bless....

[@melissasnow416]

Was his wife by any chance ? a young war widow? I had heard that she was. Interesting that he continued to support her all his life.

[@pressureworks]

Did someone add the annoying music before uploading on yt ???

[@markbeames7852]

27:38 Victor Moore famous for "Swing Time" with Fred Astaire.

[@noneofurbusiness5223]

It's bugging me: who's actor reading 📚 excerpts of novels? Straythairn? (Who was born in SF) Small world.

[@patriciarobinson5909]

David Strathairn

[@patriciarobinson5909]

Not

[@mrsjupiter9310]

The things you don't know.....sad.

[@yourmother2739]

The maltese falcon the classic film noir. Irreplaceable mystery writer with characters framed in the language of corruption. He is unforgettable and he should have been an anarchist in his soul.

[@yourmother2739]

Otherwise perfection in his writing milieu.

[@Fadem12forReal]

Pretty cool

[@alexdavies7394]

Dashiell Hammett's writing carries more along the lines of realism, compared with other authors of hardboiled detective fiction.

[@beverlyledbetter4906]

He was a very nice looking man. He looked aristocratic!🙄

[@yodservant]

The narrator sounds a lot like Barbara Stanwyck...

[@cindyhammond7320]

Kathleen Turner

[@snowysnowyriver]

If I didn't know it as Kathleen Turner, I would have also thought it was Barbara Stanwyck.

[@kuba70834]

Is it Kathleen Turner's voice?

[@bluecollarlit]

She DOES sound like Kathleen Turner! I think it's her...! Iconic in Body Heat.

[@JamesBrown-ij1px]

It most certainly IS the incomparable Kathleen Turner!

[@cindyhammond7320]

Yes

[@unowen-nh9ov]

Ironically, she also narrates a documentary about Myrna Loy (who portrayed Hammett's character Nora Charles onscreen for over a decade) & presented the actress her Kennedy Center Honors many years later.

[@DonnaGisellaTranchel]

💙💙💙💙💙

[@hegyesvivien3372]

S.O.Swho was the actress in the scene when the men didn't know her name?

[@Babinkley]

I think it is Maureen O'Sullivan, Mia Farrow's mother.

[@markbeames7852]

Is that Straithairn narrating?

[@MrSoulauctioneer]

leaves his family to live with a mistress in NY state. Hammett is the first person Ive ever heard of that had TB that didn't move to the Southwest. Hellman must have been seriously self-centered or Hammett was a fool.

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

@MrSoulauctioneer NEVUHHHH judge a ... hook by its ....What kinda deep soul u r sellin ? FREDDIE SCOTT on Shout ? Buy the Selvin mob bio on Bert Berns. Albert Wash on Eastbound ? O er

[@swengeer]

Diane Johnson looks and sounds like Meryl Streep

[@barbaraanneneale3674]

I agree very Well done. I always Preferred Raymond Chandler as a writer, But Hammett is undeniably great!

[@bayareaartist999]

Barbara Stanwyck no it's Kathleen Turner.

[@yodservant]

Corruption was abundant.... nothing's changed

[@user-tn1er9mj1p]

Great documentary on Hammett.

[@ladym6738]

Howard Duff - Sam Spade.

[@robertg.arbuckle6838]

I read about 400 words a minute. The Falcon I ate in three hours. The reason Hammet sounds so good today is we talk like that now. Everyone started talking like that when they they saw it. For 90Years we have talked what he wrote. I saw the tiny apartment in Seattle's Chinatown where he wrote. It's quite a neighborhood! My father wanted to be him and my mother married him, my Dad. They even went to Mexico. I grew up with Beats in my house. Of course I'm weird as hell.

[@marbleman52]

Hey, when you said "beats", were you referring to the time of the Beatniks; the Beat Generation of the 50's ? Yea man...I can dig it...be cool and hip...!! I was a bit too young for the Beat Generation ( born 1952 ), but as the Beatniks morphed into the Hippie Generation of the 60's, I experienced a little bit of it in the late 60's.

[@jerrycruitt5375]

Is it ever possible to get through a book, article, or video without being dragged through the wailing semite scream of personal agony? Oh, I've got the Anglo/Celtic blues, and must halt the familiar scene.

[@trickywoo5165]

Oi vay! take it easy with the anti termitic remacks 😝 that was exactly what i was thinking but you worded it perfect

[@GlobalistGazette]

Just loving the Jewish cult tropes in this. The talk of "True socialism" indeed.

[@srothbardt]

Great writer. Try doing the type of writing he did . Good luck….. Hey, I’ll bet youze mugs don’t know who the thin man is.

[@Babinkley]

William Powell

[@joeofmacabre07]

The corpse or dead body in the book

[@jeffreymorrissey6064]

I think it’s time to talk about the New Blacklist that is responsible for the nadir Hollywood has been in most of my adult life.

[@gloworm6387]

Sorry he spent even a little time as a Pinkerton thug, but, heck, we all have to start something somewhere.

[@AuthorDocumentaries]

Ain't that the truth

[@unowen-nh9ov]

Pretty sure there were thugs on both sides of the law in those days or Hammett wouldn't have had anything to write about.

[@uhlijohn]

Lillian Hellman was the typical Jewish communist. She wrote a book back in the 1970s or early 1980s that I read entitled "Scoundrel Time" about the anti-communist politicians and media. Intellectual Marxists are ALL the same: totally blind to the evils of communism. They need only read famed Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovitch's memoir of the Stalinist era "Testimony" that had to be smuggled out of the USSR. In that book Shostakovitch castigates western "liberals" like George Bernard Shaw for lionizing Stalin as a "man of the people"! Their willingness to be duped by the Red Czar knew no bounds.

[@wickedminx5014]

He drank his talent away and what was lett, Hellman took and used as her own since she had none. She used him, but he was a willing dupe.

[@Channelscruf]

47:03 Evil Communists looking evil.

[@robZtvDVD]

snitches get stitches

[@patriciafeehan7732]

Hellman was the better author but she worshipped his opinions.

[@alexwilson888]

Typical American! “Hammer may have written the original private detective” what! He was about 30 to 40 years too late

[@HaywardSouth]

Typical Brit! Closer to 90 years when Poe invented the detective story genre.😂