Hammett
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B-
There are many stories about authors where they do the
things only their characters did and those pop psychology-inspired pieces of
dreck are some of the worst kinds of storytelling we have seen since the
1980s. One of the rare exceptions is Hammett,
a 1982 film produced by Francis Ford Coppola and his Zoetrope Studios at a time
when the underrated One From The Heart (reviewed elsewhere on this site)
sent the company into an unfortunate tailspin.
Originally, the great Nicolas Roeg was supposed to direct the project,
but was succeeded by Wim Wenders. What
could have been one of Roeg’s most interesting films turns out to be one of
Wender’s few good ones.
The real Dashiell Hammett may not have written many books,
but the few he did are usually classics in the Detective Mystery genre
including The Maltese Falcon in 1930 that debuted Sam Spade, the often
filmed The Glass Key in 1931, The Thin Man in 1934 that soon
launched one of the classiest B-movie Mystery series of all time and made
detective Nick & Nora Charles legends, and a brief series featuring The
Continental Op. In this film, the real
life Hammett (Frederic Forrest) is asked by his former boss to find a missing
friend, but the point from A to B turns out to be the tangled web which leads
all the way to Chinatown (surprise?!?) and makes him potentially the next to
suddenly vanish.
Though that sounds obvious, that is actually a ploy of
sorts to try to create the real life world Hammett could have inhabited by
lovingly trying to recreate the look, feel and sense of the world of his books
(thanks in part to more remarkable production design by Dean Tavoularis) in a
way that is palpable and dense enough to buy.
It is a solid film throughout, though interestingly, it does not try to
overly conjure Film Noir, a smart move since so much key Detective Mystery
fiction and films in the genre are pre-Film Noir. Marilu Henner is interestingly cast as “that Noir woman” and
Peter Boyle is at his best in politically incorrect mode. Roy Kinnear, Elisha Cook, R.G. Armstrong and
Lydia Lee also star.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is not bad for
its age, and though it is not perfect, it is very watchable. That is in no small part to the cinematography
by the great Joseph Biroc, A.S.C., a veteran who knew his craft exceptionally
well. His work is reason alone to see
the film. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
has no palpable surround information, though this was a Dolby A-type analog
theatrical release, though it deserves a 5.1 remix. Besides clear dialogue and good sound design for what you can
hear, the score by John Barry is really good and an asset to the film. Sadly, there are no extras. I believe Roeg would have made a much better
film from the Joe Gores book, while Wenders’ fans will fell it is too
restricted or even standardized versus his more writerly work. Instead, I would argue it shows Wenders has
talent to show when his pretensions are held back, though Coppola himself feels
as much of the author of this work as anyone.
Either way, Hammett is a treat for Detective Mystery fans because
of its fine production, acting, writing and serious take on the genre, one that
has been far too watered down and abused in world cinema since.
- Nicholas Sheffo
