Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Yvonne Jodi Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

blanche-2 Despite a big chaotic mess behind the scenes, 1982's Hammett starring Frederic Forrest is an entertaining noir-ish experience, bringing us back to the '40s adaptations of Hammett and Raymond Chandler novels.Wim Wenders direction did not meet the approval of the backers and delays pushed the film from its preproduction beginnings in 1975 to 1980. The first version starred Brian Keith and Ronee Blakely, but most of that was thrown out. In 1981, two-thirds of the film was re-shot. There are in essence two versions of this film, with only one released.In this story, Hammett himself is involved as a detective, called by his actual first name, Sam. His mentor, Jimmy Ryan (Peter Boyle) shows up at Hammett's San Francisco office looking for a Chinese girl, Crystal Ling, and he needs help.Crystal turns out to be a former prostitute and porn star who has engaged in fantasy scenarios with some of the richest and most influential men in San Francisco - and there are photos. So lots of people want Crystal and her photos before she can trade them in for a million dollars. Hammett comes up against the police, people trying to hurt him, and friends who aren't as he works to get the photos. The joy of this film is in its homage to movies like "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Big Sleep" and the casting of Elisha Cook, Jr., who appeared in "The Maltese Falcon" and countless noirs, in his last film. Roy Kinnear is a Sydney Greenstreet-type character, and Sylvia Sidney, an actress who had a 70-year career as a leading woman and character actress, plays a woman who runs a charity home for girls. Vets like Royal Dano and director Sam Fuller also appear. For old movie lovers, this is a treasure.This is a very stylized movie, with Forrest as a Bogart-type Hammett, Marilu Henner as his beautiful and helpful neighbor, and Peter Boyle as a hardnosed detective. The acting is all done in the manner of '40s films; along with the wonderful noir atmosphere, it all works well.Modern noirs for some reason don't always make it, for me, anyway, but this one pulls it off, due to the talent behind and in front of the camera.

MARIO GAUCI A surprising - and quite successful - belated attempt at film noir which gave Fredric Forrest the role of his life (Jason Robards Jr. had previously portrayed famed mystery writer Dashiell Hammett in JULIA [1977], and won an Oscar for it!) but also features terrific support from, among others, Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner, Richard Bradford and Elisha Cook Jnr. (playing an "anarchist with syndicalist tendencies"), not to mention cameos from the likes of Sylvia Sydney, Samuel Fuller and Royal Dano! Impeccable lighting and production design, together with John Barry's evocative score, set the seal on its perfect recreation of the genre's typical ambiance.While the mystery plot wasn't immediately gripping and seemed unnecessarily convoluted (by way of an added fancy in which Hammett imagines characters from the film 'playing' the ones he invents for his stories!), it worked its way smoothly towards a satisfying conclusion. The fictionalized script took care to reference scenes from some of Hammett's most famous work - notably Roy Kinnear's Sydney Greenstreet impersonation and Forrest's own hand shaking (like Bogart's did) after standing up to the heavies, both from THE MALTESE FALCON (1941). However, the film's pornography subplot is actually derived from Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep"! Even if HAMMETT doesn't seem to have suffered for it, the production was beset by behind-the-scenes problems which is a fascinating story in itself: executive producer Francis Ford Coppola had originally offered the film to Nicolas Roeg who, for some reason, didn't do it and eventually made BAD TIMING (1980; which, incidentally, I watched only a few days later!). Wenders, a lifelong devotee of American genre cinema, stepped behind the camera but his work apparently didn't meet the approval of his backers! "Halliwell's Film Guide" explained the situation thus: "The film was actually in pre-production from 1975, though shooting did not begin until 1980. This version was abandoned in rough cut and two-thirds of it was shot again in 1981 with a different crew. Sylvia Miles and Brian Keith were in the first version and not the second." For this reason alone, it's truly a shame that Paramount's DVD was a bare-bones affair (if very reasonably priced!) as a documentary on the making of the film or, better still, individual Audio Commentaries by Wenders and Coppola would have been greatly appreciated...

ken2000 'Hammett' is an excellent case of Zoetrope Studios, utilizing Coppola's unusual electronic-soundstage method of production (which would be further refined in his seldom-seen 'One From the Heart,' also with Frederick Forrest). In certain respects the film is like Paul Schrader's 'Mishima,' also based on a literary figure, with a seamless interweaving with the author's fictional characters along with thw writer's real life. Watch 'Hammett' and try to sort out the various strains that pop up in different films based on his work, notably the 'Maltese Falcon.' Elijah Cooke is one of the stars of the 1982 Wenders film. Don't forget the music, the soundstage decor with the recreation of late 1920's San Francisco, and the general mood that makes 'Hammett' a worthy entry to anyone list of must-see noir films.

bigpurplebear In the background/historical notes to his novel, "Hammett," author Joe Gores says of one character, ". . . and if you don't know who he's based on, you need to read more Hammett." The movie, more or less based upon the novel, takes Gore's dicta to heart with several key characters. The result can be a whole lot of fun if you know your Hammett; if you're a little weak in that category, the result is merely a lot of fun.Set in 1927 San Francisco, the film catches Dashiell Hammett in transition: Trying to firmly put his Pinkerton days behind him while establishing himself as a writer, dealing with the twin scourges of his World War I - induced tuberculosis and the alcoholism that will plague him almost to the end of his days, he finds himself drawn back into his old life one last time by the irresistible call of friendship and to honor a debt. By the time he's done, he finds himself having paid a far higher price, learning that he had only thought himself to be totally disillusioned beforehand."Hammett" the movie is as much an homage as "Hammett" the novel. It is a rare thing for neither a movie nor a novel to suffer by comparison to each other -- especially when the two are so divergent -- but that is exactly what happens here. The screenplay is strong, the production values uniformly excellent (check out the 1920s Market Street Railway streetcar which passes by in the background briefly in one scene, for example; only one in a thousand viewers might recognize it, and only one in possibly two thousand might appreciate the verisimilitude it provides), the direction and pacing authoritative.Frederic Forrest is virtually perfect as Hammett; by turns ravaged and buoyant, hardboiled and outraged, at every turn ultimately unstoppable. By the film's close, he makes it very clear that, for Hammett, there will be no turning back; those moodily tapping typewriter keys which formed such an eerie backdrop for much of the action will also provide his salvation, and that this is a good thing.And anyone who disputes that, as Joe Gores would say, needs to read more Hammett.