Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour. 
The Dashiell Hammett Tour
1977-2022
Arkham House Ephemera
The Classic Years 1937–1973
Death Lit
Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
Willeford
The Book
Category Archives: Film
Rediscovered: Ex Libris Virgil Finlay
Autograph Hound Saturday. You know the drill. Another week has passed, and Autograph Hound Brian Leno has added more signatures to his collection. A thousand John Hancocks in the naked city. . . . This is the story of one. … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged Autographs, Book Collecting, Brian Leno, Norman Lindsay, Seabury Quinn, Virgil Finlay
Hammett: Birthday 132
Today, Hammett’s 132nd birthday. And the guy keeps hanging in. On May 1st he cracked Jeopardy! again. S4E170. In the Double Jeopardy round. Category: Life on TCM. $800 clew: In “The Thin Man” Myrna Loy catches up to her husband … Continue reading
Hollywood Beat: That Photogenic Mug, Jim Tully
Autograph Hound Saturday yet again. . . . Back in 2012 I made a run down to Hollywood to hit Musso & Frank and hobnob with my fellow wizards. Leo Grin had mentioned that he noticed a nice signed photo … Continue reading
Rediscovered: William Desmond Taylor
And in this case, as usual, rediscovered in Brian Leno’s storied trove. Autograph Hound Saturday once more — and here’s Brian: I’m really digging into my autograph folders, probably just procrastinating to avoid stacking and shelving books. I don’t know … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Random John Hancocks
Autograph Hound Saturday again, and the maniacal Autograph Hound Brian Leno has been digging around in his trove, reminding himself of what he’s got. “The Intruder by Beaumont is interesting,” Brian says, “because the dust jacket is signed by William … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Charles Beaumont, George Clayton Johnson, Roger Corman, Twilight zone, William F. Nolan, William Shatner, Zane Grey
Hammett: Jeopardy! Won’t Leave Him Alone
The week ended with Jeopardy! invoking Hammett’s name yet again: S42E90. 1/9/26. A Champions Wildcard showdown. Double Jeopardy round, $2000 slot in the category Adapted for High School: Rian Johnson adapted what he called “the weirdly poetic style of Dashiell … Continue reading
Hammett: Dashammet
Will Murray digs away in aging archives, turning up cool tidbits. Here’s Will: I came across these excerpts from Mort Weisinger’s Pony Express gossip column in Writer’s Review back in the 1930s. “DASHIELL HAMMETT is busy in Hollywood working for … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco
Tagged Erle Stanley Gardner, Mort Weisinger, Will Murray, William Powell
Rediscovered: Buford Pusser
Autograph Hound Saturday once again, and we spotlight a famous lawman. When I was in college at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, I heard Buford Pusser would be signing clubs at a Ford dealership across town. Growing up … Continue reading
Posted in Film, News
Tagged Autographs, Breaker Morant, Brian Leno, Buford Pusser, Buford Pusser Museum, Joe Don Baker, MTSU, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Walking Tall
Mort: In Memoriam Bruce Townley
I didn’t mention it at the time, but Bruce Townley died on October 17, 2024 — one of the more brutal endings I know of, fell in his apartment on Washington near Polk, couldn’t get up (yeah, just like the … Continue reading
