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
Sinister Cinema: Ghost Breakers
As the fourth presentation in his Pulps in the Movies series, John Locke introduces us to a new wrinkle in the pulp sighting game. He’s already established spotting actual wood pulp fictionmags in old movies and even relatively modern movies. … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Fatty Paws a Blue Book
John Locke is back with “another pulp sighting for the queue,” third in his new series of Pulps in the Movies. Catch them Wednesdays here on Up and Down These Mean Streets! This one is an example of the best … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Tussling Atop Pulps
Last week John Locke brought us the first installment of Pulps in the Movies (!), featuring Fight Stories. How about another one? “I actually have 250+ of these screen grabs,” John says. “New ones turn up in proportion to the … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged A-No. 1, Detective Fiction Weekly, Emperor of the North, John Locke, Lee Marvin, Pulps in the Movies, Western Story
Rediscovered: Max Z
While I don’t proselytize for it every day, I am a big fan of the Max Brooks novel World War Z — not so much for the movie they named after it. Brian Leno nabbed me a couple of Brooks … Continue reading
Hammett: Jeopardy! Won’t Let Go
Yeah, Jeopardy! has a thing going for Hammett clews — and who can blame them? He’s famous, for closing in on a century now, and you can creep in via the books, the movies, the life. Yesterday — S36E55 — … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Brigitte Helm
And if you’ve seen Metropolis, you probably have put the words “hot” and “robot” together in your mind. For Autograph Hound Super-Sunday Brian Leno returns to those halcyon years of German silent cinema with some comments on: Brigitte Helm had … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Metropolis Mama
From Faust to Metropolis, Brian Leno keeps this Autograph Hound Super-Sunday hopping. Yeah, he’s got a Thea von Harbou John Hancock, but he’d really like to have the loot needed to pop for a copy of the novel currently available … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: A Faustian and Toulouse-Lautrec-ian Yvette
For Autograph Hound Super-Sunday, another Halloween Edition, I see that Brian Leno has been digging around in the corner of the crypt where he secrets his silent German movie stuff. Tell us about it, Herr Leno: Yvette Guilbert may be a … Continue reading
