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: 50 Years Ago
Usually, I don’t bother going out of my way to meet someone or see something. Only a very few possible high points kick me in the ass. I made sure I went to the screenings in Pacific Film Archive in … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Willeford’s Cockfighter
Fifty years slips past when you’re not even looking. For example, how long ago was it that Warren Oates in Cockfighter hit the silver screen? Fifty years? Correct you are. Based on the novel by Charles Willeford. The blurbage for … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Frisco, News, Willeford
Tagged Betsy Willeford, Four Star Theater, Kier-la Janisse, Warren Oates
Rediscovered: Know The Shadow. . .
Check out that great Chinatown alley. Can’t you just see Lon Chaney as a vicious legless Lord of the Underworld creeping over the stone bricks, enrapt in savage dreams of subjugating the city? But Chaney kept his lair in San … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit, News
Tagged Alec Baldwin, Ian McKellan, James Reasoner, John C. Moran, Lon Chaney, Orson Welles, The Shadow, The Shadowed Circle Compendium, Walter B. Gibson, Will Murray
Hammett: Some Thoughts on M. Spade from Kent Harrington
That prolific writer in the Posse McMillan crew, Kent Harrington, asked if I’d seen Monsieur Spade yet. Not yet, but give me a day or two free and I’ll binge my way through. (Meanwhile, I have binged the two seasons … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: The Oscars
Brian Wallace popped me another tidbit from the historic archives of Noir & Mean Streeting, from which I deduced he must have watched the recent Oscars ceremonies: “Wonderful what Hollywood will do to a nobody. It will make a radiant … Continue reading
Hammett: M. Spade — Episodes 4, 5 & 6
When last seen reviewing Episode 3, Terry Zobeck was getting into Monsieur Spade as a mystery. Sure, he had to ignore the baffling presence of a guy named Spade in France for some reason, but he was making the best … Continue reading
Hammett: M. Spade Episode 3
I believe tonight is the formal drop for the sixth and last episode of Monsieur Spade, which reminds me I have further ongoing commentary on hand by Terry Zobeck to nudge out onto The Mean Streets. I don’t believe there’s … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: The Return of The Woman Chaser
Joe McSpadden dropped a dime to let me know that the Charles Willeford movie The Woman Chaser returns to the Alamo Drafthouse on Monday, February 19 at 7:15pm. Great chance to catch it on a big screen. Joe produced the … Continue reading
Posted in Film, News, Willeford
Tagged Alamo Drafthouse, Jake Isgar, Joe McSpadden, Patrick Warburton, Rob Devor, The Woman Chaser, Warren Oates
Hammett: Nathan Ward v. M. Spade
Got a note from our pal Nathan Ward — author of the Hammett bio The Lost Detective — that he’s getting sucked into the current Sam Spade experience of watching Monsieur Spade on AMC. “I have only seen one episode,” … Continue reading
Hammett: M. Spade Episode 2
Terry Zobeck chips in a brief notice on episode 2 of Monsieur Spade, currently running on AMC. He did his main layout in his opening installment, and mentions, “There are some gentle spoilers, but I don’t see a way to … Continue reading
