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: Dr. Caligari
And for his final Halloween auto for the day Brian Leno evokes the past: Three years ago we showcased Conrad Veidt and Lil Dagover from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This time around we have the good doctor himself, Werner … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Vampire
Brian Leno keeps the Halloween inbox hopping: Sharp photo with a signed card by John Beal. Poor guy better get a shave if he wants to have any chance at romance with the fainting beauty. Released in theatres as The … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Another Bride
Brian Leno pulls another auto from the cast of James Whale’s The Bride of Frankenstein: Valerie Hobson, also known as Baroness Frankenstein in Universal’s 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein. The signature is a little shaky, as it’s on a … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Dr. Pretorius
Another arcane John Hancock from the vaults of Brian Leno: Dr. Pretorius, Ernest Thesiger, from The Bride of Frankenstein. It’s a great movie but the scene with the little people created by Pretorius is just downright silly. Painful to watch. … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Bride of Frankenstein, Dr. Pretoruius, Ernest Thesiger, James Whale
Rediscovered: The Gorgon
Brian Leno continues his Halloween cornucopia: The autograph of Prudence Hyman, who played the Gorgon in Hammer’s aptly titled The Gorgon, from 1964. Prudence doubled in the monster scenes for Barbara Shelley, supposedly because she could glide effortlessly across the … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Halloween Knell
This year Halloween snuck up on me on little cat’s feet, but Brian Leno remembered the annual tradition we’ve had going on with eldritch John Hancocks, year after year. He’s begun popping them in for interested eyeballs: “Pigeons from Hell” … Continue reading
Posted in Film, REH
Tagged Autographs, Boris Karloff, Brian Leno, John Newland, Ottola Nesmith, Thriller
Two-Gun Bob: June 11, 1926 — 1936 — 2022
Today marks the anniversary of the suicide by gunshot at age thirty of Texas author Robert E. Howard, sitting in his Chevy outside the family home in Cross Plains. Our resident Autograph Hound Brian Leno lays out another John Hancock … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Frisco, Lit, News, REH
Tagged Autographs, Book Collecting, Boris Karloff, Brian Leno, Collier's, Hugh Wiley, literary suicides, San Francisco Mysteries, Steve Eng
Hammett: More Hawkman
Remember back in 2016 when the DC comics show Legends of Tomorrow debuted on the CW? Seems like only yesterday, and now it has been canceled, the last sad dregs streaming off into oblivion. . . . But hey, I … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, News
Tagged Brian Wallace, Dominic Purcell, Hawkman, Joe Kubert, Legends of Tomorrow, Murphy Anderson, Prison Break, The CW
Rediscovered: The Death of Sax
Arch-Autograph Hound Brian Leno hauls out a couple of John Hancocks to mark an anniversary, including one from the iconic Anna May Wong, who just got her own American quarterpiece, if you prefer to collect coins. Here’s Brian: Sixty-three years … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit, News, REH
Tagged Anna May Wong, Autographs, Brian Leno, Fu-Manchu, Joan Bradshaw, Joseph Clement Coll, Sax Rohmer
Hammett: The Noir Croissant
Brian Wallace updates the news regarding Clive Owen playing Sam Spade, after Sam has moved to France, it’s circa 1963, and a plot is brewing. First, The Ronin blurbs the project and speculates who might pick it up — they … Continue reading
