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: W. R. Burnett on Defund the Police
A few weeks ago I finally got around to reading the heist-gone-wrong classic The Asphalt Jungle from 1949 by W. R. Burnett. With his first novel in 1929, Little Caesar, Burnett made his name. A cornerstone of crime fiction, the … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Val Lewton
Autograph Hound Saturday once more, and Brian Leno is back to give us a glance at one of his most recent acquisitions in the Department of Serious John Hancocks. Take it, Brian: I haven’t seen too many Val Lewton signatures … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged Autographs, Boris Karloff, Brian Leno, James T. Farrell, Val Lewton, Weird Tales
Mort: Fred Ward
After the fact, word drifted in that Fred Ward died on Sunday May 9 at the age of 79. Got to note it here since — as pictured above — Fred was the first to essay the role of Charles … Continue reading
Hammett: Call Me Ned
Terry Zobeck, the guy watching Perry Mason, pops in a footnote to today’s main post to tell us: “Latimer did not keep up the Hammett schtick of Ned Beaumont, always Ned Beaumont. “The character usually was referred to simply as … Continue reading
Hammett: Jonathan Latimer Cracks Wise
Got some notes in from Terry Zobeck, who is deep into the forgotten mags of the early 1920s on a Hammett hunt. Big game bibliography at its finest. But he’s not always prowling the primeval pagination, like a regular guy … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Lit
Tagged Black Mask, Erle Stanley Gardner, Jonathan Latimer, Perry Mason, Terry Zobeck
Rediscovered: At the Earth’s Core
News that a deluxe signed artist’s edition of At the Earth’s Core is coming up spurred Brian Leno to dig out some apt John Hancockery from his bulging files for Autograph Hound Saturday. Here’s Brian from the signature vaults: I … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit, News
Tagged At the Earth's Core, Autographs, Brian Leno, Caroline Munro, Doug McClure, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.
Sinister Cinema: Scary Monsters
Brian Leno continues to “splash the field,” sneaking articles into mags hither and yon — and this time he gets into a publication that has won numerous Rondo Hatton awards. Brian and I decided that the only award we’d really … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: The Shadow of Bill Arney
Dropped in on a memorial party for the late great Bill Arney last night in 891 Post, tales were told of his exploits, we found the raw footage of his epic toy tank battle filmed in Death Valley or someplace, … Continue reading
Mort: Yvette Mimieux
Autograph Hound Saturday and Brian Leno pulls an image from his collection as a gesture of “respect for Yvette Mimieux, who died on the 17th.” Struggling with a Wellsian Morlock from the beloved 1960 George Pal production of The Time … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, George Pal, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Yvette Mimieux
Hammett: Hollywood Goes Sports Mad
Terry Zobeck, back on the Mean Streets — and today he tells us about “a tongue-in-cheek article that Hammett published in 1934” with a link to its appearance in the November 8, 1934 issue of the Hartford Courant. “I verified … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film
Tagged Bill Mullins, Elise De Viane, Hartford Courant, Mollie Merrick, newspaper action, Richard Layman, Terry Zobeck
