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
Tag Archives: 891 Post
Sinister Cinema: Voice of Noir
How about a few more pics from the gig in the Tenderloin Museum? I was supposed to talk for 30 or 40 minutes about Hammett living in the TL, the 1941 film of The Maltese Falcon and so forth — … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: Reeling in the History
Did a couple of groups by appointment yesterday, got lucky with the brutal winter rains holding off. . . . On one of them the mysterious CitySleuth came along and tossed in some tidbits of film/Frisco history — one was … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, Bill Arney, CitySleuth, Heisenberg, Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Lon Chaney Sr., Mark Murphy, ReelSF, Ruby Skye, Tenderloin Museum, The Big Knockover, The Penalty, Vertigo
Hammett: Bill Arney on The Lost Detective
Today is the official publication date for Nathan Ward’s new bio of Dashiell Hammett, so to raise a symbolic glass of Bacardi in toast (I’m sure all big fans of The Maltese Falcon will get the reference), let’s have a … Continue reading
Hammett: Reviewer Remorse
Now Terry Zobeck is worried that his review of the new Hammett bio by Nathan Ward — because of a few quibbles he throws in — might not have given a fair account of how much he liked it: I hope … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, Ace Atkins, Art Taylor, Bill Arney, Black Mask, Bogie, David Fechheimer, Jose Hammett, Nathan Ward, Red Harvest, Terry Zobeck, Washington Post
Tour: Sunday May 17 and Sunday June 7
Okay, the requests for walks have rolled in, so if you’re ready and able on either Sunday May 17 or Sunday June 7, you can just show up at noon clutching $20, with four hours available to kill gumshoeing up … Continue reading
Hammett: It’s Raining Dashiells in Gotham City
Next week Gotham begins airing the last set of new episodes heading to the first season finale. It’s already been renewed, so no need to worry about an unresolved cliff-hanger — if they do have a cliff-hanger they leave unresolved next season, … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, News, REH, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, Alexandre Dumas, Batman, Dash Mihok, Dashiell Eaves, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Gotham, John Milius, Leave It to Beaver, Leo Grin, Lyle Talbot, More Dashiells, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Stephen Talbot, Weird Tales
Frisco Beat: Adios, House of Fans — or, The Adventure of The Diagraph Stencil Machine
A couple of Thursdays back I did a tour by appointment for a guy who just couldn’t hit the burg on a Sunday, but didn’t seem to mind handing over bigger bucks to pay for wear-and-tear on my gumshoes and closing-in-on-forty-years of expertise. … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, News, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, 895 Post, Hammett Historic District, House of Fans, The Diagraph Company, The Maltese Arms
Hammett: KALW and the Mystery of the Black Bird
The Maltese Falcon presides over San Francisco — the novel, the film, a thousand and one statues made of plaster, the two or three (or more?) figurines wrought out of lead with a golden bronze patina — the lead ones from … Continue reading
891 Post: The Scorched Face
And today Mark Murphy pops in a photo showing off exactly how close the fire came to his windows — top floor, at right — leaving scorch marks on the south face of 891 Post. I think you’ll be able … Continue reading
