Dashiell Hammett Documentary

Dashiell Hammett was witness to America
of the first half of the 20th century.

These photographs are taken
from these paper headlines.

These photographs represent
some of the events

that Dashiell experienced,

which became the underprint
of his perspective.

His outlife influenced American culture
with as ? and immense talent.

He invented the American private detective
along with his unique vocabulary.

He also helped formally and fully
the American literary genre,

hardboiled detective fiction.

Troubled by health problems
and alcoholism,

he proceeded very little writing
after the 1930s.

Although his writing span only
one decade, Hammett's publications

are some of the most influential
and important literary creations

of the 20th century.

The Great War, prohibition, the gangster,
racism and the Second World War.

These were turbulent times
in democracy's history.

Dark clouds, casting shadows onto life
as the melting pot of America's search

for its identity.

Many like Dashiell experienced
these events as the 20th century

came onto its own across the USA.

(Book critic and ADA director
of literature David Given)

Hammett was born 1894 in pre-War
Maryland, on his grandfather's farm.

He spent his youth in Baltimore.
His father was ne'er-do-well,

so Hammett himself left school
after studying a year of high school.

He picked up on jobs,
he was a messenger boy

for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad.
But nothing really clicked

until he found the Pinkertons.

(Julie Rivett) My grandfather reponded
to an ad and took a job

with Pinkertons detective agency.

It was the kind of job
that was really well suited

to his intellectual curiosity.

It wasn't the one to sit behind a desk
with the same thing day after day.

Pinkertons allowed him
to go out in the world

and experienced things
that he'd never experienced before.

He met all kinds of people: crooks, cops,
all kinds of characters.

That kind of work helped him
build his repertoire as a detective

and as a writer.

(Diane Johnson) Hammett learned a lot
from the Pinkerton Upperton's manual,

what you cross through*
in some of his earlier works.

He learned a lot
about the detection,

the rough side of law inforcement
and struggle.

(Joe Gores) : He had a bare bright.
He knew what it was like to stay there

and say "am I gonna die,
this guy is shooting at me.

I've been shot a few times.

Jesus, my god ! You scared stiff."
And he's been that.

And very few writers had that.

In 1918, World War I
was coming to a climax.

Our troops were coming home,
bringing with them the Spanish influenza

and a need for volunteers.

Dashiell was 24 and left Pinkertons
to enlist in the army.

He served as an ambulance driver.

Within 4 months of enlistment
however, he felt ill.

The army sent Dashiell
to recover at Cushman hospital

and to come to Washington.
It was here that he met his first wife,

Jessie Dolan, a civilian nurse
caring for soldiers in Cushman hospital.

He was diagnosed with tuberculosis
and given an honorable discharge

from the army.

After recovering at Cushman,
he began to strengh

in mounty San Francisco, California,
upon his release.

Jessie Dolan joined Dashiell there
in July of 1921.

There was married
at St Mary's cathedral.

The first child, Mary,
was born in October of the same year.

These photos were taken on the roof
at Craftward appartments,

their first address in San Francisco.

As a small disability pensionee, ...
from the army, with a family to support,

he began to think of ways
to supplement his income.

After taking a career writing course,
offered* by the Bertram's bureau,

he began to submit
short stories for magazines.

His first published work,
The Parthian Shot,

appeared in October 1922 issue
of The Smart Set, a literary magazine.

Some of Hammett earlier stories
were published

under the signum Peter Collison.

The stories continued to be published
in The Smart Set, and most importantly,

in Black Mask, a magazine
devoted to crime fiction.

Black Mask soon became known
as the primor* outlet

for the hardboiled detective stories.

Several Hammett's early stories
helped to create this fictional prototype.

Particularly those featuring
this character known as

the Continental Op.

The Op worked his way
through difficult violent cases

involving many of these scenarios
and characters now associated

with pulp fiction.

double-crosses, femmes fatales,
and detectives who operate

under their strict code of ethics.

Although his crime stories
were successful,

Hammett still aspired
to a more respectable place.

He considered it to be that of literature.

A place he achieved
as it's often the case in history...

after his death.

The second daughter Josephine
was born in May 1926.

Soon after her birth, doctors recommended
because of his medical condition

that he moved away from his family
in order to ensure

the health of his children and wife.

This separation would
eventually become permanent.

After writing over 100 short stories,
Hammett published his first novel,

Red Harvest in 1921,

The book featured The Continental Op
working on a murder case in Poisonville.

a setting based in part
on Hammett's experiences

while working with Pinkerton
as a strike breaker.

A gangster movie, Roadhouse nights,
released in 1930,

was easily based upon this novel.

His next novel, The dain curse,
was published in July of 1929,

and also featured The Continental Op.

This time, in an investigation
of stolen diamonds.

This novel was made into a tv miniseries
in 1978, starring James Coburn.

Both of these novels resulted
in an ever-growing fanbase

of Hammett's detective stories.

In September of 1921,
Black Mask serialised portions

of what would become Hammett's 3rd novel
The Maltese Falcon.

The Maltese Falcon was published
as a full novel in February of 1930.

Depicted through the eyes
of Hammett's new detective,

Sam Spade, is the search
for a valuable artefact,

the medieval malted tribute falcon.

--- as a series of murders and deceptions
on its journey to SF.

The Maltese Falcon was made
into 3 different Hollywood movies.

The first in 1931 of the same title,
the 2nd in 1936, titled Satan met a lady,

starring Bette Davies.

The 3rd release in 1941
was immediately successful

and has become a film-noir classic.

Even more than The Continental Op,
Sam Spade came to be regarded

as primary character type
in the crime fiction of this era.

Hammett's 1930 novel
The Maltese Falcon

set a new high mark
for detective fiction.

One on which all serious future writers
of the genre would aspire.

Not only did he introduced the readers
to a new kind of hardboiled hero,

with Samuel Spade, he also gave us
a book that crossed the line op-fiction

to great literature.

(Novelist Adrien McKitty):
Maltese Falcon is the story

of a detective called Sam Spade,
and he's part of this detective agency

of Spade and Archer who are partners
and had a small ofice in San Francisco.

Into his office one day a lady comes in.
We subsequently learn she's called

Brigid O' Shaughnessy.

As the story goes on,
we discover that she's involved

in this nefarious scheme to get
this beautiful medieval object

called the Maltese falcon.

(Literary critic Maury Korg):

Spade is also trying to sell the mystery
of the death of his partner, Miles Archer,

two plots seem to intertwine here.

(Novelist Walter Mosley):

Hammett is always talking
about heroes or flawed/fraud (?).

Sam Spade is having an affair
with his partner's wife

and his partner gets murdered
and Sam Spade has to figure out

where he stands in relation to the world
after the murder of this partner

who is cuckold.

Spade is competing
with this group of criminals

lead by a mastermind named Gutman
to try to find the falcon first.

Of course also all along the way he meets
a femme fatale, Brigid O'Shaughnessy.

At the start of the novel,
the beautiful Brigid

enters Sam Spade's office
with a phony story.

But it doesn't take him long to understand
the real motive for seeking his help.

She's desperately trying to recover
the priceless falcon

before the others can find it.

One by one Spade meets the criminals
who work with

and often against Brigid.

(Adrian McKinty):
This is a very motley crue.

These people who
you wouldn't ordinarily see together.

Gutman is a man
who is obsessed with his own image.

He's a bon vivant, a throwback character
to the 19th century,

and Joel Cairo is anxious,
slimy, and creepy.

Ned is the punk kid and a forcer.
He's very young,

completely outgunned
and outclassed by Sam.

(Narrator): Novelist Diane Johnson knows
the setting of the Maltese falcon well.

She lives much of the year
in Sam Spade's falcon city.

(D. J.) This book takes place
in San Francisco,

very much of the atmosphere
of San Francisco,

with the fog, hills, and the little alleys
and the atmosphere of a port,

which was coming* in with sinister people.

It actually takes place
between December 5 and 10, 1928.

(Dashiel Hammett's granddaughter
Julie Rivett) You can walk

through the novel, through the streets
of S.F., and you find the same hotels,

the same restaurants, the streets.

(Writer George Gorash lived for years
in S. F., a detective and repo man.

He also wrote a novel Hammett,
which was brought into a film in 1982).

San Francisco is a very interesting city
to have a novel setting.

Because unlike almost
any other major city,

there's very little
organised crime in S. F.

It has been. Back in the 20s, the gangmen
go the Chicago, Cough, you know.

In S. F. corruption was local
and they wanted to keep it local.

More on Sam Spade
and on the Maltese Falcon film in part II.

Hammett's 4th novel published in 1931
was The Glass Key,

a tale of political corruption
that featured a more mature style

than previous novels.

This was made into a Hollywood movie
in 1935 starring George Raft,

and again in 1942, starring
Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd.

The story features gambler
and racketeerer Ned Beaumont

and his devotion for crooked political
and cupboard madness.

These seems to investigate the murder
of the local senator's son,

while a potential gang ratpack
is in the backyard.

In the early 1930s Hammett
moved to Hollywood

to begin a career as a screenwriter.

His film credits during the period
include the story for the 1931 films

City streets and Woman in the dark.

While his family remained in S.F.,
Hammett kept a common finance

and visits with his wife and children,
sharing with them the events of the world.

These photos are
from the Hammett's family album.

During his Hollywood phase
he met Ernest Hemingway

and Scott Fitzgerald, among others,
had several lovers in Los Angeles

and met the woman who he would spend
most the rest of his life with,

the young playwright Lillian Hellman.

According to Hellman,
she met Hammett in a restaurant

as he was coming off
of a 5-day drinking pitch.

The type of which he became notorious.

Hellman had to create
a distinctive nature self

during her years with Hammett.

She would become
a major American playwright.

Their relationship continued on and on
for many years.

Hammett published
his 5th and final novel in 1934.

The Thin Man features
the slightly A-wall socialite couple

Nick and Nora Charles, two of Hammett's
most complex characters

as they attempt to solve
a murder in NY City.

Important in the context
of Hammett's work is the development

of his male protagonist
away from his earlier creations.

Nick, a former detective
who prefers relaxation time

is only reluctantly drawn
into the mystery.

Hammett sold the rights
to the Nick and Nora Charles characters

for 40000 in 1947.

The Thin Man series of films
starring William Powell and Myrna Loy

managed to remain popular
well past the 1940s.

Hammett never achieved
great success in Hollywood.

Although he was well-paid for his efforts.

Several accounts of his drinking squeeze
and the enormous amounts of money

that he spent on Lillian Hellman
and their extravagant lifestyle.

Hellman herself described these years
after his arrival in Hollywood

as ultimately happy and unhappy.

Despite his creative
and physical deterioration,

he attempted to stop drinking
several times but could only do so

for short periods.

Many other important American writers
including Fitzgerald

and the novelist William Faulkner
also came to Hollywood

during this period,
only to see their careers falter.

- Did you kill her? Why not?
You had a perfectly good motive.

(other film dialogue)

Hammett, despite his ill health and age,
re-alisted in the army

during the Second World War.

After several postings, he was stationed
in the Aleutian islands, Alaska,

and achieved the rank of sergeant.

His daughter Jo provided
the personal pictures of Dashiell's life.

He felt this second army stand
was one of the happiest times in his life.

After his return from the military,
Hammett become involved

in the service of left-wing causes,
such as the NY Civil Rights Congress.

This was an aid organisation
for people accused of

communist-related activities
by the US House Un-American

Activities Committee (HUAC).

HUAC was investigating
the possible infiltration of communism

into influential American institutions
and industries.

It considered the Hollywood
motion picture industry

to be specially susceptible
to communist tendencies.

Hammett was called before HUAC
because of his involvement

within the Civil Rights Congress,

he was jailed for several months
after refusing to report the names

of those who had found it
and many of its beneficiaries.

Lillian Hellman was later
blacklisted by HUAC.

Hammett's years as a series writer
were far behind him.

An incomplete autobiographical sketch
he wrote called Tulip

was eventually published
as part of a larger collection of stories

edited by Hellman.

He fell and had a hearth attack
in the mid-1950s,

Hammett stopped writing altogether.

Hammett lived often on
with long-time companion Hellman

on Martha's vineyard
for the last decade of his life.