A fictionalized account of Dashiell Hammett getting involved in a scenario like something from one of his own stories. Wim Wenders constructs a neo-noir that's light on the "neo". No post-modern winks at the audience, no updating the sex and violence to the modern standards. Except for the color photography, one utterance of "shit" and slightly more sexual suggestion than you could get away with the time, it feels like something straight out of the era. The snappy dialogue, the canted angles, the rough and tumble characters, the twisty plot (more Chandler than Hammett, really, but whatever). The blatantly artificial sets are perhaps a little too self-conscious but it doesn't ever get too kitschy. Terrific score and very appropriate casting including Freddie Forrest, Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner and Elisha Cook. The biggest problem is that the film doesn't have a great storyline to hang its fedora on. It's pretty much just an exercise in pure duplication. But it's a fun time for lovers of the genre.
Review of Hammett
