Hammett

Hammett is a 1982 American neo-noir mystery film directed by Wim Wenders and executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay was written by Ross Thomas and Dennis O'Flaherty, based on the novel of the same name by Joe Gores. It stars Frederic Forrest as detective story writer Dashiell Hammett, who gets caught up in a mystery very much like one of his own stories. Marilu Henner plays Hammett's neighbor, Kit Conger, and Peter Boyle plays Jimmy Ryan, an old friend from Hammett's days as a Pinkerton agent. The film was entered into the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Plot San Francisco-based Dashiell Hammett, trying to put his Pinkerton detective days behind him while establishing himself as a writer, finds himself drawn back into his old life one last time by the irresistible call of friendship and to honor a debt. In 1928, Hammett, known to his librarian neighbor Kit and other acquaintances as "Sam" is holed up in a cheap apartment, hard at work at his typewriter each day. He drinks heavily, smokes too much and has coughing fits. One day, a friend and mentor from his Pinkerton days, Jimmy Ryan, turns up with a request, that Hammett help him track down a Chinese prostitute named Crystal Ling in the Chinatown district of San Francisco, an area Hammett is more familiar with than Ryan. Hammett is soon pulled into a multi-layered plot, losing the only copy of his manuscript, wondering how and why Ryan has vanished, being followed by a tough-talking gunsel, discovering a million-dollar blackmail scheme and being deceived by the diabolical Crystal, right up to a final confrontation near the San Francisco wharf. Cast Frederic Forrest as Dashiell Hammett Peter Boyle as Jimmy Ryan Marilu Henner as Kit Conger / Sue Alabama Roy Kinnear as English Eddie Hagedorn Elisha Cook Jr. as Eli the Taxi Driver Lydia Lei as Crystal Ling R. G. Armstrong as Lt. O'Mara Richard Bradford as Detective Bradford Michael Chow as Fong Wei Tau David Patrick Kelly as The Punk Sylvia Sidney as Donaldina Cameron Jack Nance as Gary Salt Elmer Kline as Doc Fallon Royal Dano as Pops Samuel Fuller as Old Man in Pool Hall Fox Harris as Frank the News Vendor Production Critically acclaimed German director Wim Wenders was hired by Francis Ford Coppola to direct Hammett as his American debut feature. Coppola and the film's financing studio, Orion, were dissatisfied with the original version and nearly the entire film was reshot.