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Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Powerful

A Disappointing Continuation

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The novel writer Dashiell Hammett is involved in the investigation of the mysterious disappearance of a beautiful Chinese cabaret actress in San Francisco.Who would have thought that Wim Wenders had in him one of the all-time great American detective films? Not me, that's for sure. And yet, here it is with some great characters and plenty of those intriguing twists and turns we love. And Peter Boyle! The setting of San Francisco as opposed to New York or Los Angeles (or Chicago) was a good choice, and of course allows for the Chinatown subplot. Surprisingly, this does not seem to be a common plot element in detective films (besides, of course, "Chinatown").

Hammett is a fictional story about the great writer Dashiell Hammett (played by Frederic Forrest). The story finds the writer retired from the Pinkerton Detectice Agency and nursing bad lungs and a taste for the liquor. When old colleague Jimmy Ryan (Peter Boyle) comes a calling, Hammett finds himself down in Frisco's Chinatown district in it up to his neck in muck and grime. The back story to the production of Hammett is long and disappointing, all of which makes for fascinating reading and available at the click of a mouse. The film we have to view now may not be the one originally envisaged by director Wim Wenders, but on repeat viewings it shows itself to be a very loving homage to the halcyon days of film noir, a film of great technical craft and guile. Though not without issues either... Production value is high, the set design that brings late 1920s Frisco to life is a joy, as is Joseph Biroc's luscious colour photography. John Barry provides a musical score that smoothly floats around the Gin Joints and Alleyways, while costuming is on the money. Cast are led superbly by the under valued Forrest, with Marilu Henner (Biroc lights her so well), Boyle and Lydia Lei striking the requisite film noir chords, while a host of cameos and short order roles will have the keen of eye putting names to the faces from similar films of yesteryear. The story is complex, which is purposely complimented by narration, canted angles, slatted shadows, billowing smoke, and of course a number of venues that all anti-heroic detectives must traverse to unravel the mystery bubbling away under the seamy surface. The problems are evident of course, it's a very uneven picture, the re-writes etc leaving a disappointing mark. It's also like watching a performance at the theatre, akin to watching a play, the predominantly stage bound shoot - and the almost forced delivery of lines - makes it synthetic. But ultimately there's a lot of noir love here, enough to ensure that repeat viewings for those of that persuasion should find themselves rewarded for their time. 7/10

It is painful to have to admit this, but even Wim Wenders can make a bad movie. I saw this years ago and was terribly disappointed. I just had another look, fooling myself into thinking it must have matured in the can and it would be really good, and that I just remembered it wrong. But alas, it was even worse than I remembered. Frederic Forrest is superb and was perfectly chosen to play the main character, Dash Hammett the detective writer ('The Maltese falcon', 'The Glass Key' and the 'Thin Man' films). Forrest worked again with Wenders 15 years later in another film and he played Hammett a second time in 'Citizen Cohn' (1992). He is a good solid actor and always delivers. The other highlight of this film in terms of acting is the amazing Lydia Lei, who plays a Chinese siren even though she is Japanese. She has that something extra. She will make the hair rise on the back of your neck, and maybe more besides. But the film is a super-flop. Wenders obviously loves old noir movies and thought 'wouldn't it be nice if'. But just as 'man cannot live by bread alone', so a film director 'cannot live by homage alone'. The concept, the story, the script, are all terrible. And the interior lighting is even worse, far too harsh, and the attempts at expressionism with streaked shadows and so forth is a total failure. Above all, everything is too contrived and the characters apart from Hammett himself are pastiche people, which was doubtless intentional in a jocular homage sort of way, but Germans should never try humour, as it is not their forte, and Wenders is best when he is being earnest and serious, or portraying personal angst or hanging out with musicians. Even Wenders's flair for music wobbles here, with some dubious song choices. This was just an 'off day' for Wenders which lasts for 97 minutes, and if you make it that far you pass the endurance test.

A surprising - and quite successful - belated attempt at film noir which gave Fredric Forrest the role of his life (Jason Robards Jr. had previously portrayed famed mystery writer Dashiell Hammett in JULIA [1977], and won an Oscar for it!) but also features terrific support from, among others, Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner, Richard Bradford and Elisha Cook Jnr. (playing an "anarchist with syndicalist tendencies"), not to mention cameos from the likes of Sylvia Sydney, Samuel Fuller and Royal Dano! Impeccable lighting and production design, together with John Barry's evocative score, set the seal on its perfect recreation of the genre's typical ambiance.While the mystery plot wasn't immediately gripping and seemed unnecessarily convoluted (by way of an added fancy in which Hammett imagines characters from the film 'playing' the ones he invents for his stories!), it worked its way smoothly towards a satisfying conclusion. The fictionalized script took care to reference scenes from some of Hammett's most famous work - notably Roy Kinnear's Sydney Greenstreet impersonation and Forrest's own hand shaking (like Bogart's did) after standing up to the heavies, both from THE MALTESE FALCON (1941). However, the film's pornography subplot is actually derived from Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep"! Even if HAMMETT doesn't seem to have suffered for it, the production was beset by behind-the-scenes problems which is a fascinating story in itself: executive producer Francis Ford Coppola had originally offered the film to Nicolas Roeg who, for some reason, didn't do it and eventually made BAD TIMING (1980; which, incidentally, I watched only a few days later!). Wenders, a lifelong devotee of American genre cinema, stepped behind the camera but his work apparently didn't meet the approval of his backers! "Halliwell's Film Guide" explained the situation thus: "The film was actually in pre-production from 1975, though shooting did not begin until 1980. This version was abandoned in rough cut and two-thirds of it was shot again in 1981 with a different crew. Sylvia Miles and Brian Keith were in the first version and not the second." For this reason alone, it's truly a shame that Paramount's DVD was a bare-bones affair (if very reasonably priced!) as a documentary on the making of the film or, better still, individual Audio Commentaries by Wenders and Coppola would have been greatly appreciated...