While at City Lights I got drawn into Dashiell Hammett because of the local colour. On the plane home I read The Glass Key, quite fun. Apparently the basis for the Cohen’s Miller’s Crossing (1990). The original movie: The Glass Key, (1942), sounds good, but not available in the store here. Nice review of it by Alexander Walker
I almost cry when I see and hear the vanished virtues of the old-style Hollywood thriller: terseness, tautness, a laconic attitude to life, but also a commitment to the values that make it worth living and not just killing for.
This bio: Dashiell Hammett [1894-1961] is useful. The man was persecuted in the McCarthy era. Here is a pic I found:
I get onto a roll, I now have a video out: Hammett (1982) directed by Wim Wenders. Perhaps more on that later.
Later: It was awful!