1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910820904203321

Autore

Mooney William H. <1948->

Titolo

Dashiell Hammett and the movies / / William H. Mooney

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick, New Jersey ; ; London : , : Rutgers University Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-8135-6254-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (226 p.)

Classificazione

HU 3758

Disciplina

813/.52

Soggetti

Film adaptations - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Inferior Hammett or Exemplary Hollywood? -- 1. Three Early Films: Roadhouse Nights (1930), City Streets (1931), and Mister Dynamite (1935) -- 2. Celebrity: The Thin Man (1934) -- 3. After The Thin Man: From Sequel to Series -- 4. Lillian Hellman: Woman in the Dark (1934) and Watch on the Rhine (1943) -- 5. Sexual Politics: The Maltese Falcon (1931), Satan Met a Lady (1936), and The Maltese Falcon (1941) -- 6. Ethnic Politics: The Glass Key (1935 and 1942) -- 7. Hammett in Retrospect: Miller's Crossing (1990) -- Conclusion: Dashiell Hammett and the Movies -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sommario/riassunto

As the father of the hardboiled detective genre, Dashiell Hammett had a huge influence on Hollywood. Yet, it is easy to forget how adaptable Hammett's work was, fitting into a variety of genres and inspiring generations of filmmakers. Dashiell Hammett and the Movies offers the first comprehensive look at Hammett's broad oeuvre and how it was adapted into films from the 1930's all the way into the 1990's. Film scholar William H. Mooney reveals the wide range of films crafted from the same Hammett novels, as when The Maltese Falcon was filmed first as a pre-Code sexploitation movie, then as a Bette Davis screwball comedy, and finally as the Humphrey Bogart classic. He also considers how Hammett rose to Hollywood fame not through the genre most associated with him, but through a much fizzier concoction, the witty



murder mystery The Thin Man. To demonstrate the hold Hammett still has over contemporary filmmakers, the book culminates in an examination of the Coen brothers' pastiche Miller's Crossing.  Mooney not only provides us with an in-depth analysis of Hammett adaptations, he also chronicles how Hollywood enabled the author's own rise to stardom, complete with a celebrity romance and a carefully crafted public persona. Giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the complex power relationships, cultural contexts, and production concerns involved in bringing Hammett's work from the page to the screen, Dashiell Hammett and the Movies offers a fresh take on a literary titan.