William Denton (buff@pobox.com)
Mon, 26 Jul 1999 23:32:30 -0400 (EDT)
My nearby (Buffalo, New York) PBS station ran this tonight. I
thought it was pretty good. Nice biographical sketch of
Hammett, some good pictures I hadn't seen, some short
interviews with people he'd known (including his daughter,
whom I've never seen before), and the obligatory shots of
cigarette smoke curling up by typewriters and booze being
poured into a glass. Joan Mellen was interviewed, and I'm
sure I've seen her before; also Diane Johnson who looked very
proper and had a pearl necklace.
Two things really caught my eye: one, that Hammett had
regular drinking sessions with Hemingway and Faulkner. What
nights those would have been. Also, there was a picture of
him at a dinner with Paul Robeson. I'd have liked to hear
them talk.
It's too bad there aren't more documentaries like this.
They'd have period colour, booze, manual typewriters, those
great old cars, guys in fedoras and gals in dresses, lots of
old movie clips, people talking tough, and interviews with
old, non-famous people who were involved in the scene back
then when they were young. You could do a six- or eight-hour
series on the Black Mask boys, an era that's gone
forever.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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