Hammett 1982 Wim Wenders

I caught this one on Netflix Instant a week or so ago, and I've gotta say...it's amazing.  It is.  I've heard about this movie for years, but it's never been on DVD and the videotapes were going for ridiculous prices on E-Bay, so I thought it was one of those movies I'd never get a chance to see.  Just another reason to love Netflix streaming.

Anyway, Frederic Forrest from Apocalypse Now plays the writer Dashiell Hammett.  The whole movie is like a big Marvel Comics "What If" isssue.  What if Dashiell Hammett, who wrote such novels as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, as well as loads of short stories, was involved in a big mystery himself?  And what if the movie that was made was directed by one of the heroes of the New German Cinema of the 70's, making his first English language movie?  It would rule, that's what!

Hammett's in San Francisco, and he gets asked a favor by an old friend to help him look for a missing Chinese girl.  From there it plays out as if it should have been called Fassbinder's San Francisco Confidential.  Part of the fun in this movie is spotting all the character actors like Peter Boyle, Jack Nance, and David Patrick Kelly (doing Jude Law's assassin from Road to Perdition twenty years early).

If this movie ever comes out on DVD, buy it.  If it ever comes back onto Netflix Instant, watch it instantly.  I can't recommend this movie highly enough.  And why didn't Frederic Forrest become the biggest star in the world?  He's amazing in this.