Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour. 
The Dashiell Hammett Tour
1977-2022
Arkham House Ephemera
The Classic Years 1937–1973
Death Lit
Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
Willeford
The Book
Category Archives: Frisco
Rediscovered: San Francisco Mysteries Leading the Pack
Randal Brandt of the Bancroft Library popped in the image above — he’s at the podium giving a talk for Cal’s Homecoming events on Saturday October 10. On the screen behind him you’ll see the cover of the 1982 edition … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Abraham Polonsky — Dangerous Citizen
Tuesday August 18, 7pm — it felt like the meeting of a secret society. Always fun. Eddie Muller of TCM’s Noir Alley sent out an invite to a private screening in the 4-Star on Clement for his new documentary Dangerous … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, DMac, Film, Frisco
Tagged Abraham Polonsky, Domenic Stansberry, Eddie Muller, Eli Wallach, Harry Belafonte, HUAC, John Marr, Julie Lindow, Lester Cole, Murder Can Be Fun, Oscar, Peter Maravelis, Yul Brenner
Mort: DMac & DSF
Man. A Couple of Really Bad Days at Black Rock. A few days after the fact I heard from fellow Posse McMillan member Kent Harrington that our pal, publisher Dennis McMillan, had passed away on Friday May 1st. Word as … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged Death Lit Essays and Reviews 1974-2024, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Kent Harrington, Measures of Poison, Posse McMillan
Rediscovered: Gene and Joe
Autograph Hound Saturday. Courtesy Brian Leno, today let’s spotlight a favorite writer here on These Mean Streets. “Some good news,” Brian reports, “I picked up a signed Eugene Cunningham’s Texas Sheriff for 20 bucks. No dj but it supposedly has … Continue reading
Hammett: Dashammet
Will Murray digs away in aging archives, turning up cool tidbits. Here’s Will: I came across these excerpts from Mort Weisinger’s Pony Express gossip column in Writer’s Review back in the 1930s. “DASHIELL HAMMETT is busy in Hollywood working for … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco
Tagged Erle Stanley Gardner, Mort Weisinger, Will Murray, William Powell
891 Post: The Halloween Caper
Got word that some inhabitants of 891 Post — the building where Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon — put together a murder mystery for Halloween. That’s Mark Murphy as Sam Spade — or is it the ghost of Sam Spade? … Continue reading
Hammett: More Spadework from Coggins
Mark Coggins drops me a note to say, “I’ve a second Spade story, “The Russian Egg” in Eclectica Magazine which follows immediately from the first. “It has a little to say about the backstory of Gutman’s daughter.” Mark also supplies … Continue reading
Mort: In Memoriam Bruce Townley
I didn’t mention it at the time, but Bruce Townley died on October 17, 2024 — one of the more brutal endings I know of, fell in his apartment on Washington near Polk, couldn’t get up (yeah, just like the … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Woman Chaser on Blu-Ray
Got a note from Joe McSpadden that the film version of Charles Willeford’s novel The Woman Chaser, which he produced, is now — finally — on Blu-Ray. Don’t think it ever made it to DVD, only appearing long-ago as a … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Frisco, Lit, News, Willeford
Tagged Joe McSpadden, Patrick Warburton, The Woman Chaser
Hammett: Mockingbird Joins Early What Could be Legions
Mark Coggins, big Hammett fan (and crime novelist, etc & etc) just dropped me a note to say: “Hammett’s probably spinning in his grave, but I joined Mr. Collins in attempting a Spade story, published at Eclectica Magazine. “Floyd Thursby’s hotel … Continue reading
