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| Wednesday, 4 February 2004 |
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Detectives who went from page to screen : Dushnell Hammett's 'The Thin Man' by Upatissa Attygalle Dushnell Hammett is considered today to be one of the all time masters of the hard-boiled, sardonic private detective story. He has had a major influence on contemporary writing of this genre. Hammett was born in 1894 in St. Mary's county, Maryland, U. S. A. His formal education ended when he left school at the age of 14. In the next few years he acquired a lot of experience in the art of survival and gained a good knowledge of what life really was by doing a variety of odd jobs such as messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, timekeeper, yardman, machine operator and stevedore. He then joined America's oldest and the most prestigious investigation agency, The Pinkerton Detective Agency. Here he worked for seven years and was involved in many famous cases. One was keeping tabs on the notorious gangster Nick Arnsteir. Another notable case was the investigating the charges of rape brought against one of the top comedians of the movie screen of that era, Fatty Arbuckle. World War I then interrupted his gumshoeing career. He served as sergeant in this war where he developed influenza which led to tuberculosis. Thsi resulted in his having to spend years in many army hospitals. When he was finally discharged he went back to his job with Pinkertons for a few years. In 1932 he wrote "The Thin Man" the first of his tough, hard-bitten detective novels. The story was rejected by most of the slick magazines of that time. Then the "Black Mask" the most popular crime story magazine in the thirties published it and overnight Hammett became recognized as a detective novelist of the first order not only in America but also in England and other English speaking nations. When he died in 1961, he left the reading public a legacy of classic novels such as the Thin man, The Maltese Falcon, The Dain Curse, Red Harvest, The Glass Key, The Big Knockover and The Continental Op. Almost all his novels have been made into motion pictures. The two 'Tecs he created Nick Charles in The Thin Man and Samuel Spade in The Maltese Falcon were made immortal by actors William Powell and Humphrey Bogart respectively in the movie versions of these two great detective novels. The Thin man in Hammett's novel was actually the murderer's first victim. The detectives was Nick Charles. However, after M. G. M released the movie 'The Thin Man' in 1934, the name 'Thin Man' came to be identified with film star William Powell who played Nick Charles in the movie. The movie was one of the biggest box office hits of 1934. It was acclaimed both by the movie going public and the critics. Otis Ferguson, the eminent film critic, said, "The Thin Man is a strange mixture of excitement, quips and hard-boiled sentiment...full of the special touches that can come from nowhere but the studio(M.G.M.), that really make the feet a movie walks on." The film starred the glamorous Myrna Loy as Nick's wife Nora and the beautiful young actress Maureen O'Sullivan, famous for her role as Jane in the Johnny Weismuller 'Tarzan' movies. It also starred Asta as Nick Charle's pet dog of the same name. **** Back **** |
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