and Faulkner was a drinking problem.nWim Wenders was influenced by filmnnoir which, particularly when thenproducts were American, had its heydaynin Europe in the 1940’s; Gide’s commentnwas written in 1944. Thus, Wender’snHammett and Gide’s excess can be atnleast understood with regard to thencontext. Johnson, however, is anothernstory. Dashiell Hammett wrote fivennovels; those books and a number ofnshort stories, many of which are aboutnthe Continental Op, essentially constitutenhis complete works. The novels,nunlike those of Raymond Oiandler, havennot aged well; they are clearly periodnpieces. While they once excited peoplenranging from the readers of The BlacknMask to Blanche Knopf, today they arenefiectively museum pieces or curios fornthose interested in the history of Americannpopular culture. Granted, Hammettnwas an innovator in the genre, but thennew rapidly and inexorably becomesnold, so even ati innovator must providensomething of enduring value in his work,nand that something is missing in thennovels of Hammett. Chandler gave hisnMarlowe legs through stylistic means; itnwasn’t a great accomplishment in thenhistory of literature, but the style is solidnand provides life. Once taken out of theirnperiod, Hammett’s novels figurativelynstumble, as there is virtually nothing tonsupport them, and seem literally moribund.n(Even Hollywood seems to havendiscerned the difference between thenworks of Chandler and Hammett: itncontinues to cast actors like Elliot Gouldnand Robert Mltchum in the Marlowenrole with all of the predictable, horriblenconsequences yet all but ignores—andnnot out of mercy—^Hammett’s heroes.)nThe novels of Hammett probablynwouldn’t have caused too great a stirneven when they appeared had the GreatnDepression not made people anxious tonfind diversions and had Hammett’s stintnas a detective not been touted. About thenlatter, Hammett himself was to note inn1956: “I found 1 could sell… storiesneasUy when it became known 1 had beenna Pinkerton man. People thought mynstuff was authentic.” Hammett’s novelsnwere published in the period from 1929nto 1934. 1929 saw the publication ofnboth The Sound and the Fury and AnFarewell to Arms; Tender Is the Nightnappeared in 1934. The paltriness ofnHammett’s works becomes enormousnby comparison.nxlis first novel is Red Harvest Thenworking title was Potsonville, whichnBlanche Knopf nixed, calling it “a hopelessntide.” Although there is a member ofnthe l.W.W. in the novel, the red in thentitle actually refers to blood; as thenoperative who narrates the story puts itnat one point, “There’s been what? Andozen and a half murders since I’ve beennhere That’s sixteen of them in lessnthan a week, and more coming up.” Lessnblood gushes in a Brian de Palma movie.nAfter making that tabulation, the protagonistnguzzles a few gin-and-laudanumncocktails. Hammett takes that opportunitynto try his hand at a bit ofpost-Ulyssesndream rendering, an attempt that wouldnbe laughable if it wasn’t so wooden.n(Some years later, when/W newspapernwas being plaimed, Hammett proposednto write a review of Pinnegans Wake;nJohnson says, “He was among the fewnwho thought it better than Ulysses.”nGiven his efforts, I wonder how he couldntell, Johnson’s claim, “Hammett likednwriting that was hard work, he liked it tontaste of Art,” notwithstanding.)nThe Dain Curse followed. It is certainlynmore complex than Red Harvest,nbut that is a fiinction of the feet that it isnseparated into three parts: chop, chop.nThe blood lust is quelled when thenpredecessor is considered, but evennDracula takes a break. Whereas RednHarvest is set ia a Montana mining townnthat might just as well have been onenanywhere, given the feet that it has littlensignificance (i.e., any place with a jail,nwarehouses, a couple of speakeasys, andna rundown neighborhood would do), innThe Dain Curse Hammett moved to SannFrancisco, which became his fictionalnbase. When Faulkner’s South, Hemingway’snEurope, Fitzgerald’s East, and evennnnChandler’s L.A. are considered, Hammett’snset is merely plywood and fognproduced with dry ice. The Dain Cursenappeared in 1929, the same year that ThenRoman Hat Mystery by Messrs. Dannaynand Lee—better known as Ellery Queenn—did. Ellery Queen employed what isnreferred to as the “fair play” rules fornmystery writers, which means that it’snpossible for the reader to figure out thensolution. Hammett, author of the nonfictionn”From the Memoirs of a PrivatenDetective” {SmartSet, March 1923),nprobably figured that only bonafide copsncould unravel cases, so in his books it isnvirtually impossible to tell the villainnfrom the confidant (especially since theynturn out to be one in the same inThenDain Curse), which is probably lessnrealistic than punning it on the butler.nV>hronologicalIy, The Maltese Falconn(1930) foUows, but The Glass Keyn(1931) more closely resembles the firstntwo novels and so provides a curiousnmap of progression of the writer. RednHarvest has a town that’s marbled withncorruption; The Glass Key concentratesnon politicians and their minions, all ofnwhom are as pure as a cesspool. RednHarvest includes a good guy, albeit onenwho announces, “It’s this damned town.nPoisonviUe is right. It’s poisoned me”;nThe Glass Key has only tainted characters,nperhaps to be in line with the “socialnrealism” rampant in the 1930’s. The plotnis as complicated (read: “mixed-up”) asnthat of The Dain Curse While all fictionnis “made up” as the author goes along,nsome authors—^especially post-Poenmystery writers—provide hints thatnindicate that the denouement isn’t asnmuch a surprise to them as it is to thenreader. That’s not so in the novels ofnHammett; his unraveling is not of thenschool Of Theseus; it resembles floundering.nThe Glass Key has the distinction ofnincluding one of the most ridiculousnscenes in aU hard-boiled fiction; indeed,nit seems nothing more than half-baked.nPutative hero Ned Beaumont is beatennto the point of unconsciousness. Whennhe comes to he discovers that his “facenil5nAugust 1984n