It was with great delight that I sat down to read this Mysterious Press edition. A long time Hammett fan, the idea of two new, never before published, Thin Man novellas was just to good a deal to pass up.
What we have here is Hammett’s stories developed for the second and third films in the series, AFTER THE THIN MAN and ANOTHER THIN MAN. Not exactly as one would read them in a magazine, but the crisp dialogue, the by-play between Nick and Nora Charles is all there in a nicely done pair of novellas. The introduction says they were the last pieces of fiction he wrote.
Before and after each story are essays that discuss the process of development for each story and the differences between Hammett’s tale and the filmed product.
There’s also an undeveloped story that was to be the first sequel, but was dropped.
All quite satisfying and available HERE. Release date is November 6th.
Looks great, thanks Randy. I remember when the prose treatment for the first sequel became available, which really created a bit of a stir, but I’ll definitely be getting this one – the first two sequels are certainly the best of them. Julian Symons, in his biography of Hammett, claimed to prefer the third film over the second. Not sure that I agree but it’ll be great to look at the treatment as see how much of it was Hammett’s and how much from screenwriters Goodrich and Hackett – thanks.
That’s talked about in those bits before and after the stories, Sergio. Hammett’s alcoholism is mentioned and they fact that he walked away, after selling the rights of course, from the Thin Man film franchise.
I’m gonna have to pick this up.