Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was a Pinkerton detective before he became a writer of mystery novels and screenplays. Hammett's hugely influential The Maltese Falcon, a trendsetter in hard-boiled detective fiction, was filmed three times, in 1931, 1941 (most famously, with John Huston directing Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade) and, as Satan Met a Lady, in 1936. The 1931 version, starring Richard Cortez and Bebe Daniels, was later retitled Dangerous Female to avoid confusion with the Huston version.

Hammett's novel of the same name provided the basis for The Thin Man (1934) and its five sequels, which continued to 1947. The movie series turned William Powell and Myrna Loy, as the sleuthing married couple Nick and Nora Charles, into superstars. Hammett told Lillian Hellman, with whom he enjoyed a love affair that never led to marriage, that she had been his inspiration in creating the character of Nora.

The Glass Key (1942) was the second film version of Hammett's novel of the same name. The remake improved on the original 1935 film by casting Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, then Paramount's hottest romantic team, as the pair involved in political corruption.

Hammett, who had begun creating stories directly for the screen in 1931 with the well-received gangster melodrama City Streets, largely failed to distinguish himself as a screenwriter. He did, however, write an excellent adaptation of Watch on the Rhine (1943), Hellman's World War II drama about a German persecuted by Nazi agents in Washington.

Hammett's later years were plagued by encounters with the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. He was portrayed by Jason Robards, Jr. in the film Julia (1977), based on a Hellman memoir.

The films in TCM's tribute to Dashiell Hammett include The Glass Key (1942), Dangerous Female (1931), Watch on the Rhine (1943) and The Thin Man (1934).

by Roger Fristoe