[4] San Francisco-based Dashiell Hammett, trying to put his Pinkerton detective days behind him while establishing himself as a writer, finds himself drawn back into his old life one last time by the irresistible call of friendship and to honor a debt.

Hammett is soon pulled into a multi-layered plot, losing the only copy of his manuscript, wondering how and why Ryan has vanished, being followed by a tough-talking gunsel, discovering a million-dollar blackmail scheme and being deceived by the diabolical Crystal, right up to a final confrontation near the San Francisco wharf.

Critically acclaimed German director Wim Wenders was hired by Francis Ford Coppola to direct Hammett as his American debut feature.

"[6] Wenders made a 17-minute "diary film" Reverse Angle (1982), which deals among others with "the editing process of HAMMETT in the presence of Francis Ford Coppola".

[7] In a 2015 interview, Wenders with "no traces of bitterness" stated unambiguously that he directed the reshoot (although Coppola tended to micro-manage his productions direction-wise): "there wasn't much money left, and I was too stubborn to drop it and or say, 'Well then let somebody else do it.'