NICK AND NORA CHARLES
“I read in the tabloids where you were shot 5 times … See if I care!
But I thinks it’s a dirty trick to bring me all the way to New York
just to make a widow of me,” Nora said.
Emerging from a rough, early 20th century sensibility, Dashiell Hammett, once a Pinkerton operative himself… CONTINUES BELOW
Emerging from a rough, early 20th century sensibility, which included Army service and tuberculosis, Dashiell Hammett, once a Pinkerton detective operative himself, needed to make a few bucks and thus turned to the pulp fiction magazines popular from 1900 in America.
In keeping with the tradition of anonymity the Pinkerton detectives required, in his early works, Hammett never named his protagonist, referring to them simply as The Continental Op, that is, operative.
Hammett’s skill was to create a hardened detective for his times. His second creation, Sam Spade, was cynical enough to get the truth from suspects and clients, believing that everyone is greedy, everyone lies. But later in his career, Hammett tried something new.
In The Thin Man, a delightfully witty story that mirrored the repartee with his wife playwright Lillian Hellman, Hammett created two unforgettable characters.
Nora: “Take care of yourself.”
Nick: “Why, sure I will.”
Nora: “Don’t say it like that! Say it as if you meant it!”
Nick: “Well, I do believe the little woman cares.”
Nora: “I don’t care! It’s just that I’m used to you, that’s all.”
Beyond the hard drinking, soft nights with his wife Nora, and a cushion of inherited wealth, Hammett’s character Nick Charles was a truly perceptive investigator, mitigating the arguments of self-centered suspects while quietly uncovering the truth. And there was no skimping on the wacky underworld characters, much like those of his contemporary Damon Runyon. This is Hammett’s brilliant take on uppercrust New York in the 1930’s, a fast talking world with a new kind of amateur investigator at its tipsy center.
Nick: “The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.”
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