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Brutal and violent, Mike Hammer is a no-holds-barred private investigator created by Mickey Spillane and featured in novels, movies, TV shows, comics, and more. Mike Hammer is set to return to the big screen as Skydance has acquired the rights to the franchise and is planning to develop a movie based on the iconic character.

No writers, directors, or actors attached to the new Mike Hammer movie at this time, which is hardly a surprise given the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes. The rights to the character have been in dispute for quite some time. Mickey Spillane died in 2006, just one month after the death of his manager. The manager’s estate tried to claim ownership of Mike Hammer, but following years in court, those rights reverted to Spillane’s estate.

Starting with the novel I, the Jury, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels have sold over 250 million copies worldwide.

This Mickey Spillane noir tale has its good points: star Anthony Quinn gives a solid ‘tough guy’ performance, sizing up a quartet of thrill-crazy Spillane dames that promise no end of trouble. The surprisingly clever script dares to exploit the gimmicks of both amnesia and plastic surgery — without insulting our intelligence. Peggie Castle is our new favorite in the glamour sweepstakes, and Gene Evans, Charles Coburn, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith, Barry Kelley, Jay Adler and Bruno VeSota co-star. And remember: ‘Evil to Him who Evil Thinks.’

The Long Wait 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1954 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 94 min. / Street Date March 21, 2023 / Available from ClassicFlix / 39.99

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Charles Coburn, Gene Evans, Peggie Castle, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith, Dolores Donlon, Barry Kelley, James Millican, Bruno VeSota, Jay Adler, John Damler, Frank Marlowe, Paul Dubov.

Cinematography: Franz Planer

Art Director: Boris Leven

Film Editor: Ronald Sinclair

Editorial Supervisor Otto Ludwig...

Roger Corman began his boom year of 1957 with a marvelous bit of ‘way-out’ sci-fi — a ‘Tidal Wave of Terror’ no less. This note just arrived from Donald J.’s Seafood Emporium: “You puny, dunderheaded humans, don’t let the campy title fool you! Soon you will be ‘absorbed’ into our crabby super-mentalities, heh heh heh. We atom-age crustaceans are made of electric anti-matter — it’s incredible! Our telepathy is the best telepathy ever — everybody says so! It is what it is!” The new Blu-ray will charm fans seeking prime ‘fifties monster nirvana.

Attack of the Crab Monsters

Blu-ray

1957 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 62 min. / Street Date August 25 , 2020

Starring: Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson, Leslie Bradley, Mel Welles, Richard Cutting, Beach Dickerson, Tony Miller, Ed Nelson, Charles B. Griffith, Maitland Stuart.

Cinematography: Floyd Crosby

Film Editor: Charles Gross Jr.

Assistants of all stripes: Maurice Vaccarino, Charles B. Griffith, Lindsley Parsons Jr., Beach Dickerson,...

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By John M. Whalen

In “My Gun Is Quick” (1957), Mickey Spillane’s famous private detective Mike Hammer (Robert Bray) meets a sad young hooker named “Red” (Patricia Donahue) in a greasy spoon and rescues her from a goon trying to put the muscle on her. Hammer slaps him around and kicks him out the door and gives her bus fare plus change to go back home and start over. He’s a hardnose but he’s got a tender spot somewhere under that tough exterior. He writes down his name and number on a slip of paper and tell her to call him to let him know she made it okay. Before they part he notices a very ornate ring on the third finger of her right hand. Hammer has been up for 52 hours and just wants to go home and get some sleep,...

Mike Hammer is in action again! Well, not exactly. Producer Victor Saville’s third go-round with Mickey Spillane’s famed character doesn’t do the franchise justice. Hammer-philes will be astounded by this thriller’s decidedly un-thrilling thrills: there’s little to connect the inexpressive nice guy Robert Bray with the super-popular, super-violent avenger of the books. Spillane’s original is abandoned in favor of a tame ‘who’s got the diamonds?’ storyline, with some compensation in a string of exciting ‘Hammer dames.’ I checked twice — Mike doesn’t shoot Any of them in the stomach.

My Gun Is Quick

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / available through Kino Lorber / Street Date March 24, 2020 / 24.95

Starring: Robert Bray, Whitney Blake, Patricia Donahue, Donald Randolph, Pamela Duncan, Booth Coleman, Jan Chaney, Genie Coree, Richard Garland, Charles Boaz, Peter Mamakos, Claire Carleton, Phil Arnold, John Dennis, Terence de Marney, Ray Kellogg.

Jim Knipfel May 17, 2019

Kiss Me Deadly remains the greatest hardboiled apocalyptic sci-fi noir ever.

Former comic book writer Mickey Spillane published his first Mike Hammer mystery, I, The Jury, in 1947. In a way, it wasn’t that far removed from the superhero stories he’d been writing, even if it was a bit earthier without all the funny costumes. Spillane’s own alter-ego, the burly, hard-drinking, tough-talking Hammer was harder-boiled than that mealy-mouthed wimp, Sam Spade. And unlike that other wet blanket named Philip Marlowe, Hammer had few if any qualms about taking sleazy divorce cases or pulling his gun.

Over the next three decades, the Brooklyn-born Spillane pumped out a dozen more Hammer mysteries, including My Gun is Quick, Vengeance is Mine, and The Girl Hunters. Along with Spillane’s no-nonsense writing style and stories packed with extreme (for the 1950s) sex and violence, the lurid and suggestive cover...

A week before he died in 2006, author Mickey Spillane turned to his wife and said, “When I’m gone, there’s going to be a treasure hunt around here. Take everything you find and give it to Max – he’ll know what to do.”

“Max” is Max Allan Collins. He was, for a number of reasons, an ideal choice to be the keeper of the Spillane flame.

A fan of Spillane’s since he’d been a kid, Collins had met the mystery writer at a convention in the early 1980s. The connection developed into both friendship and regular collaboration. But Collins was no junior partner in the duo.

Born in Muscatine, Iowa in 1948, he’s been writing mysteries since he was a kid, eventually studying in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, one of the most renowned writing programs in the country.

By the late 1970s,...

Destroy the Brain is proud to have Max Allan Collins write up a guest post to explain the character of Mike Hammer and the screen adaptations of this character. We want to thank Tom Green from Titan Books for giving us this great opportunity.

The publication of Lady, Go Die! has elicited Hollywood inquiries as to the possibility of a new Mike Hammer movie. Accompanying this interest comes the usual question, “Who do you think should play Mike Hammer?” Since Mickey Spillane always said that Mike Hammer is a state of mind, my suggestions range from Josh Brolin to Denzel Washington, from Ben Affleck to Jason Statham. I am always open to imaginative casting. Tom Hanks made a great Michael Sullivan in Road to Perdition, after all.

Mickey always complained about the Hollywood movies from his Hammer novels, although he had complimentary things to say about the two TV Hammers,...