Typed Legal Agreement Signed

("Dashiell Hammett") in black fountain pen ink on pictorial Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer letterhead. Culver City, California, July 15, 1938. Also signed in green fountain pen ink by Eddie Mannix as Lowe’s Vice-President. 3 separate pages. Fine, fresh. For a sum of $12,500.00 Hammett agrees to let MGM have right of first refusal on any of his past writings, as well as any new writings to be created in the next year. The document goes into great detail on all specifics, effectively giving MGM control over his creative output past and present. Hammett's writing skill had failed him by this time. Although, he did manage to finish his final 144 page screen outline for "Another Thin Man." He was drinking heavily, had gambled away his earnings on the horse races, was in debt and owed six months on his penthouse suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (Nolan p. 165). In 1943 he staged a brief comeback when he wrote the screenplay of Lillian Hellman's "Watch On The Rhine." Hammett (1894-1961), American novelist and screenwriter; creator of "hard-boiled" school of detective fiction in novels "Red Harvest" (1929), "The Dain Curse" (1929), "The Maltese Falcon" (1930), "The Glass Key" (1931). "The Thin Man" (1932), provided the basis for five mystery movies from 1934-1947 starring William Powell and Myrna Loy.. Signed by Author(s). F. Soft cover.