Red Harvest (1929) is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by The Continental Op, a frequent
character in Hammett's fiction. Hammett based the story on his own experiences in Butte, Montana as a Pinkerton
agent.
Time included Red Harvest in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. Nobel Prize-winning
French author Andre Gide called the book "a remarkable achievement, the last word in atrocity, cynicism, and
horror." Akira Kurosawa scholar David Desser and critic Manny Farber, among others, state categorically that
Red Harvest was the inspiration for Kurosawa's film Yojimbo; however, other scholars, such as Donald Richie,
believe the similarities are coincidental.[3] Kurosawa himself stated that a major source for the plot was the
film noir classic The Glass Key (1942), an adaption of Hammett's 1931 novel of the same name. In Red Harvest,
The Glass Key, and Yojimbo, corrupt officials and businessmen are seen to stand behind and profit from the rule
of gangsters. A number of films have been specifically based on Yojimbo, including Sergio Leone's A Fistful of
Dollars and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing. (Wikipedia: "Red Harvest")
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