Tracking Down Chandler's Detectives through the Decades
By Susan King
(c) 1998, Los Angeles Times
He put the hard in hard-boiled. He played a key role in the
films
noir of the '40s and '50s and influenced the neo-noir films
of the '90s.
He created one of the most beloved characters in fiction -
detective
Philip Marlowe. Not only was Raymond Chandler a best-selling
author of
such mysteries as "The Big Sleep" and "Farewell, My Lovely,"
he also
received two Oscar nominations for his screenplays.
Chandler would have just celebrated his 110th birthday. Born
in
Chicago, Chandler spent his early years in England and began
his career
there as a journalist. After World War I, he returned to
America and
began selling short stories in the '30s. He died in
1959.
Numerous Chandler stories and novels have been turned into
films, and
several of those - along with the films he wrote - are
available on
video.
Chandler's acclaimed novel, "Farewell, My Lovely" got its
first
cinematic treatment as 1942's "The Falcon Takes Over"
(Turner). Don't
look, though, for Marlowe in this low-budget but entertaining
mystery.
The plot of Chandler's novel was refashioned for Michael
Arlen's sleuth,
the Falcon. George Sanders stars.
Chandler received his first Oscar nomination in 1944 for
co-adapting
(with Billy Wilder) James M. Cain's best-seller "Double
Indemnity"
(Universal, $15). This is a marvelously acted thriller in
which a
gullible insurance man (Fred MacMurray) teams with a femme
fatale
(Barbara Stanwyck) to kill her husband for the insurance
money.
Chandler's favorite version of "Farewell, My Lovely" is the
crackling
1944 film noir "Murder, My Sweet" (Turner, $20). After being
a
lightweight leading man in musicals, Dick Powell made a
real
breakthrough as an actor as the tough, down-on-his luck
shamus who is
searching for an ex-convict's missing girlfriend.
Humphrey Bogart, though, was the best Marlowe. He played the
gumshoe
in Howard Hawks' 1946 version of "The Big Sleep" (MGM, $20),
a confusing
but highly entertaining film noir in which Marlowe is hired
by a rich
dying man to protect his reckless younger daughter (Martha
Vickers).
Lauren Bacall plays the elder daughter with whom Marlowe
falls in love.
It was originally filmed in 1944, but several scenes were
shot later to
beef up Bacall's role. The first version was recently
discovered and is
also available on MGM.
That same year, Chandler penned the super 1946 film noir
"The Blue
Dahlia" (Universal, $15), for which he received his second
Oscar
nomination. Alan Ladd plays a World War II vet who discovers
his wife
has been two-timing him with the owner of a nightclub (Howard
da Silva).
When his wife is discovered murdered, Ladd is the prime
suspect.
Veronica Lake and a scene-stealing William Bendix also
star.
Robert Montgomery also jumped on the Chandler bandwagon in
1946 with
his "The Lady in the Lake" (MGM, $20). Montgomery stars in
and directed
this mystery, which uses the subjective camera to match
Marlowe's
first-person narrative. The only time viewers can see
Montgomery's face
is when he passes a mirror. Offbeat but not entirely
successful.
Chandler provided a lot of the delicious dialogue as
co-writer of
Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 classic "Strangers on a Train"
(Warner, $20).
Robert Walker, in his finest performance, and Farley Granger
star in
this story of two strangers who meet on a train and decide to
"trade"
murders.
James Garner is a satisfactory Marlowe in "Marlowe" (MGM,
$20), a
so-so film noir based on Chandler's "The Little Sister." In
this 1969
outing, Marlowe is hired by a mysterious blond woman to find
her
brother. Bruce Lee also stars.
Robert Altman offers his take on Chandler in his
well-received,
irreverent 1973 thriller "The Long Goodbye" (MGM, $20).
Elliott Gould
plays the rumpled gumshoe in this mystery set in Hollywood.
Look for
Arnold Schwarzenegger as - what else? - a muscleman.
Robert Mitchum is a tad too long in the tooth as Marlowe in
1975's
"Farewell, My Lovely" (AVD, $13), an atmospheric adaptation
of the
Chandler classic. Sylvester Stallone has a small part.
Mitchum returns as Marlowe in the 1978 remake of "The Big
Sleep"
(AVD, $13). Mitchum sleepwalks through the part. A real
snooze.
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