Great thread. I recall that Archer gets described as tall and lean several
times over the course of the 20-plus years MacDonald wrote about him.
As for Newman, he was a bit too upbeat (a fine portrayal, nonetheless) to
fit perfectly with MacDonald's titular character in "Harper," but boy did he
nail the portrayal in "The Drowning Pool." Pitch-perfect for my money.
And as for authors "getting it wrong" with their own characters, Robert B.
Parker always pictured Tom Selleck as Spenser. I also believe that Selleck
was Parker's first choice to play Jesse Stone.
All the Best-
Brian
On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 1:31 PM, James Michael Rogers <jeddak5@cox.net>wrote:
>
>
> Although Cary Grant did play a very credible, complicated and bitter tough
> guy in Hitchcock's Notorious. Very different from the usual debonair figure
> we associate with him.
>
> I was just reading an article by someone who described the act of reading
> as esentially a passive experience. I think that is exactly wrong. I would
> guess that we all have "our" version of Marlowe and Archer in our heads. The
> fact that they are not described very clearly allows us to fill in the
> details as it pleases us. A good book invites us in and allows us to, in
> effect, be the cinematographer and casting director of the fictive
> experiences unfolding in our minds. It obviously invoves some really
> peersonal choices which is probably while we all feel so indignant when we
> find that Hollywood has blown it's casting of a much loved character.
>
> James
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Patrick Kennedy
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com <rara-avis-l%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 15:04
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Harper about to come on - TCM
>
> Regarding the character Newman plays in 'The Moving Target', I meant that
> he was
> very unlike the rather bland Archer of the novels in character, a bit too
> smart
> alecky and humorous. You're right, though, in noting that Bogart, from the
> bits
> and pieces of description peppering Chandlers books in the mouths of others
> and
> self-deprecatingly in his own, was far too small in stature to be a perfect
>
> physical Marlowe. His delivery of the Chandler dialogue, though, remains
> unequalled.
> Chandler himself, perhaps only half-jokingly, wrote that if you were to
> remark
> that Marlowe was as handsome as Cary Grant, Marlowe might not feel
> flattered.
> All I can say to that is, thank God the studios never got the idea of Cary
> Grant
> playing Marlowe into their heads -- almost, but not quite, as bad a notion
> as
> Dick Powell, or Robert Montgomery, for that matter, as Marlowe.
> By coincidence, Ian Fleming also regarded Cary Grant as his ideal actor to
> play
> Bond. Makes you kinda wonder whether authors know anything after all,
> doesn't
> it?
>
> Patrick
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dick Lochte <dlochte@gmail.com <dlochte%40gmail.com>>
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com <rara-avis-l%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sun, 22 August, 2010 19:24:00
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Harper about to come on - TCM
>
> Patrick mentioned that Paul Newman did not resemble the Lew Archer of the
> novels. But does Macdonald ever tell us what Archer looked like? Does
> Chandler gives us much of a description of Marlowe, except for his height
> (which is where Bogart falls short -- sorry)? Describing the physical
> aspects of your hero isn't easy to do when you're writing first-person
> narration. Though Hammett managed to put the image of the Op in our minds.
> And MacDonald gave us a complete picture of Travis McGee, using McGee's
> often annoying self-referencing. I'm wondering if it might not be better to
> let the reader fill in the blanks. Any opinions?
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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