Marlowe (1969)

Marlowe (1969)While not a great one, this is an unusual version of Philip Marlowe on film. James Garner is an odd choice in a way, but he's handsome and charming. The photographer, Bill Daniels, is a stalwart from the classic years of Hollywood, and it shows, with nicely filmed scenes (in color). Daniels is famous as Garbo's main photographer, if that gives an idea of his long lineage.It's definitely 1969. New Hollywood is here, and there is a certain cheese factor that is part of the game, and not in the best ways. And the story itself is just not Raymond Chandler's best. Director Paul Bogart does his best, but for a comparison of a noir crime update, you might prefer the wonderful "The Long Goodbye" from 1973.But here we are. Garner is really good, in fact, and if not a Humphrey Bogart type, that might be really appropriate. Still, he's indifferent to pretty women until he isn't, he drinks, he's sarcastic, he is appropriately weary. Here he smokes a pipe, and he remains interesting. There is (for me) a simple appeal to the sets and the time it was shot. It's a crazy time in US history (great crazy). Everything is updated—there is no sense of recreating the 1940s, but rather of just setting the old story (from the 30s) into the new world.There are some fun curiosities, like Carroll O'Conner (the leading male in "All in the Family," which started the year before)—who isn't quite convincing as a tough cop. And the gay hairdresser played by Christopher Cary. And the side actor who does karate on Marlowe's office (for real) by the name of Bruce Lee (in his first American film). And two beautiful women (as usual) who play more pithy parts than you'd expect (clever or strong) until, of course, the stripper scene at the end. One of them, the fabulous Rita Moreno, had a continuing career with Garner in the "Rockford Files" for t.v. And finally another William Daniels (unrelated) who played Dustin Hoffman's dad in "The Graduate" two years early, and who is so different here you might not recognize him.Okay, so what ends up happening is a weird mix of humor and cleverness. The movie really wants to entertain, and yet it keeps inside the hard edged world of classic 1940s noir with references to tough guys and ice picks in the neck. It has almost absurdist humor and then it seems (somewhat) to want to take the crime and the criminals and the sleuthing seriously. It doesn't quite jive.Blame the era, maybe, but watch "Klute" or other detective yarns from the era and you can see an opportunity that went astray. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but only by kicking back. The story is a bit jumbled, either at its root or in its telling, but I think they thought viewers would enjoy the whole situation and all these interesting actors at work. It only goes so far.

Philip Marlowe (James Garner) is hired by Orfamay Quest (Sharon Farrell) to find her brother Orrin who had come to L.A. years ago. On the way, he finds a man murdered with an ice pick. Then he finds another body with an ice pick after getting knock down by a mysterious woman. Police detective Christy French (Carroll OConor) investigates. Marlowe discovers the mysterious woman is popular actress Mavis Wald (Gayle Hunnicut) and one of the dead man was developing compromising photos of her and Steelgrave. The ice pick stabbings are the trade mark of gangster Sonny Steelgrave (H.W. Wynant) and his men beats up Marlowe. Winslow Wong (Bruce Lee) comes in to rearrange Marlowe's office and keeps trying to buy him off for Steelgrave.James Garner is a great actor. He does have the charm which he used to great effect in 'The Rockford Files' years later. That's what this movie feels like. It has the quality and the feel of a TV show. That's what director Paul Bogart is more known for. The one thing missing is a hard-boiled cinematic style. It may have been a mistake to place this in the modern swinging 60's. At least, this never takes advantage of the natural discrepancies. There are way too many little problems. There isn't the usual scene when Marlowe gets hired and introduced to the audience. Even Bruce Lee is wasted. He gets two scenes of jumping around but nothing is ever allowed to land on Marlowe. Sure he has a bit of fun trashing the office but he takes a ridiculous flying leap off of a building. It's a close call and this is a miss by a hair.

"Take this back to your leader. Tell him you've met the last of the dying dynasty: the king of the fools, unassailably virtuous, invariably broke." - Marlowe "Marlowe" is an interesting neo-noir by director Paul Bogart. Based on Raymond Chandler's 1949 novel, "The Little Sister", the film transports Chandler's iconic gumshoe, Philip Marlowe, to 1960s Los Angeles.All the usual Chandleresque features are here – a noble, wisecracking detective, a convoluted murder mystery, startling revelations, double-crosses, attractive women who throw themselves at Marlowe etc etc – but there are a few new additions sprinkled about. Marlowe, for example, is given a stable love interest and so brushes aside all who attempt to seduce him. He's also always fashionably broke, privileging his righteous crusades above sex or money. Trinkets specific to the 1960s then pop up: Marlowe's on friendly terms with a gay neighbour, weed smoking hippies are on display and Marlowe has a brief and wholly ridiculous fight with martial artist Bruce Lee.The film lacks the atmosphere and psychic weight of the great noirs, but its script is nevertheless richer and better written than most detective dramas of the era. It also cleverly juggles two eventually intersecting plots. This incarnation of Marlowe is played by James Garner.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See Jacques Tourneur's "Nightfall".

Taking a brief break from a string of obscure and not so obscure horror movies, I thought this might provide some light relief. Its bright and colourful enough but the sparkling humour doesn't last too long into the film which becomes pretty complicated but is still fun to watch. True enough to the Chandler story, Garner is maybe just a little too one note. Rita Moreno, on the other hand puts in an amazing performance, complete with a super striptease sequence at the end. Bruce Lee was a surprise participant, providing, what I assume was intended to be a comic turn. This is not as good as the early b/w Chandler movies nor as good as the 1973 Altman movie, The Long Goodbye (Gould might have got some tips from Garner's performance in this) but its a decent enough effort.