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Dear Detective: Philip Marlowe’s Greatest Films

Do you have a problem of those that require discretion? Lives in Los Angeles? Can you afford twenty-five bucks a month, plus expenses? Then maybe we can help you: go to the sixth floor of the cahuenga building, at 6389 Hollywood Boulevard, and tell Philip Marlowe that you are on our side. If you’re lucky, the detective par excellence of literature and cinema will be able to take charge of your case. If you don’t have it, you might as well come across one of those thugs who sometimes show up in his office.

Created by Raymond Chandler In 1939, Marlowe made crime literature history with eternal sleep, a novel acclaimed by both critics and readers eager for cockiness, sarcasm, and unsolvable mysteries. Of course, it didn’t take long for him to cross over to movies and TV, and now he’s back on the big screen with the face of Liam Neeson in Marlowe.

Robert Mitchum, Elliott Gould and of course, Humphrey Bogart They are some of the actors who have lent their faces to the detective in their adaptations. Here we remember the most important cases of him.

‘The Lady of the Lake’ (1946)

While serving as a “friendly witness” (vulgar “snitch”) for the ‘witch hunt’, Robert Montgomery signed and starred in this experiment that aspired to recreate the first-person narration of novels through the subjective camera: the viewer only sees Marlowe’s face in the mirrors.

‘Goodbye doll’ (1975)

At 58 years old, robert mitchum he becomes the most crepuscular Marlowe. The actor would reprise the role with Private detective (1978), a tape that he dared to adapt again the eternal dream and that meant the filmic farewell of the bloodhound until James Caan played him in Poodle Springs (1998).

‘A Detective’s Story’ (1944)

This adaptation of Bye doll, Marlowe’s second novel, served as the detective’s debut on the screen with his first and last names (and the face of Dick Powell) after two films that took advantage of their adventures by changing the protagonist. directs Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny).

‘Marlowe, a very private detective’ (1969)

Beating up Marlowe can be your springboard to fame: schwarzenegger (A long goodbye), Stallone (Bye doll) and Bruce Lee, who ruined the office of James Garner in this adaptation of The little sister, they showed it.

‘Philip Marlowe’ (series, 1983-1986)

In addition to the seven novels written by Raymond Chandler, Marlowe starred in numerous stories that served as fuel for one of the first fictional titles produced by HBO, with Powers Boothe of protagonist. The show, luxurious but stuffy, lasted two seasons on the air.

‘A Long Goodbye’ (1973)

robert altman and the screenwriter Leigh Brackett (The eternal dream) reinvent Marlowe as an endearing loser with the face of elliott gould who wanders corrupt 1970s Los Angeles in search of the truth and his runaway cat. Acclaimed today as a classic, it hit it at the box office.

‘Marlowe’ (2022)

“In those bad streets there must be someone who is not bad, who is neither corrupt nor afraid”: the words with which Raymond Chandler described the detective could also be a portrait of the Liam Neeson more archetypal, something that Neil Jordan take the opportunity to give the investigator the features of the Irishman. The film is not based on any work by the original author, but on The black-eyed blonde novel written under a pseudonym by john banville (Prince of Asturias of Letters in 2014).

‘The Big Sleep’ (1946)

“I want a mystery story that will keep me on my toes like The Maltese Falcon,” he said. Humphrey Bogart in the trailer for this movie. AND Lauren Bacall He responded to that request by placing in his hands a novel whose tangled plot (not even Chandler himself knew who murdered the driver) became even more inextricable thanks to Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman and William Faulkner, their scriptwriters.

Blessed insoluble enigma: with howard hawks coming up behind the camera, ‘Bogie’ and Bacall turning the long shoot into their honeymoon, scene-stealing supporting roles like Dorothy Malone and an excellent script, the eternal dream It turned out to be an exquisite extravagance with which neither the censorship nor the producer could Jack Warner, author of that note that read: “It has reached my ears that you are having a good time on the set. That must stop.”

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