Philip Marlowe Movie Week

A fine hello there all out there in the social media viewing! As you are reading this blog, no doubt you have a sense of refinement, cultured tastes and savvy with what you choose to entertain yourself. Of course given last week was about over the top gore gags and thinly veiled plots that encompassed girls running around with little to no clothes on and the uber killing machines tracking them down in plot device environment, one does have to comment on that. I, for one shall not be alienating you of course.

Ahh so glad I got the office facing into the Yoga studio.

This week I thought we needed to recapture that Film Noir feel. (the term in cinema that describes crime dramas that are driven by cynicism and sex that was hailed primarily from the 1940s to latter 1950s) One of the most predominant characters of this genre is a certain functioning alcoholic P.I.by the name of Philip Marlowe. First appearance being from the novel The Big Sleep this fictional gumshoe has been in 8 novels, 4 screenplays, 23 short stories, at least two radio plays, radio shows formatted from the 1940s to the late 1950s.

Doing stints in movies and television, our hero chases women, whiskey and bourbon and not necessarily in that order. While he prefers his coffee black, his chess games from books and his camels unfiltered, there lurks a healthy dose of pessimism, ego and razor sharp mind. He likes his chess complicated and his poetry fascinating. He has seen more murders than most cops and dealt with more corruption than a budding senator. The last collection of Marlowe's TV appearances was in 2011 with Toby Stephens at the helm.

With this in mind, I thought it was be interesting to see different actors tackle the same role in their own way. Sadly I cannot review Humphrey Bogart in the Big Sleep or Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet as I have already reviewed both those flicks prior. So sip from that bottle of rye, dodge those fists and bullets, don't be a patsy for the dame and always have a match ready to light.

Dammit fellas it is my Klondike bar, you get your own!