Philip Marlowe Week: The Pencil

Alright you cats and kittens pay attention.   We are back with more of that low down peeping tom Philip Marlowe.   Now that mug was on a milk run sneaking and peeking for a wandering husband when our shamus gets a ring up from a cop buddy Lt. McGee to hand something that needs a little muscle.  So roll up your sleeves, make sure that 38. snub has been cleaned and oiled.  This is The Pencil.

Gentleman caller or snoop? You decide.

Philip Marlowe: It was a hot damp August day and you couldn’t keep your neck dry with a spoiler.

Chasing after a wayward husband at the discretion of his client Marlowe feels like he is cooling his heels, chomping at the bit for some real work but you take the cases you have been given and you never look twice at the cabbage upfront.   Boy this slang is addictive.  Marlowe makes his way to the Wilcox Ave station because McGee (Billy Kearns of Purple Noon, The Trial, Playtime and Marathon Man) drops another referral in his lap.  Seems a bookmaker skimmed the wrong stack and now the mob want to grease the guy and collect their percentage.  The mob is funny that way.   Sal was sent a pencil from this organized crime syndicate signifying they are gonna rub him out with a couple of hired torpedoes.   This guy needs protection until he can breeze out of town, possibly out of the country.  

Starting crooning like Gene Austin or scram.

Marlowe makes an appearance to his client Mrs. Yeager (Lucy Lee Flippin of Annie Hall, Police Academy 2: The First Assignment, Flashdance and A Perfect World) to tell her husband is out of the picture and naturally she takes the truth very well.  While left ranting, raving and foaming at the mouth like a mad dog, Marlowe takes his cue to vamoose and head into the office.   Grabs a rod in case there is more heat than the day is long he heads out to meet his client at the Hotel Bennett but laughing boy shows up, dishes out 5000 gees and starts barking orders.  

His newest client Sal Vaccaro (David Healy of Joe 90, Patton, Supergirl and Labyrinth) cooked the books so much you think he had a Webber Grill and score more clams than Pismo Beach.   Marlowe offers a better hideout at the Hotel Rex; a dingy dive that doesn’t bother with a credit check to let you in while he rustles up some transportation out of the country.  

Afternoon Miss, I'm selling a subscription of me.

Now I just have a few tidbits and observations about this episode.   This is the first episode of Season 1 and it also introduces Marlowe’s main squeeze and Gal Friday Annie Riordan (Kathryn Leigh Scott of Dark Shadows, House of Dark Shadows, The Great Gatsby, Brannigan, The Greek Tycoon and Voice of the Heart), a no nonsense gal with some street smarts, a heart of gold and eyes on our shoofly.  The plane that brought the hit men into town is oddly enough a Lockheed Constellation and is an anachronism given they were not used in service until 1943.   PLANE OF THE FUTURE!!!!  What was common then was either a Boeing or Douglas DC-2 but I just thought it was a fun fact and not stepping on toes.