Hey folks! I was just going over a few
writing ideas for the week when my lady love pointed out that I do
not embrace drama that often. To which I was overly dramatic and
defensive... nah I am in agreement with her in that I do not cover a
lot of the heartfelt tear jerkers. The main reason why is while a
good story of humans trials, struggles and goals does hold my
interest for the day, I normally do not need my heart strings
throttled that often. However, this is not entirely for my own
enjoyment but it is also for the readers. That in mind, I will
subject myself to the current standing of drama for the last 3 years.
Keep in mind that the last 15 years there are too many hybrids
between the genres. I have seen comedy dramas, romantic dramas,
dramatic horrors, comedic horror films with drama. There is too
much mix-mashed now that it gets confusing on how to catalogue it and
frankly that is irksome.
Why is the camera so far away?
So I will do my very level best to find
drama with only one real tone to it. Think Spielberg's The Color
Purple or Schindler's List or Robert Altman's MASH and Gosford Park.
Where additional elements of humanity are underlined but at the end
of the day this is drama. Dark and sad things are on the rise
throughout this film and you can just suck it up, grab some tissues
and marshal through it. While I myself, do not mind the genre it
seems several writers and directors cannot simply tell a tale without
something evil or zany added to it. I am guessing this is to
distract the audience that they are sitting down for a film recanting
tales of historical atrocities and if that is the case, why the Hell
are you watching in the first place if you do not want to see it??!!!
Aside from all this, I still feel that drama is a valid genre in
cinema, novels and television and it deserves the respect for those
that do NOT over add from the other genres to give it a bit of pep.
Let's see what we can find to watch.
Back again amateur flatfoots for Day 4
of Philip Marlowe Movie Week. As you know, it is best if Marlowe is
handled by a tough guy. Someone scrappy, smart and handsome doesn't
hurt. To be honest I would have never picked Eliott Gould to play
Marlowe but truth be told he did a fair job. This time around we
have a vintage rough and tumble fella in the form of Robert Mitchum
tackling the role and with all it entitles. This is Farewell, My
Lovely.
Sheesh, almost nodded off there.
This is the second adaptation of
Raymond Chandler's novel closer the the source material unlike the
original Murder, My Sweet in 1944 with Dick Powell. In a town with
police corruption, hotels rented by the hour or the month, gambling
dens, and murder over jewel heists, Marlowe is always there for the
little guy.
We join Marlowe (Robert Mitchum
of Out of the Past, The Night of the Hunter, El Dorado, Cape Fear,
The Yakuza and The Big Sleep) in a shabby room at a rundown
flophouse. Sitting with him Lt. Nulty (John Ireland of
Gunslinger, No Time to Kill, The Cheaters, Rawhide and Sundown: The
Vampire in Retreat) listening to Marlowe telling the assorted
details of the past few days of his case. A gorilla of a man in a
suit named Moose Malloy (Jack O' Halloran of King Kong,
Superman, Superman II, Dragnet and The Hero and the Terror)
stringently insisted that Marlowe was for hire to track down his
former girl Velma. The only lead they have is now a black owned bar.
Malloy keeps talking about not seeing his girl for 8 years.
Easily an ex-con Malloy loses his patience and starts tossing
bouncers and at 6'6" that is not that difficult. Marlowe
watches his back but again they didn't find Velma and no one seemed
to know one way or the other.
The lady or the liqueur?
Working an additional case is over
murder name of Lindsay Marriott (John O' Leary of The Heart Is
a Lonely Hunter, All the President's Men, Airplane! And The Last
Starfighter). With a little know-how, Marlowe figures out
that Marriot was in the blackmail racket. Still looking for Velma,
Marlowe sees both cases just getting muddled with a sojourn
attempting to make sense of any of the half truths, double crosses
and homicides piling up.
Shockingly enough, Marlowe has several
attempts with his life with a visit with an infamous madame in a
brothel to a gunfight on a gambling boat, Philip is convinced he has
really stepped in it now.
Can Marlowe solve this ongoing
conspiracy and collection of murders? Is the whole city against him
with every crooked cop looking to punch his ticket?
A few points about the flick. While
Marlowe is in his thirties in the novels, Mitchum was 58 playing the
character. Mitchum is also the only actor to play Philip twice on
screen, this film and The Big Sleep in 1978. This was Jerry
Bruckheimer's first full production after only have two previous
credits as an associate producer.
The 70s moved to revival of the film
noir and hard-boiled detective movies with the same feel as
Chandler's novels like Gumshoe, Chinatown and The Black Bird.
Marlowe's wheels was a black 1940 Buick Special. Kinda wish they hit
up Mitchum for Marlowe years prior.
Welcome back sleuth spotters for Day 3
of Philip Marlowe Week. A slight break yesterday as my co-host and I
were working on Rotten Ramblin' On's sixth podcast. So while we did
battle with a barrage of B-Movies, the film of the day got skipped.
You have my apologies, gentle readers. With that in mind let's get
back to the gumshoe known as Marlowe. This time around of all people
Eliott Gould steps in the shamus' shoes and it might be a tight fit.
Based on the 1953 novel The Long Goodbye, Philip helps a buddy of his
across the border to Mexico only to get pinched by the cops the
moment he walks in the door back home. Accusations of murder,
conspiracy and aiding and abetting. This is The Long Goodbye.
Bloody finicky cat!
Our neo-noir (a more current film
using elements of film noir such as style, theme, content and even
media that has not been in use since the 1940s and 1950s)
opens with Marlowe (Eliott Gould of M.A.S.H., Harry and Walter
Go to New York, A Bridge Too Far, The Muppet Movie, The Devil and Max
Devlin, E/R, Bugsy and Ocean's Eleven) having to feed his
very finicky cat (Morris the Cat) when his best friend
Terry Lennox (MLB All-Star Jim Bouton) asks Marlowe for
a lift from L.A. To Tijuana. Hope he is getting some gas money out
the deal. No sooner does Marlowe return home he is met by two
detectives accusing Lennox of murdering his wife Sylvia. The two jog
his memory but Marlowe refuses any cooperation thinking it is a bum
rap so they toss him in the jug for three days for obstruction.
That's not Gene Wilder!!
The cops tell him that Lennox killed
himself as a guilty conscience so they spring him. Marlowe calls it
bull but what can you do? After a quick drink at the bar, Marlowe
checks in with Eileen Wade (Nina van Pallandt of American
Gigolo, Cutter's Way, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Time Out and Tales
of the Unexpected) on a missing person's case. Her husband
has up and left and the police really don't seem to have any interest
in this, given the copious amounts of runaways, homicides and car
thefts so they have a lot on their plate as it is. This blonde
bombshell claims her husband Roger (Sterling Hayden of The
Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to
Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and The Godfather) while a
brilliant novelist tends to go on drunken tears and be missing for
days on end but this time he has been gone for too long. Eileen
needs Marlowe to suss him out, hose him down and get him home.
Sounds like a cake walk, right? Interestingly enough, the late
Lennoxes also used to reside on the same neighborhood right up the
beach. Coincidence?
Roger's behavior is erratic hiding over
in a mental facility and the doctor seems to be holding him there
against his will. Wade blurts out to Marlowe that he knew the
Lennoxes socially to a level that gets Marlowe thinking there is a
lot more to Terry's suicide and Sylvia's murder. Should Marlowe keep
stepping on toes and peeping through windows for the truth? Does he
let his friend's death go overlooked?
A few points of interest in the film.
As this is a Roger Altman movie, the camera is always in motion. The
man never believed in static shots (a shot on an person,
place or thing that has no action and is held still, later inserted
from editing) Gould completely improvised the police custody
scene when he smears fingerprint ink all over his face and dialogue
surrounding most of it.
Both David Carradine and Arnold
Schwarzenegger are uncredited in the film as David is Dave a.k.a.
Socrates, a guy being held for smoking some doobage and Arnold is a
strong arm and at 6'3" that could make about anyone cringe.
Sterling Hayden wrote his own scenes and his character's home was
actually Altman's house. The gorgeous car Gould is driving around
is a 1948 Cabriolet Lincoln Continental Convertible that was actually
his car.
This film is one of five Gould made
with Altman including: MASH, The Long Goodbye, California Split,
Nashville and The Player. Not too shabby, huh?
Giving the copious amounts of nudity in
the film I would skip letting the kids watch it.
Hey gang! I know, I know. How dare I not have a blog up on Philip Marlowe. Well I was busy recording a new podcast with my co-host Shawn.
The B in this movie is for Blade. Gonna cut chu!!!
I did my level best to clean up the sound but clearly we need to get him a mic stand because his "Snowball" mic (Insert Clerks jokes here) is not cutting the mustard or he needs it to be right up in his face for possible a stand for what would hold sheet music. So it does sound a trifle rough on his part but all in all I think it came out well.
It is still a work in progress on our mic issues plus we are looking at some opening music as well as a host site so I don't have to keep deleting the previous podcasts and they will all be available. Might have to do some Indiegogo pledge begging if you want to hear more Rotten Ramblin' On.
Hey cats and kittens welcome back for
Day 2 of Philip Marlowe Movie Week. Now while I felt that Robert
Montgomery would not have been my choice for Marlowe he did meet the
task of the character despite his slightly flat performance. But let
us journey to the year 1969 instead. Away from the black and whites
that captured the mystique of the film noir but we will give Metro-color a chance. What happens when our favorite peeper gets a
missing person's case which ties into a martial arts master giving
his office the Johnny Depp makeover followed by a double homicide? A
whole lot of trouble. This is Marlowe.
Your autograph, Bruce Lee or it's two to the liver!!!
Based on Chandler's exceptional 1949
novel The Little Sister our star studded cast unwind the tale of a
missing brother leading to blackmail a double homicide with an ice
pick and more than a few pummels for our favorite flatfoot.
Our story opens with Marlowe casing the
shabby hippie commune looking for Orrin Quest (Roger Newman of
The Edge of the Night, Guiding Light, Annie Hall and Passions)
Marlowe (James Garner of The Great Escape, Maverick, The
Rockford Files, Murphy's Romance, Fire in the Sky, My Fellow
Americans and The Notebook) hired a dishy young thing Orfamay
Quest (Sharon Farrell of Man from U.N.C.L.E., A Lovely Way to
Die, The Love Machine, It's Alive, Hawaii Five-O and The Stunt Man)
whose coy demeanor seems off to Marlowe needs him to find her missing
brother as the family has not heard from him in over a month.
With a milk run of a case Marlowe is
not expecting anything spectacular for his time but oh brother is he
ever wrong. The trail is not very warm but does provide with a few
lead of two fellas that may or may not know anything to this
mysterious Orrin. Running into a resident of the commune Grant
Hicks (Jackie Coogan of The Kid, Mesa of Lost Women, Cowboy
G-Men and The Addams Family) who knows more than he is saying
but doesn't really admit to knowing Orrin. After conversing and
smacking the manager for a pass key, our sleuth goes back to see the
manager only find the hotel ledger missing sheets and the manager
taking the ten count nap from here to eternity with an ice pick
driven into his neck. Presumably he was mistaken for an ice block.
Marlowe talks to the last man the
manager did turning out to be a Doctor Largardie (Paul Stevens
of The Mask, Another World, Patton and Battle for the Planet of the
Apes) who does not deny but doesn't confirm his chat with the
manager and he drops the name Grant Hicks when he is off the case.
Ms. Quest is making her way out as Hicks calls Marlowe for some info
from another hotel just five minutes from his office. With a new
lead in the works Marlowe is back on the case when checking with the
hotel dick (bodyguard/detective you pervs) to clarify
if the call was kosher. The door is unlocked and Hicks seems
disposed of when Marlowe is bonked on the head with a .32 with the
owner of a pair of dishy legs driving a high end Jaguar convertible
in the heart of a recession??
Lt. Archie Bunker wants another beer.
His run-in with the local law via
Lieutenant French (Carrol O Connor of Point Blank, Kelly's
Heroes, All in the Family, Archie Bunker's Place, In the Heat of the
Night and Mad About You) lead to Grant Hicks not being who he
claimed an a low ranking skell with delusions of grandeur and a claim
ticket for a photo lab. Marlowe's honey gives him a license plate
for the jag turning out to be starlet Mavis Wald (Gayle
Hunnicutt of Scorpio, Target, The Legend of Hell House, Philip
Marlowe, Private Eye and Savage in the Orient). The claim
check leads to some racy snaps of Mavis making a bit of face time
with a notorious man. Chatting with Mavis' friend Dolores (Rita
Moreno of Singin' in the Rain, Westside Story, The Electric Company,
Oz and Happily Divorced) and offers his assistance to the
sticky situation Ms. Wald is in.
Is Orrin's disappearance and two stiffs
connected with Ms Wald? Will there be more bodies to be found and
will one of them be Marlowe's?
A few tidbits about the film now. The
late Roger Ebert found this film to flip flop from comedy to hard
boiled detective while I myself felt it kept the tone of the
character. Marlowe has a sharp mind and a smart lip that gets him
into more scrapes than most. Apparently Ebert would have preferred
it star Humphrey Bogart and it be written by Faulkner rather than
Garner's approach.
This is also the first appearance to
the American viewing audience of this martial artist fellow Bruce Lee
or something other. I hear he may have been in films and TV. Yes I
am kidding! Unclench already! He gets to play a villain strong arm
which is tough for a guy at 5'7" but I would probably crap my
pants this man sent to whip my ass. Bruce also supplied his own
clothes he got from Rodeo Drive because the costumes looked not his
style. I can respect that.
Director Paul Bogart (no relation to
Humphrey) who worked primarily in TV series and TV movies was really
on the ball as this was only his second movie and kept the film fast
paced and loose. Now while that may not have been the route Howard
Hawks would have chosen, it does not make it any less valid nor this
any less Marlowe through and through.
Sorry, we don't have any openings for Rockford right now.
Hey cats, welcome to the scene that is
Day 1 of Philip Marlowe Week. We don't take no eggs laying their
meat hooks on our dolly birds. You jake with that??!!
Sorry just digging the slang. This
time around Marlowe has been called out to Pasadena to a manor of
impressive proportion for a wealthy widow for what appears to be a
simple snatch and grab case but as usual, simple is never the likelihood in Marlowe's life. This is The Brasher Doubloon.
Ahh Cryptkeeper!! Oh, it's just you Mrs. Murdock.
Marlowe (George Montgomery of
Orchestra Wives, Cimmaron City, Samar and Battle of the Bulge)
is treated to clip and rude behavior on the behalf of the loaded
widow Mrs. Murdock (Florence Bates of Rebecca, Portrait of
Jennie, On the Town and A Letter to Three Wives) who speaks
of the Brasher Doubloon, a rare and extremely valuable coin from her
now late husband's collection. Hinting about the identity of the
thief but refuses to tell Marlowe who, Marlowe has had about enough
of her screwy behavior. Merle (Nancy Guild of Somewhere in the
Night, Black Magic, Little Egypt and Lux Video Theatre)
practically pleads for Marlowe to take the case and states Murdock
isn't all that bad and has been quite generous to her as an example.
Reluctant to even look into the case, Marlowe returns to his office
to find a gunsel name of Eddie Prue (Alfred Linder of The House
on 92nd Street, Canon City,
Guilty of Treason and The Invisible Boy) who tries to strong
arm him away from the case and invite him to see his boss but Marlowe
too fast and smart for our thug, tosses him on on his ear.
Elisha Cook, you get up right now!
Taking the case out of spite and
suspecting Murdock's wet smack of a son, Marlowe interrogates Leslie
(Conrad Janis of Aiport 1975, The Happy Hooker, Mork &
Mindy, Sonny Boy, Murder, She Wrote and Bad Blood) finding
his company about as enjoyable as a root canal but can't get a firm
grasp on the little greaseball. He then visits a coin dealer by the
name of Elisha Morningstar (Houseley Stevenson of Native Land,
Dark Passage, Moonrise and All That I Have) who tells Marlowe
he did in fact glance at the coin in question and did inform Mrs.
Murdock that someone attempted to sell it but is holding out for a
bit more lettuce before he gives up the name. Marlowe realizing this
canary won't sing, sneaks out but stays within ear shot as
Morningstar gets on the blower and gabs with a shamus name of George
Anson. Finding his whereabouts, Marlowe drops in on Anson only to
find him resting... in peace.
With a body on the ground, Marlowe
knows this is linked to the coin and has to duck the cops for confidentiality's sake alone regardless what an ass his client is.
Finding the coin at a pawnshop Marlowe prepares to head to his client
with Merle calls him telling them Mrs. Murdock found the coin and
that he is let go from the case. Before he can really make heads or
tails (COIN JOKE) of the situation gunsel bright boy
brought a playmate with him, saps Marlowe and drags him off to
gambler/casino operator Vince Blair, insisting that the coin is
belonging to him because of such arrangements. Between pummels, a
dead body or two and avoiding getting on the bad end of black jack,
Marlowe has his work cut out for him?
Who else has to die for this coin?
What isn't Mrs. Murdock saying?
A few points about the film now. This
adaptation hails from Chandler's novel The High Window.
Interestingly enough the flophouse was the Gladden Apartments where
Raymond wrote the novel which it is based on, lived there for 30
prior the film was shot at. Fred MacMurray, Victor Mature and Dana
Andrews were all at one point cast for Marlowe when the studio
settled for George Montgomery as his final flick under his 20th
Century Fox contract. Seems almost flattering.
This film almost seems like a remake of
the 1942 film Time to Kill which was a Michael Shayne P.I. film, so
not sure what happened there.
Hmm? Sorry didn't hear a thing you were saying, I was glancing at your boobs.
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!
