Phillip Marlowe, 12/13/2022

[ElCid]

TCM is featuring Phillip Marlowe movies tonight. They had a bunch of Tom Conways on this morning and this afternoon. Jean Brooks is in several.

Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery, Robert Mitchum and James Garner as Marlowe tonight. My favorite is Robert Mitchum in Farewell My Lovely, although all of them are good.

[BrianNH2OK]

I looked at the schedule and saw tonight was going to be a Philip Marlowe cornucopia. It almost seems as if it is audition night for all actors wishing to play this detective. I'll agree that Mitchum is terrific in his older years and in a version that grows a bit edgier than the others.

But I still think Powell transitions from his musicals into this genre in a crackerjack way. His delivery of all those great lines is perfect in the sarcasm and affected ennui that goes with the territory of his profession. Do I remember correctly that Chandler himself liked Powell as Philip Marlowe? Maybe I've got that wrong.

[ziggy6708a]

I looked at the schedule and saw tonight was going to be a Philip Marlowe cornucopia. It almost seems as if it is audition night for all actors wishing to play this detective. I'll agree that Mitchum is terrific in his older years and in a version that grows a bit edgier than the others.

But I still think Powell transitions from his musicals into this genre in a crackerjack way. His delivery of all those great lines is perfect in the sarcasm and affected ennui that goes with the territory of his profession. Do I remember correctly that Chandler himself liked Powell as Philip Marlowe? Maybe I've got that wrong.

-Liked

[ziggy6708a]

I looked at the schedule and saw tonight was going to be a Philip Marlowe cornucopia. It almost seems as if it is audition night for all actors wishing to play this detective. I'll agree that Mitchum is terrific in his older years and in a version that grows a bit edgier than the others.

But I still think Powell transitions from his musicals into this genre in a crackerjack way. His delivery of all those great lines is perfect in the sarcasm and affected ennui that goes with the territory of his profession. Do I remember correctly that Chandler himself liked Powell as Philip Marlowe? Maybe I've got that wrong.

& some of the BEST movie quotes!!
"She was a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who'd take a drink, if she had to knock you down to get the bottle.

I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in. It had no bottom. I felt pretty good - like an amputated leg.

"'Okay Marlowe,' I said to myself. 'You're a tough guy. You've been sapped twice, choked, beaten silly with a gun, shot in the arm until you're crazy as a couple of waltzing mice. Now let's see you do something really tough - like putting your pants on.'"
[about his gun] That's just part of my clothes. I hardly ever shoot anybody with it.

Helen Grayle: I find men very attractive.
Philip Marlowe: I imagine they meet you halfway.

Philip Marlowe: What were you saying?
Dr. Sonderborg: I made no remark.
Philip Marlowe: Remarks want you to make them. They got their tongues hanging out waiting to be said.

You shouldn't kiss a girl when you're wearing that gun... leaves a bruise.

Lt. Randall: What were you doing at the office that late?
Philip Marlowe: I'm a homing pigeon. I always come back to the stinking coop, no matter how late it is. I'd been out peeking under old Sunday sections for a barber named Dominick whose wife wanted him back - I forget why. Only reason I took the job was because my bank account was trying to crawl under a duck."

[BrianNH2OK]

I really can't imagine anyone but Dick Powell (and Claire Trevor -- as hard-boiled a dame as they come) saying those lines. I'm amazed that he was able to make this transition into things beyond the Warner Bro's musicals, but boy did he succeed! And then later on behind the camera, as well.

And the lighting of the match off that cherubic keister is priceless.

In the end, it's all "cute as lace pants."

[ElCid]

Ironically the first movie based on Farewell, My Lovely was The Falcon Takes Over (1942) with George Sanders and Ward Bond. An entertaining Falcon movie, but not as good a telling of the Farewell story. Of course, it is only 65 minutes long also.