Marlowe (1969 Film)

''Marlowe'' is a 1969 American neo-noir film starring James Garner as Raymond Chandler's private detective Philip Marlowe. Directed by Paul Bogart, the film was written by Stirling Silliphant based on Chandler's 1949 novel ''The Little Sister''.

The supporting cast includes Bruce Lee, Gayle Hunnicutt, Rita Moreno, Sharon Farrell, Carroll O'Connor and Jackie Coogan.

Plot

Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by a Kansas woman named Orfamay Quest, who desperately wants him to find her brother, Orrin. After Marlowe searches Orrin's former hotel room, he finds the desk clerk, Haven Clausen, murdered with an ice pick and a page torn out of the register book. Soon afterwards, Marlowe receives a call from hotel guest Grant Hicks, who nervously implores him to hold onto something for a day. When Marlowe arrives at his location, he finds Hicks with an ice pick buried in his neck and is confronted by a masked woman, who knocks Marlowe out and flees. Marlowe searches the room and finds a claim ticket for a photographic film.

Marlowe traces the masked woman to a movie star, Mavis Wald, and her friend, exotic dancer Dolores Gonzales. He suspects Wald of having a role in the murder of a blackmailer who had photographs showing her having a rendezvous with mobster boss Sonny Steelgrave, and offers her his help, which she rejects. Steelgrave makes several unsuccessful attempts to scare Marlowe off the case.

With help from Wald's agent, Marlowe is able to clear Wald and Steelgrave of the ice pick murders. Orfamay tells him her brother is staying at the clinic of Dr. Vincent Lagardie. Marlowe confronts the doctor, who tranquilizes him with a drugged cigarette. Marlowe comes around during the night and, still groggy, searches the clinic. He hears gunshots and stumbles upon a mortally wounded Orrin. Marlowe finds a photograph that reveals that Wald, Orrin and Orfamay are siblings. This convinces Marlowe that Orrin was the blackmailer and murderer.

Orfamay blames Marlowe for having taken too long looking for Orrin. Marlowe destroys the pictures and the negatives, and then gets a visit from Dolores, who tells him that Wald wants to see him. During their ride to Steelgrave's mansion, Marlowe learns that Dolores and Steelgrave had at one time been romantically involved. Marlowe finds a disconsolate Wald and Steelgrave dead; she tells him she killed Steelgrave because he had her brother killed. In order to protect Wald's reputation, Marlowe sets things up to make it look as if Steelgrave committed suicide, though the police are not fooled.

Marlowe catches Orfamay searching his home and he tells her he has already destroyed the photographs and the negatives. Wald arrives and a heated confrontation reveals that Orfamay knew about Orrin's blackmailing scheme. She subsequently told Steelgrave, in return for one thousand dollars, where to find Orrin and wanted Marlowe to stop Steelgrave from harming Orrin. Marlowe breaks up the fight and tells Orfamay to go back to Kansas. In a tender discussion with Wald, she admits she pretended to have killed Steelgrave to protect Orfamay, who she thought had killed him.

With Wald's secret safe, Marlowe confronts Dolores with his suspicion that she was Orrin's partner in crime and once married to Dr. Lagardie. Still in love with Steelgrave, she wanted to force Wald away from him. Orrin murdered Hicks and Clausen because Hicks wanted to take over the scheme, and the drug-addicted Clausen was too unstable. Dolores admits to everything but believes that Marlowe is too fond of Wald to tell the police what he knows. As Marlowe phones the police, Dolores is shot dead by Lagardie, who then kills himself. Marlowe leaves the club before the police arrive.

Cast

* James Garner as Philip Marlowe
* Gayle Hunnicutt as Mavis Wald
* Carroll O'Connor as Lt. Christy French
* Rita Moreno as Dolores Gonzáles
* Sharon Farrell as Orfamay Quest
* William Daniels as Mr. Crowell
* H.M. Wynant as Sonny Steelgrave
* Jackie Coogan as Grant W. Hicks
* Kenneth Tobey as Sgt. Fred Beifus
* Bruce Lee as Winslow Wong
* Christopher Cary as Chuck
* George Tyne as Oliver Hady
* Corinne Camacho as Julie
* Paul Stevens as Dr. Vincent Lagardie
* Roger Newman as Orrin Quest
* Anna Lee Carroll as Mona
* Read Morgan as Gumpshaw

Production

In 1968 only two Marlowe novels had not been filmed, ''The Little Sister'' and ''The Long Goodbye''. In March 1967 it was announced that film rights to ''Little Sister'' were purchased by the team of Katzka and Berne who had hired Stirling Silliphant to write a script; MGM would distribute. In June Katzka announced that he had also bought screen rights to ''The Long Goodbye'' and that filming on ''Little Sister'' would begin in September. However filming was delayed.

In March 1968 it was announced a film would be made of ''The Little Sister'' starring James Garner with Paul Bogart to make his debut as director. Garner had to plead his case to appear in the film after one MGM executive vetoed his role in the film. Gayle Hunnicut's casting was announced in June.

Filming started in July 1968. It took place in Los Angeles. Stirling Silliphant said he was interested in writing the script "because here was a chance to write the classic Quest story" and it would get the writer "out of the social conscience bag I'm supposed to be in." Sillipant said he had to create "90% of the dialogue" because he felt Chandler's original was "dated".

In his memoirs Garner says he ad libbed the words "impertinent" and "baroque" in one scene when his character was describing wine because Gore Vidal had just referenced Garner's backside in the novel '' Myra Breckinridge'' as "impertinent" and "baroque".

Reception

Box office

In Europe, the film sold 375,668 tickets in Spain and 120,408 tickets in France, for a total of 496,076 tickets sold in Spain and France. The film's box-office performance in North America is currently unknown.

Critical reception

The film has a score of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 8 reviews.

Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and said it was "not very satisfactory. Even though director Paul Bogart shot on location, he has not quite captured the gritty quality of Chandler's LA. And James Garner, the latest Marlowe (after Robert Montgomery, Dick Powell and Humphrey Bogart), is a little too inclined to play for light, wry, James Bond-style laughs." Roger Greenspun of ''The New York Times'' wrote that "Stirling Silliphant's screenplay follows too many styles, and Paul Bogart's direction follows too few to make a more than casually entertaining movie." Gene Siskel of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a muddled disappointment. The plot, or more exactly the three or four subplots, is bewildering." ''Variety'' wrote, "Raymond chandler's private eye character, Philip Marlowe, is in need of better handling either producers Gabriel Katzka and Sidney Beckerman, scripter Stirling Silliphant or James Garner in title role, have provided, if he is to survive as a screen hero. 'Marlowe,' which MGM is releasing, is a plodding, unsure piece of so-called sleuthing in which Garner can never make up his mind whether to play it for comedy or hardboil. Silliphant's adaptation of author's 'The Little Sister' come out on the confused side, with too much unexplained action." Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that the film "fills that yawning gap between the blockbuster and the small-scale film of social consciousness in thoroughly satisfying fashion. Free from the giganticism of the first and the all-too-frequent pretensions of the second it is ideal escapist entertainment." Gary Arnold of ''The Washington Post'' called it "a tolerable detective thriller provided you haven't read any of Raymond Chandler's novels or seen Howard Hawks' film version of 'The Big Sleep.' If you have, it will be natural to write off this film as a half-hearted, anachronistic attempt to revive the genre." ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' wrote, "Despite some crisp dialogue in Stirling Silliphant's screenplay, Chandler's novel ''The Little Sister'' suffers badly from glossy settings and modish direction ... And Marlowe himself seems a thoroughly synthetic creation—although Garner has a good line in 'cool', he has none of the heavy-lidded cynicism and crumpled charm with which Bogart made the part his own."

References

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{{Bruce Lee

1969 films
1969 crime drama films
American crime drama films
American detective films
American mystery films
Films based on American novels
Films based on crime novels
Films based on works by Raymond Chandler
Films directed by Paul Bogart
Films set in Los Angeles
American neo-noir films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
1960s English-language films
1960s American films