The Best Marlowe

The Best Phillip Marlowe on Screen

Dick Powell
11
39%
Bogie
15
54%
Either Montgomery,or someone else
2
7%
 
Total votes: 28

User avatar
Rita Hayworth
Posts: 10068
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 4:01 pm

Re: The Best Marlowe

Post by Rita Hayworth »

RedRiver wrote:A friend of mine is considering reading Chandler for the first time. Boy, is he in for a treat! I almost envy the experience. I'll read a lot of crime fiction in the coming months. But I bet I won't see anything of this caliber.
You got that right Red! :)
User avatar
JackFavell
Posts: 11926
Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am

Re: The Best Marlowe

Post by JackFavell »

Gosh, I love Dick Powell in Murder My Sweet. You brought it back to me with that quote which should be among the top movie quotes of all time. I love that mixture in his voice, something of a peeved, irritable, and even petulant guy in there too. Where we would be scared out of our wits in the same situation, he just gets cheesed off. And the dark humor he totally gets in his line readings...and of course the writing.
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Re: The Best Marlowe

Post by mrsl »

.
I loved Bogey as Marlowe, just because I loved Bogey, but without my usual gushing, I think Bob Mitchum fit Chandler's description better than any of the others. Dick Powell didn't fit at all to my way of thinking. Marlowe was world weary, tired of all the murder and mayhem surrounding him, sick at what one human being can do to another, but feeling the urge to do his best to correct as many of the wrongs that he could, so with each book he gave another 110%.
.
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
RedRiver
Posts: 4200
Joined: July 28th, 2011, 9:42 am

Re: The Best Marlowe

Post by RedRiver »

Great choices, one and all. MURDER, MY SWEET is very much my favorite Chandler adaptation. It's one of the better crime films. As for casting, I guess Bogart has the edge. Was any actor better suited for PI duty? But Mrs L makes a good argument for Mitchum. Roger Ebert, bless him, said Mitchum was too old for the role. Had he done it twenty years earlier he would have been perfect.

You brought it back to me with that quote which should be among the top movie quotes of all time

Absolutely beautiful narration!
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Re: The Best Marlowe

Post by mrsl »


My "quote " is actually taken from a book I read some 50 years ago as a teenager and for some reason it always stuck in the back of my mind. It was not written as a quote either, just a line in a dialog between two people. I have heard it since, but never thought of it as a quote that needed quotation marks.
.
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
Post Reply