Finishing Crooked Little Vein left me in the mood for hard boiled detectives. Raymond Chandler‘s Philip Marlowe is my favorite. Now I dig the Bogart Big Sleep movie. But Bogie just isn’t Marlowe to me. The perfect Marlowe is the 80’s HBO show staring Powers Boothe. A show which I vaguely recall as being this perfect translation of Chandler’s stories.
I found it on Amazon, Phillip Marlowe, Private Investigator. A New York Times article from back then seems to back up what I think I remember.
Although he should perhaps look a bit more lean and hungry, Mr. Boothe creates an emotionally convincing Marlowe. His private eye prefers to be an objective observer rather than a soiled participant but, when pushed, he leaves no doubt about who is in charge. Dark, dour, almost sullen but not quite sour, this Marlowe would have had Raymond Chandler’s approval.
It’s also set in the right period. I hate when they try to set it in the present. Marlowe’s time and place was the 1940’s Los Angeles. I really hope the show is as good as I remember.
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