My favorite Chandler novel-turned-movie, The Brasher Doubloon (1947), based on Chandler's "The High Window" has no present-day reputation at all.
A now unfashionable leading man, George Montgomery, is regarded (with some justification) as "the worst Marlowe on the screen", whilst the movie itself has been described as "a contemptible violation of everything Marlowe and Chandler stood for."
On the other hand, I look at the movie as an original. I don't care if it's faithful to Chandler or not. My personal opinion of "The High Window" rates it as the least interesting of all Chandler's finished novels. Whilst its style and dialogue often exhibit that prized Chandler gloss, the support characters are mostly dreary as hell and the plot downright stupid.
Stuck with inferior material like this, director John Brahm has spun absolute wonders. The opening windy-day-in-Pasadena sequence is often cited in film noir text books as a perfect example of atmospheric movie-making. It's a shame Brahm's dynamic direction is often vitiated by George Montgomery's lecherous lead, but the rest of the cast, led by the intriguing Nancy Guild, aberrant Fritz Kortner and treacherous Florence Bates (the most powerful performance of her career) more than make up for these stellar shortcomings.
A now unfashionable leading man, George Montgomery, is regarded (with some justification) as "the worst Marlowe on the screen", whilst the movie itself has been described as "a contemptible violation of everything Marlowe and Chandler stood for."
On the other hand, I look at the movie as an original. I don't care if it's faithful to Chandler or not. My personal opinion of "The High Window" rates it as the least interesting of all Chandler's finished novels. Whilst its style and dialogue often exhibit that prized Chandler gloss, the support characters are mostly dreary as hell and the plot downright stupid.
Stuck with inferior material like this, director John Brahm has spun absolute wonders. The opening windy-day-in-Pasadena sequence is often cited in film noir text books as a perfect example of atmospheric movie-making. It's a shame Brahm's dynamic direction is often vitiated by George Montgomery's lecherous lead, but the rest of the cast, led by the intriguing Nancy Guild, aberrant Fritz Kortner and treacherous Florence Bates (the most powerful performance of her career) more than make up for these stellar shortcomings.