... with the exception of George Montgomery who plays the lead role of Philip Marlowe, but he just doesn't seem the type for this part. Montgomery has the looks, but he just seems like he should be wearing a suit with suspenders giving a presentation on Wall Street. His best film - to me - was "Accent on Love" where he played exactly that - a pedigreed but poor man married to a wealthy woman who treated him like a pet. But I digress.
I like Bogart's interpretation of the detective, as well as a surprising Dick Powell and I even warmed up to Robert Montgomery's Marlowe, who played perennial playboys in the 30s at MGM. But I just could never believe George Montgomery as the cynical detective.
So the script is pretty good. Marlowe is called out to the mansion of matronly socialite Elizabeth Murdock who wants him to find out what has happened to the Brasher Doubloon, a ten thousand dollar coin that disappeared without an apparent break-in. She has a beautiful but strange secretary, Merle (Nancy Guild) who tells Marlowe it is important for her to know what happened to the coin because she doesn't know whether or not she took it. Huh?
From there Marlowe stumbles into a couple of murders that - of course - the police think he did, he gets a visit from a goon working for a gangster who wants to pay him off not to go looking for the coin. There is also a German expatriate cameraman who can't get work BECAUSE he left Germany in the 30s???, and even a parade figures into the plot.
The script gets convoluted at times, but the main problem is I kept thinking - Ella Raines would be great as the enigmatic secretary!, or Peter Lorre would be dynamite as the gangster's henchman!, or Bogart would play Marlowe in these scenes with just the right balance of cool and humor, etc. It's a big mystery why Fox, who had the star power at the time at the height of the noir cycle, did not put more effort into casting this.
There are a couple of things to watch for in this film. First, for some reason there is a giant neon sign reading "Broadway Hollywood Hotel" just outside the window of Marlowe's office that is so gaudy and imposing that it looks like it is an extra character in the room. Also, when Marlowe goes to visit the gangster at his nightclub, there seems to be a female impersonator in the room who is scantily clad in a backless evening gown but has no lines and nothing to do with the plot. How odd in this time of extreme censorship.
Maybe worth it for the curiosity of it all.
I like Bogart's interpretation of the detective, as well as a surprising Dick Powell and I even warmed up to Robert Montgomery's Marlowe, who played perennial playboys in the 30s at MGM. But I just could never believe George Montgomery as the cynical detective.
So the script is pretty good. Marlowe is called out to the mansion of matronly socialite Elizabeth Murdock who wants him to find out what has happened to the Brasher Doubloon, a ten thousand dollar coin that disappeared without an apparent break-in. She has a beautiful but strange secretary, Merle (Nancy Guild) who tells Marlowe it is important for her to know what happened to the coin because she doesn't know whether or not she took it. Huh?
From there Marlowe stumbles into a couple of murders that - of course - the police think he did, he gets a visit from a goon working for a gangster who wants to pay him off not to go looking for the coin. There is also a German expatriate cameraman who can't get work BECAUSE he left Germany in the 30s???, and even a parade figures into the plot.
The script gets convoluted at times, but the main problem is I kept thinking - Ella Raines would be great as the enigmatic secretary!, or Peter Lorre would be dynamite as the gangster's henchman!, or Bogart would play Marlowe in these scenes with just the right balance of cool and humor, etc. It's a big mystery why Fox, who had the star power at the time at the height of the noir cycle, did not put more effort into casting this.
There are a couple of things to watch for in this film. First, for some reason there is a giant neon sign reading "Broadway Hollywood Hotel" just outside the window of Marlowe's office that is so gaudy and imposing that it looks like it is an extra character in the room. Also, when Marlowe goes to visit the gangster at his nightclub, there seems to be a female impersonator in the room who is scantily clad in a backless evening gown but has no lines and nothing to do with the plot. How odd in this time of extreme censorship.
Maybe worth it for the curiosity of it all.