Arrow Video: Marlowe (1969) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Arrow Video

The character of Philip Marlowe, crime novelist Raymond Chandler’s hard boiled private investigator spanning several books, became something of a larger-than-life heroic rogue figure in film noir odysseys throughout the 1940s.  Including but not limited to The Big Sleep featuring Humphrey Bogart in the role, Dick Powell in Murder My Sweet and director/actor Robert Montgomery in the first person point-of-view film Lady in the Lake, Philip Marlowe was characterized by boozing, smack-talking and tough private eye usually getting himself into harms way and slyly evading femme fatales.  

While a total of six films were generated between 1942 and 1947, the character retired from the silver screen before making television appearances throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.  Circa 1967, MGM picked up the rights to the remaining three Marlowe novels that had yet to be adapted to film: The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye and Playback.

 
The first of the three, The Little Sister involving a missing persons case and blackmail which partially took place in Hollywood stemming from Chandler’s own experiences as a screenwriter, was announced in 1968 as a film adaptation to star James Garner in the titular role of Marlowe with recurring television director Paul Bogart making his directorial debut.  With much of the dialogue updated to then-modern 1960s by co-screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, the film is a colorful neo-noir featuring a number of notable character actors like Carroll O’Connor better known as Archie Bunker, Rita Moreno, Jackie Coogan, Gayle Hunnicut and even Bruce Lee in his English language screen debut.  

The resulting film doesn’t quite measure up to what Elliott Gould and Robert Altman would do with the character in 1973’s The Long Goodbye, playing as a bit of a lightweight quasi Michael Caine spy movie rather than hard boiled detective fiction.  But in Arrow Video’s new restored limited edition making its Blu-ray disc debut, there’s some reasonable fun to be had with James Garner’s take on the legendary private investigator.

The only film to date with Bruce Lee making a villainous turn who reportedly behind-the-scenes gave some martial arts training instruction to both James Garner and the film’s co-screenwriter, with the source material updated from the 1940s to the 1960s, Marlowe is at once a serviceable entertainment and proof positive as to why its director Paul Bogart would return to television.  Though using many vintage locations throughout the film adding a layer of authenticity to the roots of the character’s world, shot handsomely enough by Academy Award winning cinematographer William Daniels, Bogart’s rudimentary direction never quite captures the dynamic aura of Chandler’s text.  

James Garner is good in the role whom he’d later go on to repeat in the NBC television series The Rockford Files but never quite achieves greatness.  Rita Moreno’s duplicitous sultry femme fatale character is fun while Carroll O’Connor channels some of the deep-seated frothing rage he’d later display in All in the Family.  Incidentally, throughout The Rockford Files many of the character actors in Marlowe would later turn up in guest appearances.

 
While the box office performance in the United States for Marlowe is open to debate, the critical consensus was more or less mixed at best with Roger Ebert dubbing the film ‘unsatisfactory’ and that it doesn’t capture ‘the gritty quality of Chandler’s LA’, a technical and stylistic facet The Long Goodbye more than delivers on.  That said, it paved the way for what would or wouldn’t become James Garner’s career in The Rockford Files with many of the cast members appearing throughout the series.  

Arrow Video’s newly restored edition comes with a fresh scan from the original 35mm camera negative featuring lossless mono audio and an original video essay appreciation by Howard S. Berger.  Though not for many the most striking example of the Marlowe film, so to speak, it was far better received than Neil Jordan’s 2022 film of the same name starring Liam Neeson in the legendary role.  Looking at it years later it feels like Raymond Chandler’s world by way of Mike Hodges, mixing in modern day ultra cool neo-noir vibes with a curious, interpretive metafictional narrative featuring a pretty confident leading actor.  Again, not quite The Big Sleep or The Long Goodbye but its heart is mostly in the right place.

--Andrew Kotwicki