Philip Marlowe
TCM, Beginning at 5 p.m.
Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic character who appeared in a number of the hardboiled detective fiction master’s novels and short stories, has remained one of the most famous fictional private eyes of all time. That is thanks in large part not just to Chandler’s tales but also (and perhaps especially) to the eight feature films depicting the character by name that have been produced over the past 80 years or so (a ninth movie, Marlowe, is slated to be released this month, with Liam Neeson as the sleuth). Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is airing five of the films featuring Marlowe on the case, portrayed with intriguingly different interpretations by a varied group of actors. Up first is 1944’s Murder, My Sweet (pictured), an adaptation of Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely that not only is the first movie to feature Marlowe, played by Dick Powell, but it also is regarded as among
the first film noir productions and a major influence on ensuing works in that genre. Of course, any lineup devoted to Philip Marlowe movies would be remiss without airing what is likely the most famous one, and that is next: The Big Sleep (1946), starring Humphrey Bogart as the private eye alongside Lauren Bacall. Director Howard Hawks’ movie is based on the novel of the same name and features a mystery that is so famously convoluted even Chandler himself was hard-pressed to definitively answer what is going on in parts of it. Ultimately, that’s beside the point, since the ride is such terrific fun. Following that, Robert Montgomery plays Marlowe in the unique Lady in the Lake (1947). Montgomery also directed the film and narrates as Marlowe, whom the audience largely does not see but rather follows along with his first-person point of view, only seeing what the detective does. Next, watch Robert Mitchum in the first of his two appearances as Marlowe in 1975’s Farewell, My Lovely (the actor reprised the character in the 1978 adaptation of The Big Sleep). Set in the early 1940s, the mystery co-stars Charlotte
Rampling and Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Sylvia Miles. Finally, James Garner — before he became more famous as TV private eye Jim Rockford — steps into Marlowe’s shoes in the 1969 neo-noir Marlowe, based on Chandler’s novel The Little Sister.