A so-so movie called Marlowe was on TV not too long ago so in honor of Raymond Chandler I started a review:
The movie had:
- great subject – a book by Raymond Chandler
- great name – Philip Marlowe got me going!
- James Garner – beloved of 124 episodes of Maverick
- Rita Moreno – what a multi-talented babe!
- Garner – Moreno later paired in the Rockford Files!
- the late 60’s So Cal vibe – 60’s cool style
what’s not to like?
Over the years I’ve read and re-read all the Chandler books. This movie is based on one of the well-known ones: Little Sister (1949) … which is as of now on my list of books to reread!
Loving the 60’s style!
The star is James Garner (Marlowe). Along with all the Perry Masons, I watched all 124 episodes of the Maverick series, many for multiple times. I guess he would be my favorite 60’s male hunk.
A co-star is Rita Moreno. She really was multi-talented and thus all over the TV back then. As likely to appear on performer on the Ed Sullivan Show as on be in a dramatic role Mannix or The Mod Squad. I had kind of a thing for her back in junior high 🙂
This movie was made when I was in college, so the hot young women are styled out just how I would have thought sexiest at that impressionable time in my young life! Beehives and other bouffant hairdos, little sleeveless tops tight enough to make boobs in hard-shell bras extra perky!
The Movie
First scene is a dude snapping pics from the bushes of a movie star-looking couple in a hot tub.
Second scene is our hero, a cheap private eye going to his office and being harrassed by a weird but kinda cute blonde asking has he found her brother yet?!
The cheap private eye is Philip Marlowe! The girl is named Orfamay.
We are intended to put 2 and 2 together and conclude the brother she’s worried about is the photographer in the bushes in the first scene. That doesn’t come together in the movie until about 3/4 the way through, but we viewers kind of know it all the way through.
First place Marlowe goes looking for the kid is a beatnik hangout by the beach. The first body is quick to follow. Turns out the norm here is an icepick perfect placed in a nexk nerve.
The second body is seen in the Featured Image. I love the tilted head thing as Carrol O’Connor and the other guy discover he had a toupee. :))
The real Bruce Lee makes an appearance as a thug for the bad guy. He deserved better than this role.
- First he karate-kicks Marlowe’s office to kindling just to slow he’s tough.
- In a later scenic, Marlowe’s meeting the main bad guy in his high-rise restaurant.
- Bruce is supposed to fatally beat him up, but in an extremely cheesy move, Marlowe implies he’s gay, which I guess hit different in 1969 … then is quick enough to dodge enrages him somaich he flying-kicks Marlow and misses and sails off the roof.
Maybe that got some laughs in 1970, but it was just plain sad here on 2026.
Another 60’s touch was that the evil doctor takes Marlowe out with a doctored cigarette.
The plot gets kinda convoluted and incestous.
The girl pestering Marlowe is the sister of the guy taking the dirty photos (Orrin). Much later we find that the movie star (Mavis) is their third sibling!
Convoluted and incestuous, right?
It gets even more convoluted, until the end when Rita Moreno is killed by the doctor (what doctor?).
I’m not having fun reporting on all the double crosses, so I quit! 🙂
It wasn’t that much fun at the end anyway. 🙂