Philip V

Trivia Question: What five movie actors have played Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's private eye?

Answer: Humphrey Bogart (The Big Sleep); Dick Powell (Murder My Sweet); Robert Montgomery (The Lady in the Lake); George Montgomery (The Brasher Doubloon).

The latest, and by no means least impersonation is by James Garner in Marlowe. Bogart is a tough act to follow, and none of the other Marlowes ever matched his blend of soluble morals and incorruptible conscience. Yet of all the Marlowes, Garner is physically closest to the invulnerable knight who could get sapped in the morning and crack a joke and a case by lunchtime.

For Philip, prosperity is just around the coroner. In Marlowe--an adaptation of Chandler's The Little Sister--he follows the spoor of a runaway brother who leaves ice picks in people's necks. On the trail, the shamus uncovers some California tourist attractions (Gayle Hunnicutt, Rita Moreno), some lethal gangsters, and the mandatory snide police lieutenant (Carroll O'Connor).

Marlowe still packs a heater in a shoulder holster, and still operates out of an office that could qualify for urban renewal. But for this film, Director Paul Bogart (no kin) is just keeping down appearances. Whenever the plot calls for straight shooting, he is as crooked as a cop on the take, using sleazy trick photography and mannered techniques. In a scene of two people in a large living room, for example, Bogart can be counted on to plant the viewer in the fireplace, behind the flames.

Nor is Marlowe much aided by Scenarist Stirling Silliphant. Chandler's rhetoric could occasionally be wooden; Silliphant's is consistently plastic, as for instance, when a girl warns a competitor that Marlowe is a "no-no."

The ordinary detective is a hunk of merchandise, like a gun and bullets. Anybody with enough small change can buy him. Philip Marlowe is the exception. "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean," wrote Chandler, "who is neither tarnished nor afraid." Trading on the name, the Marlowe makers have banished fear, but they forgot to remove the tarnish.

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