Personally, I thought Bogart was a little too friendly, a
little too gregarious as Marlowe. He didn't have that lonely
aloofness that you saw in the books. I caught the first half
of "Murder, My Sweet" and the last 15 minutes, and Dick
Powell (no relation) seemed to be a little more disillusioned
with what life had to offer him.
Graham (not related to William either) Powell
--------------- http://www.BleekerBooks.com
Hardboiled and Noir
----- Original Message ----- From: "JIM DOHERTY" <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> To: <
rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 7:22
PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: the voice of hardboiled
> Re Mark's questions below:
>
> > These movies [*Maltese Falcon* & *Big
Sleep*]
> > were relatively
> > early in his ascent to stardom, right? Among
his
> > first roles as the
> > good guy instead of as a heavy, a shift
from
> > Petrified Forrest and High
> > Sierra, right?
>
> *The Maltese Falcon* came right after *High
Sierra*,
> though he'd played a good guy (a racket-busting
DA
> modeled on Thomas Dewey) in *Marked Woman* some
years
> earlier, and in one or two other films, as
well.
>
> By the time he made *The Big Sleep*, he'd already
been
> in *Casablanca* (for which he got an Oscar
nomination
> and the picture an Oscar), *To Have and Have
Not*,
> *Sahara*, etc., and his star status was
unchallenged.
>
> > Now his depiction seems definitive, but does
anyone
> > know how he was felt
> > to compare with other movie PIs at the time? I
know
> > Chandler felt Cary
> > Grant best suited the role of Marlowe and
didn't he
> > prefer Dick Powell's
> > portrayal to Bogart's.
>
> Chandler never actually said that Grant would be
the
> best Marlowe. He said that Grant was the actor
who
> looked most like Chandler's visual image of
the
> character, which isn't quite the same
thing.
>
> He did say that Powell's portrayal was closer to
the
> Marlowe of the books than anyone else's, though I
get
> the impression that he was a bit ambivalent about
the
> movie, not because he thought that Powell,
Dmytryk,
> etc., had done a bad job, but because he didn't make
a
> cent out of it (having already sold the rights to
RKO
> some years earlier when they made the book into
a
> "Falcon" series entry). However much he may
have
> preferred Powell, however, he was also very
pleased
> with Bogart's performance, saying that he
seemed
> genuinely tough, not merely an actor pretending to
be
> tough.
>
> Personally, much as I love both *The Big Sleep*
and
> Bogart's performance in it, I also prefer Powell
and
> *Murder, My Sweet*. Powell seems to me to
capture
> Chandler's character as Chandler wrote about
him
> better than any other actor to tackle the
part.
> Bogart, on the other hand, takes the character
and
> refits him into the by-then well-established
Bogart
> persona. It works, of course, and works damned
well,
> but I'd still give Powell the gold and Bogart
the
> silver.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 13 Aug 2001 EDT