Here's how it breaks down in the Marlowe performance
competition.
GOLD MEDAL: Dick Powell (captured the character as written in
the novels and stories better than anyone, and looked
surprisingly good in the part; plus the movie was the best
adaptation of a Chandler novel.)
SILVER MEDAL: Humphrey Bogart (he gets it mainly for being
Bogie; which is essentially how he played Marlowe. Rather
than play Chandler's character, he adapted the character to
his already well-established screen persona.)
BRONZE MEDAL: James Garner (great actor and looks the part
more than just about anyone else who's played it; he did
appear a bit uncomfortable in the 1960s, but, after all, the
last Marlowe novel came out only 10 years prior to the movie.
Updating aside, the film was actually pretty faithful to the
original novel.)
Robert Mitchum was too old for the part by the time he played
it, plus he's handicapped by the fact that both his
appearances were in remakes. Still, one is impressed by what
an awesome Marlowe he'd've made in his prime.
Robert Montgomery struck me as just mean-spirited rather than
tough, and the film too damned gimmicky. Still, how many
actors can claim to've played both Phil Marlowe and Lord
Peter Wimsey?
George Montgomery had the opposite problem of Mitchum.
He was too young, and the mustache didn't make him look
any older. Based on performances from later in his career,
however, he'd've probably made a pretty acceptable Marlowe
had he waited another 10 years.
Powers Boothe was too mannered, and the TV episodes he
appeared in seemed to be trying to coast on period details,
but by and large I liked the show.
James Caan was acceptable as an aging Marlowe, but he WASN'T
that old (nor was his inamorata that young) in the
book.
Never saw Philip Carey.
Of the two radio Marlowes I've heard, I prefer Gerald Mohr,
who put across an appropriate world-weariness to the part, to
Van Heflin, who just seemed too damned earnest.
Who should play it now? That's tough because it requires a
balance of youthful vigor and mature gravitas, and, for some
reason, actors in the '40s seemed to combine those qualities
more easily than actors today. Maybe, in another decade or
so, Ben Affleck, who's a decent actor and looks kind of like
a young Cary Grant. But right now he looks too MUCH like a
YOUNG Cary Grant.
Mel Gibson might do a pretty good job, but he's only got a
few more years before he starts to look too old.
Interstingly, hasn't Gibson's LETHAL WEAPON co-star,
Danny Glover, played Marlowe in a TV special?
Kurt Russell is too short (but then so was Bogart).
Harrison Ford is too old.
Kevin Spacey is to (ahem) spacey.
Guy Pearce is too skinny.
Russell Crowe is too . . . uh . . . actually, what's wrong
with Russell Crowe?
JIM DOHERTY
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