--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Zeltserman"
<dz@...> wrote:
>
> I always thought a young James Coburn would have
made the perfect Sam
> Spade--although I thought Bogie played Spade well.
No one could've
been
> better as Gutman than Greenstreet (which was his
first acting role,
and
> at 62!) Elliot Gould has always been my favorite
Marlowe ;)
>
> --Dave Z.
>
Greenstreet as Gutman in the 1941 movie was certainly not his
first acting role. He made his acting debut in a production
of the play Sherlock Holmes in 1902. The Gutman role was his
debut in movies.
As for Marlowe, I recall that in his letters the actor that
Chandler envisioned in the role was Cary Grant. That
certainly doesn't match my mental picture of the character.
Bogie was fine as Marlowe but I preferred his performance as
Spade.
It has been too many years since I've seen the Dick Powell
movie. One side not on Powell as Marlowe. Some time back I
mentioned he also played Marlowe in a 1954 television
production of THE LONG GOODBYE as an episode of the series
"Climax!" I regretted that a copy of the program did not seem
to be available.
More recently I learned a second reason to hope that an old
Kinescope turns up of that broadcast. It was a live
production and in an early scene Powell as Marlowe was
discussing the need to call the morgue to come pick up the
body that was still in view in the background.
The corpse was played by Tristram Coffin, and, yes, that was
his real name. Coffin played mostly heavies in scores of B
westerns. Anyway, Coffin was playing the corpse and thinking
he was no longer on camera, got to his feet and walked off
the set. Powell and the other actors
(probably including old Horance McMahon in one of his many
roles as a cop) ignored the unexpected movement and continued
to play the scene as written.
Richard Moore
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