--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Crider"
<macavityabc@...> wrote:
>
> While I was worrying about whether I was a real guy
today, I
thought of Dick
> Powell's version of Richard Diamond on radio. A
singing p.i. I
suppose he
> didn't dance only because it was radio. Too bad he
didn't do the
TV show.
>
> Bill Crider
>
While searching my various sources for the Chandler letter
Jim Doherty referenced saying Dick Powell was the best of the
Marlowes, the only reference to Powell I found other than the
initial slighting of Powell as a tough guy was in reference
to Powell's "Richard Diamond" radio program.
In a 1949 letter to Dale Warren, Chandler suggested "...tune
in on the new Dick Powell show, which is swiped from Philip
Marlowe which is swiped from Sam Spade which is swiped from
Orson Welles' radio technique of the first person narration
passing into direct dramatization." Chandler then goes into a
somewhat lengthy discussion of radio techniques. Then (in all
caps) he gives a promo of the Diamond program: "STAY TUNED IN
FOR THE DICK POWELL SHOW, STARRING (YOU GUESSED IT) DICK
POWELL. THE GREATEST PRIVATE DETECTIVE OF THEM ALL (THAT
SINGS TENOR)."
The other Chandler biographies and essay collections I have
(list available upon request) make no mention of Powell as
Marlowe beyond the 1946 letter that compares him unfavorably
to Bogart, although it is clear Chandler liked the Powell
movie "Murder My Sweet." I can state no preference myself as
it has been more than four decades since I viewed the Powell
movie and my memory is quite dim. I am quite fond of both
Powell and Bogart.
One thing my research turned up that I didn't recall is that
Chandler had worked a considerable amount of time on Robert
Montgomery's version of THE LADY IN THE LAKE. Frank MacShane,
Chandler's biographer and the editor of his Selected Letters,
says Steve Fisher finished the script and Chandler refused
any credit for it. While I don't have Frank Gruber's THE PULP
JUNGLE in front of me (although it is nearby if someone needs
a more precise reference), I do recall that Gruber said his
pal Fisher and Chandler had a credit dispute before the
Writer's Guild and Fisher won the dispute. Chandler
complained to Gruber about it (according to Gruber) and it
was a serious altercation.
How many scripts could both Fisher and Chandler have worked
on in which they had a dispute? I think it has to be the same
Lady in the Lake incident.
Richard Moore
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