Movie Editions: Farewell, My Lovely

They did a fine job on this 1975 flick - but I still liked Murder, My Sweet better.

Movie Editions: The Long Goodbye

I suppose it's time I saw this movie again. I hated it when I saw it in the 80s. Altman-Schmaltman, as an interpretation of Philip Marlowe, it sucked. The only thing I liked about it was the Jack Davis 1-sheet and the bit of (non)acting by Jim Bouton. I was a BIG fan of Ball Four and Ball Five, a couple of the funniest books I ever read. 

(click to enlarge, of course)

Movie Editions: Marlowe (The Little Sister)

Man, it's been a long time since I saw this flick. I didn't realize how long until I saw Rita Morena in a guest shot recently on In Plain Sight. Rita is one of two things I remember from this movie. The other is the scene where Bruce Lee does a flying kick off the roof of a building.

Marlowe (1969) was the first and only film version of The Little Sister. I'm pretty sure it was also the first (of three) Marlowe stories moved from its proper setting into the "present". In this case, as I recall, the updating was not too distracting, while the later attempts were disastrous.

Too bad they latched onto this "Marlboro Country" theme for the advertising, because it produced one butt-ugly poster. I have a copy of the 1-sheet (at bottom), but only unfolded it once to look at it. Who would want that atrocity on their wall?

Movie Editions: The Glass Key

I'm doing my part for Earth Day by featuring a book with a green cover. This Grosset & Dunlap edition celebrates the second film version of The Glass Key, in 1942. The first  version, a movie I've never seen, was released in 1935 with George Raft as Ed (not Ned) Beaumont and Edward (one-time Nero Wolfe) Arnold as Paul Madvig.

(I chose this lobby card just for you, Bill.)
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Movie Editions: The Brasher Doubloon (The High Window)

As we saw yesterday, Tower Books titled their movie edition of Murder, My Sweet as Farewell, My Lovely. With this book they reverse course and use the movie rather than book title. Why? Beats me. Under the dust jacket is an ordinary edition of The High Window. The Brasher Doubloon was the second film adaption of the book. The first was a Mike Shayne flick with Lloyd Nolan called Time to Kill (1942).

Has anyone seen this one? Far as I know, it's never been commercially released on VHS or DVD, but there seem to be some homemade copies available. Having seen George Montgomery recently in in the old western series Cimarron City, it seems he might make a decent Marlowe.
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I have most of the various posters from this film, but the only really nice one is the 3-sheet below. This pic was scanned from an old snapshot of my bedroom wall. Someday I hope to have another wall big enough to hang it on.

Movie Editions: Farewell, My Lovely (Murder, My Sweet)

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The movie, of course, was called Murder, My Sweet, but Tower Books retained the original title for this movie edition. Murder, My Sweet was actually the second of three film adaptations. The first was very freely adapted for the George Sanders Falcon franchise, as The Falcon Takes Over (1942). Dick Powell is a good Marlowe, but as a deadly dame, Claire Trevor pales alongside Audrey Totter (see yesterday's Lady in the Lake).

Movie Editions: The Lady in the Lake

Here's a nice movie edition dust jacket from an undated Grosset & Dunlap book, along with the half sheet and 1-sheet posters. For the record, this is my favorite hardboiled detective film.