Overlooked Films: Philip Marlowe, Private Eye in "Nevada Gas"

Yep, it's time for another episode of the HBO series Philip Marlowe, Private Eye. Episode 4, "Nevada Gas," was originally broadcast back in May of 1983.

As we noted before, only one episode of that series was actually based on a Marlowe story, because Chandler only wrote one Marlowe short story. Most of the rest were adapted from stories featuring other detectives, some private, some police, some employed elsewhere. "Nevada Gas," from the June 1935 ish of Black Mask (featuring this fine cover by Rudolph Belarski), is different, because the original hero, Johnny De Ruse, isn't a detective at all. He's just a gambler with a floozy for a girl friend, and it gets him sucked into a mess involving a crooked lawyer, a blackmailer and a bunch of mobsters.

Accused of being soft, De Ruse says, "Not soft, baby--just a bit sentimental. I like to clock the ponies and play seven-card stud and mess around with little red cubes with white spots on them. I like games of chance, including women. But when I lose I don't get sore and I don't chisel. I just move on to the next table."

On with the show.

NEVADA GAS - Part 1


NEVADA GAS - Part 2


NEVADA GAS - Part 3


NEVADA GAS - Part 4

The first three episodes of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye are HERE.
Lots more Overlooked Films are looked over each week at this time on Sweet Freedom.

Overlooked Films: PHILIP MARLOWE, PRIVATE EYE in "Finger Man"

I have not examined the original appearance of "Finger Man" in the October 1934 issue of Black Mask, but as reprinted in the 1947 Avon digest below, the detective narrator seems to be unnamed. That changed when the story saw print in the 1950 hardcover collection The Simple Art of Murder, and it has been reprinted as a Philip Marlowe story ever since.

So, the HBO series Philip Marlowe, Private Eye was not breaking new ground when they presented this as a Marlowe story when it was broadcast back in 1983. Give it a look see.

FINGER MAN - Part 1

FINGER MAN - Part 2

FINGER MAN - Part 3

FINGER MAN - Part 4

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Overlooked Films: PHILIP MARLOWE, PRIVATE EYE meets "The King in Yellow"

A few weeks back we looked at "The Pencil," the premiere episode of the HBO series Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (HERE). We now present episode 2, coming to you direct from April 23, 1983.

"The King in Yellow" began life in the March 1938 issue of Dime Detective, featuring a hotel house dick named Steve Grayce. You can read the full text online HERE. This may have been one of several stories in which the detective was later changed to Marlowe for book publication, but the trail is twisty and - at the moment - I can't lay my hands on all my Chandler books.









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Overlooked Films: PHILIP MARLOWE, PRIVATE EYE - "The Pencil"

I watched (and recorded) all eleven episodes of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye when it ran on HBO back in 1983. In fact, I'm pretty sure I coughed up the dough for HBO solely for that reason, and cancelled when the series ended.

The show had a dreamlike quality that was unlike any other hardboiled detective film. It was apparently HBO's first attempt at an original dramatic series, and a joint US-UK production. The end credits say it was shot on location in both Los Angeles and London. Be interesting to know how that was accomplished. And why.

This was my first encounter with Powers Boothe, and I thought he made a pretty good Marlowe. So it's been strange seeing him in other roles over the past thirty years, where he's dang near always played a villain. Gotta admit he made a great Curly Bill Brocius in Tombstone. And he's still being creepy on Nashville.

This first episode, "The Pencil," was based on the one and only Marlowe short story. Near as I can tell, it first saw print in 1959, serialized in the London Daily Mail as "Marlowe Takes On the Syndicate," and made its US debut as "Wrong Pigeon" in the February 1960 Manhunt. After showing up in the January 1962 EQMM as "Philip Marlowe's Last Case," it finally acquired the title "The Pencil" in the September 1965 Argosy. The other ten episodes were based on Black Mask and Dime Detective novelettes from the '30s, in which the Marlowe-like hero bore several different names.

THE PENCIL part 1


THE PENCIL part 2


THE PENCIL part 3


THE PENCIL part 4