Wicked Lady

You know, it this film always cops a caning compared to the 1946 version, but it isn't that bad.

Personally, I don't think Michael Winner is that great a director, but it's hard to do wrong with that might cast.

I'ver never seen Toddy and Johnny Mills in a film together before (not that I can recall off the top of my head, anyway). The last time I went that girly over two actors in a scene together was when I saw Gary Oldman and Robert Carlyle together in Dead Fish.

batman

The Big Sleep is entertaining but it is not a good film. Mitchum looks as though he wishes he were somewhere else and the music is awful. It's main problem is that it pales beside the marvellous original. The remake of Farewell My Lovely is much better.

Don't miss out on a chance to win a rare film in Bat-Quiz 13 closing date - 31/8/8.

Wicked Lady

I couldn't agree more. add to that Sarah Miles hair!

Not great by any token. But, to be fair, I wasn't bored either.

scholes

Having seen both versions of the Chandler novel, the idea of Winner setting the tale in England was appealing, but I agree with you both ,it captures nothing of the spirit of the original. It seems Bogart was cut out for the role of Philip Marlowe.
I've just ordered the 1946 original from Movie Series, Serials & TV Series Down Under with several other noirs of a similar period including Dark City which I've at last managed to track down.

Lord Brett

It can best be described, in my view, by the phrase 'not bad considering it's a Michael Winner film'.

That's what they call praising by faint damns.

Windthrop

Mitchum did the film to get a wardrobe of Saville Row suits. Philip Marlowe would never have been so dapper. That said it isn't bad crime thriller and Mitchum's world weary voice-overs are superb. As mentioned earlier Dick Richard's film is closer to authentic Chandler. Winner's film is like a throwback to the 50s with an incongruous American star added to a British thriller. Looked at like that and forgetting Chandler it is almost like a homage to that 50s sub-genre the Britsh noir.

Chandler himself like Dick Powell best as Marlowe.

That's the joke that killed the Music Hall

Linwood Sasser

As Yank, familiar with both films, I prefer the Michael Winner travesty. The film succeeds in making sense of a convoluted story (something even the original couldn't do) and it updates and transposes the character of Marlowe, to an British setting, well. Yes Mitchum looks tired, but that's his take on the character. His Marlowe has been knocking around the Isles since the war. I like the film so much that when I traveled to England last year, I shelled out many of my devalued dollars to purchase a copy of same (the DVD is long out of print here in the states).

Third Man

I'd agree with that - Powell was excellent in Murder my Sweet, his charactersation of Marlowe was spot-on - laconic, cynical, pessimistic and he could deliver a wise crack with the precision of a speeding dum-dum bullet.

Simon

batman

I quite liked James Caan in Poodle Springs.

Don't miss out on a chance to win a rare film in Bat-Quiz 13 closing date - 31/8/8.

Wicked Lady

After a second viewing of The Big Sleep, I can only conclude that someone in wardrobe really hated Sarah Miles.

Besides the Beppo the Clown hair, the poor woman is afflicted with a selection of outfits that make her look..er...shall we say....very special.

She's supposed to be the daughter of wealth, not carnie folk.

And could no one offer the poor girl a lippy?