Let’s Go to the Movies 
Kevin Burton Smith

Columnist and writer Kevin Burton Smith lives in
Montreal, and is the editor and creator of The
Thrilling Detective Web Site (http://www.thrillingdetective.
com), a site devoted to private eyes and, this
month, P.I. movies. Now, is this synchronicity or what?
©Copyright 2001
Kevin Burton Smith

I don't know about you, but it's been pretty damn hot here in
Montreal this summer. But at least it's a wet heat… So what better
place to hide out than some cool air-conditioned megaplex, and
catch a great P.I. flick?
Well, that's the theory, anyway. In reality, the pickings for decent
cinematic P.I. fare are mighty scarce these days. You might be lucky
enough to find Memento still playing somewhere (it’s gratifying to
see it still chugging along months later, while the big bloated
moronic Pearl Harbor has already closed in some theatres), but
that's about it, unless you happen to have a great retro cinema
nearby.
But fear not. Thanks to videos and DVDs, there are plenty of
classic private eye treats you can enjoy in the comfort of your own
home. Oldies but goodies that have stood the test of time. Sure,
you'll have to make your own popcorn, but the plus side is you can
watch 'em in your underwear, and enjoy a large cold beverage that
didn't cost more than your last car payment.
But what to watch? A few years ago I did a couple of columns
here (issues #8 and 9 - ed.) about some of my own offbeat
personal favourites, but there are a few P.I. standards that are just so
damn good that not seeing them is almost a crime in itself. Any
video store that doesn’t carry all these films should be burned to the
ground.
The Thin Man (1934) There are better P.I. movies, but few are as
fun. The first of the series based on Dashiell Hammett’s last novel,
and also one of the first (but not the last) P.I. films to do boffo box
office. Former gumshoe Nick Charles (William Powell) and his wife
Nora (Myrna Loy) are the drinking, winking couple out to solve a
murder for the sheer hell of it, amid a dizzying array of clues, booze
and banter. Seventy years later, we still haven’t worked this one out
of our system.
The Maltese Falcon (1941) John Huston, Hammett (again), Bogey,
Greenstreet, Lorre, Astor and the perennial weasel-with-a- gun,
Elisha Cook. And a black bird. The stuff P.I. dreams are still made
of.
Murder, My Sweet (1944) Director Edward Dmytryk’s adaptation of
Ray Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely, with the best Marlowe (Dick
Powell) ever, mixing toughness, grace and wit. It’s also one of the
great noirs of all time.
The Big Sleep (1946) Director Howard Hawks and cohorts William
Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman hijacked Chandler’s
bleak, bittersweet novel, turning it into a battle of the sexes
between Bogey and Bacall. But it worked. Who killed the chauffeur?
Who cares?
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Robert Aldrich’s cold war fever dream is so
over the top that the fire-breathing Spillane novel it was loosely
(very loosely) based on pales in comparison. This is the cinematic
equivalent of Spinal Tap’s "11." Mr. Hammer, meet Dr. Strangelove.
Vertigo (1958) It’s easy to fall for Alfred Hitchcock’s swirling,
harrowing, disorienting noir masterpiece, with Jimmy Stewart as an
ex-cop hired to tail a mysterious and possibly disturbed young
woman (Kim Novak). Hang on.
Harper (1966) Paul Newman travels as Ross Macdonald’s Lew
Archer under an alias supplied by screenwriter William Goldman.
The look may be sixties-groovy, but this is one noir trip.
Chinatown (1974) Roman Polanski and Robert Towne turned
what might have been merely a handsomely mounted slice of 1930’s
nostalgia into a searing Watergate-era parable about ego, power and
the ultimate evil. Nicholson, Dunaway and John Huston burn up the
screen, and then everyone goes to Hell.
Farewell, My Lovely (1975) There’s nothing wrong with this classy,
finely-wrought period piece, based on Chandler’s 1940 novel,
starring a battered, beaten, snake-eyed Robert Mitchum as Marlowe,
except that Mitchum should have made it thirty years earlier. But
what a flick!