Philip Marlowe

Philip Marlowe is a fictional private eye created by Raymond Chandler in a series of detective novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared in a short story called Finger Man published in 1934. In this early appearance, however, Chandler had not yet developed the elaborate similes which were to become his trademark, and Marlowe is hard to distinguish from Chandler's other short fiction characters, such as Johnny Dalmas. Furthermore, whereas in the later novels, Marlowe inhabits Los Angeles, Finger Man is set in a fictional city called San Angelo.

Related Topics:
Private eye - Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep - The Long Goodbye

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Marlowe's character is typical of a genre of hardboiled crime fiction that originated with Dashiell Hammett and Black Mask magazine in the 1920s where the private eye is a pessimistic and cynical observer of a corrupt society. Yet the enduring appeal of Marlowe and other hardboiled dick like Hammett's Sam Spade lies in their tarnished idealism.

Related Topics:
Hardboiled - Crime fiction - Dashiell Hammett - Black Mask - 1920s - Sam Spade

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Underneath the wisecracking, hard-drinking, tough private eye, Marlowe is quietly contemplative and philosophical. Marlowe enjoys chess and poetry. While he is not afraid to risk physical harm, he does not dish out violence merely to settle scores. Morally upright, he is not bamboozled by the genre's usual femme fatales, like Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep. As Chandler wrote about his detective ideal in general, "I think he might seduce a duchess, and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin."

Related Topics:
Chess - Poetry - Femme fatale - The Big Sleep

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Marlowe's name probably derives from either the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe or from the narrator of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, who uses a different spelling of the surname. Marlowe has been played on the screen by Humphrey Bogart, George Montgomery, Robert Mitchum, Elliot Gould, Danny Glover and James Caan. On radio, in The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the character was portrayed by Van Heflin on NBC (June 17-September 9, 1947) and by Gerald Mohr on CBS (September 26, 1948-September 15, 1951). Powers Boothe appeared as Marlowe on the HBO television series Philip Marlowe, Private Eye which ran from 1984-1986.

Related Topics:
Christopher Marlowe - Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness - Humphrey Bogart - George Montgomery - Robert Mitchum - Elliot Gould - Danny Glover - James Caan - Van Heflin - 1947 - Gerald Mohr - 1948 - 1951 - Powers Boothe - HBO

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Marlowe has proved such a complex and attractive character that he has appeared in short stories and novels by writers other than Chandler, such as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration (1988). The central character of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective is crime novelist Philip E. Marlow (Michael Gambon).

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