Brasher Doubloon, The (1947)

The Brasher Doubloon (1947), directed by John Brahm.

Theft of a rare gold coin uncovers blackmail and leads to several murders.

This is a lower tier hardboiled genre movie only 71 minutes long. I review it because it is adapted -- sometimes closely but mostly very loosely -- from Raymond Chandler's The High Window and I'm trying to be a Philip Marlowe completist.

George Montgomery is tough enough but also has lighter comic wit than Marlowe as written. He is more of a ladies man than in any of the books, like a cross between Bogart and Gable. They throw in scenes from Hammet's The Maltese Falcon (1941) and assemble everyone for the big reveal like an Agatha Christie novel.

And yet: the camera work is sometimes rather good and the hot LA wind is evocative of the stories. As always, Marlowe's work takes him from the top to the bottom and back again. He's hassled by the police and encounters tough guys, both the wannabes and the real thing.

Fox Cinema Archives DVD-R, available for rent from ClassicFix.

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