Poodle Springs - 1998 - 6/10

“Philip Marlowe, private investigations. I don’t take divorce cases?”
Marlowe hears the request for help, the address, then gunshots.
He alerts the police, then hits the crime scene first. And is now suspect #1.
The setup, the frame. The patsy, and old enough to know better.
Perhaps too old, perhaps that’s the problem. Marlowe is old.
1963, set in the border between California and Nevada, amidst shady wives, gunsels and greedy developers.
James Caan well cast as Marlowe, fading detective from an earlier era.
Top notch writing. Chandler started this, Robert Parker finished it, Tom Stoppard adapted it.
Convoluted, confusing at times, yet unlike – ooh – Big Sleep, this does tie up fairly logically.
Keep track of the three ladies. Fine Neo-Noir for mystery fans.