Marlowe made his television debut, played by Dick Powell, in an adaptation of The Long Goodbye, on the anthonology series Climax in the 1950's. By most accounts, it was a very good production, and was even featured on that week's TV Guide cover, with a close-up of Powell as Marlowe in a clench with co-star Teresa Wright. But that's about all I know about this one.
There's not a whole lot of available information, either, on the first video series featuring of Chandler's sleuth, PHILIP MARLOWE, which ran for 26 episodes from 1959-60 on ABC, and no memorable stories about it to make it stand out. Philip Carey, a big, tough and usually watchable actor, would seem to have been a decent choice to play Marlowe in 1959. Carey's Marlowe differed from the books in at least two (and probably more) ways in that he sported a scar on one cheek and apparently had a marina apartment and his own boat. The latter two changes prompted Time Magazine, in an article on the glut of TV detectives at the time, to question if Carey's Marlowe might be on the take from some "wrongos ". The series came out of the Goodson-Todman shop. These were the game show producers but they also made occasional forays into dramatic television (The Rebel, Branded). The line producer and frequent scripter was Gene Wang, a radio/television veteran who was also the first story editor on the Perry Mason television series. Frank MacShane's biography of Chandler indicates that E. Jack Neuman, a top-drawer radio-television writer who later developed such long-running series as Dr. Kildare and Joseph Wambaugh's Police Story, may have written for the series. Other writers included Charles Beaumont, best known for his work onThe Twilight Zone, and James E. Moser, creator of Ben Casey and Medic. Obviously, some good talent behind the camera, but the show didn't distinguish itself and only twenty-six episodes were aired. With so few episodes, it may not have even been syndicated. To my knowledge, episodes haven't popped up on the video trading markets and it's a question of whether the prints even still exist. Which is too bad. Even if the show were indifferent, it would be interesting to see what it looked like and, given the time, what the score sounded like. (Contributed by Ted Fitzgerald)
Far superior to the 1959 series was a short (five episodes) series produced in England (and a second series, evidently a Canadian production, responsible for another six episodes), tailored for the American cable television market, starring Powers Boothe as Marlowe. A real plus was that the shows were all adapted from Chandler short stories, even if they weren't all originally Marlowe stories. A lot of people really liked this, but I thought it was all a bit overdone. Too much attention paid to detail, with not enough emphasis on how it all ties together makes it look like an overly-bright, sterile period piece. Los Angeles in the dirty thirties and forties comes off as a quaint little set with all the personality of an operating room. And the voice-over narration came off as overcooked Magnum. For me, Marlowe should carry a bit of world-weary introspection in his voice. And in this series, Marlowe had a girlfriend of sorts, in Annie Riordan, tucked away in, where else, Bay City. The shows ran on HBO and the CBC in north America.
1. Staffel
1- 1. The Ugly Duckling
1- 2. Prescription for Murder
1- 3. Buddy Boy
1- 4. Death in the Family
1- 5. Mama's Boy
1- 6. Child of Virtue
1- 7. Bum Rap
1- 8. Temple of Love
1- 9. The Mogul
1-10. Hit and Run
1-11. Mother Dear
1-12. The Hunger
1-13. Ricochet
1-14. The Scarlet "A"
1-15. Standard for Murder
1-16. Poor Lilli, Sweet Lilli
1-17. Death Takes a Lover
1-18. One Ring for Murder
1-19. Gem of a Murder
1-20. Time to Kill
1-21. Murder in the Stars
1-22. Murder by the Book
1-23. Murder is a Grave Affair
1-24. Murder is Dead Wrong
1-25. Last Call for Murder
1-26. You Kill Me
#Ungültiger YouTube Link#
