The Brasher Doubloon

Most reviews of this film that I have read described this film as poor. Actually it really isn't. Its just that the other 40's Phillip Marlowe films are better. George Montgomery tries hard as Marlowe, but he is a bit to young looking to be convincing as a hard boiled detective. Ideally,an actor in his thirties or forties should have been cast; old enough to have grown world weary but still young enough to woo the babes. Despite this films faults, its still worth a look and is not the dismal failure some critics have claimed it is.

Decent Raymond Chandler adaptation that suffers by comparison to the more esteemed Chandler films of the 1940s. Leading man George Montgomery comes across as a poor man's James Craig, who himself was a poor man's Clark Gable. This is a poverty-stricken casting choice for one of the all-time great fictional American characters, Philip Marlowe. Montgomery is just wrong for this part. He doesn't look right and more importantly he doesn't sound right. The rest of the cast is so-so with Nancy Guild a standout, alternating between sympathetic and insufferable. It's interesting to see a young Conrad Janis with hair so there's that.

The script and direction are the film's strength. While it's not as quotable as other Chandler works and it borrows liberally from better stories, most notably Chandler's own The Big Sleep and Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, it kept me glued to the screen the whole time. I also enjoyed the bits of atmosphere throughout. The windy scenes are especially well done.

This was made previously as a Michael Shayne picture. I enjoyed that version more, largely due to Lloyd Nolan being a more interesting and likable actor than George Montgomery. Check out both for the sake of comparison. Neither is a bad watch as long as you go into it knowing you're not getting Bogart.

Can't add much to what has already been said, but what this film has over some of the better known Marlowe films is some real Los Angeles location photography, which gives it a special atmosphere; the eerie Pasadena mansion with huge palm trees blowing in the wind, and a rambling old Craftsman house in the Hollywood Hills on a windy afternoon.

Among other films based on Raymond Chandler stories, "The Big Sleep," in particular, all filmed on indoor sets, has no feeling of Los Angeles at all. George Montgomery in "Brasher Doubloon" is a lightweight, but the film is fun and entertaining. Surprising that it is virtually NEVER shown on TV. I only saw it because a pal owns a 35mm print.

Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's trenchant private detective saw many incarnations on the screen big and small. Chandler like S.S. Van Dine the creator of Philo Vance sold his work to several studios and the studio cast whomever. Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep for Warner Brothers and Dick Powell in Murder My Sweet for RKO are the best known interpreters of Marlowe. George Montgomery in The Brasher Doubloon gets a short shrift from most film fans.

I don't think this is necessarily Montgomery's fault. The Brasher Doubloon was based on the Chandler story The High Window and unlike Warner Brothers and RKO this was meant to be a B film and was treated that way. I've never read the book, but I could tell a lot was left out in the treatment.

Montgomery is hired by the imperious Florence Bates to get back a valuable coin, The Brasher Doubloon which was the prize of her late husband's valuable coin collection. Upon arrival to her home, Montgomery is told in no uncertain terms that his services will not be needed by her son Conrad Janis. Janis plays this punk as well as Elisha Cook, Jr. ever did in this type of part.

Of course as he starts investigating bodies keep being strewn in his path and the police are blaming Montgomery for some if not all. The mother and son turn out to be some pieces of work.

The Brasher Doubloon has a good deal of its problems with the character Nancy Guild plays. She's Bates's secretary/companion who has issues and she really ought to be seeing a therapist rather than Philip Marlowe. Her character holds the key to the answers, but the character itself is ill defined in the script.

Maybe had The Brasher Doubloon gotten the A treatment it would be better received. As it is it's not a bad film, but not in the same league as the others mentioned.

Some movies in the 40's starred Humphuy Bogart and some didn't. This one didn't. The Raymond Chandler story is however a very good, tight detective tale with a nice twist to the plot. If only the acting and directing were up to the task. But if you like 1940's detective stories with great location and some half way decent camera work, give "The Brasher Doubloon" a try. Perhaps it won't thrill you, but it won't put you to sleep either.