I decided that since I have no themes and no internet anymore I might as well just review whatever I'm watching. I buy whatever random VHS I find a lot of the time these days, and I picked up about 6 classic films on VHS for like $2 total. Most of these are pretty old black and white dramas or comedies or something, this was probably the only film noir.
Bogie plays Philip Marlowe, the well known detective. I have no knowledge about other Marlowe films at this point in history. I am familiar with Philip Marlowe as a character from the old radio serials I used to listen to though... man, I been wanting/needing to get back into those. Also, it might shock you, dear reader, but I've hardly seen any Humphrey Bogart films. Anyways, Marlowe is hired by an old man to track down someone who's extorting money from him, and Marlowe uncovers a twisted and complicated string of baddies and plots, while both the innocent and the guilty are being pursued by unknown killers.
It's for sure overly complicated, and there's a lot of talk about different characters. You'll hear names constantly in this film, people saying "Joe did this, Eddie Mars did that, Harry Jones, Tom Dick and Larry". A lot of times people are mentioned and you're thinking, "Now who are they talking about here?" Lauren Bacall has a sister and they also look and act very similarly so I was also getting them confused. It is for sure overly complicated in character, and in plot.
As the plot unwinds, it seems the detective knows what's happening and certain characters do, but I'd be hard pressed to say that I knew. I mean, I'm not an idiot and I tracked certain things, but others would just vanish into the wind. This guy killed that guy for that reason and was here at this time, doing that thing, speaking to her about him and seeing him to talk about her and then they drove over here and got a shave and then etc etc etc. In the meantime, people are slamming back booze constantly, it's almost always dusk or evening, and everybody smokes.
It has all the ingredients, and it's a classic, but yeah, not sure. It's not quite my thing. Four stars though.
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