Firstly, I can't see many of those things as being true, second I don't think someone borrowing a dead author's character should take such liberties. Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "But for all the authentic genre tropes on display, Marlowe never comes to life on its own, lacking the verve or wit to make it feel anything other than a great pop song played by a mediocre cover band".

The Black-Eyed Blonde - Macmillan The Black-Eyed Blonde - Macmillan

In this new book in the Phillip Marlowe series, a stunning, married, blonde - Clare Cavendish - asks Marlowe to look into the disappearance of her lover, Nico Peterson. As a general rule, I avoid reading books in which a new author takes over an established character from another author who has died or retired.

There are still plenty of one liners and amazingly descriptive phrases, very much like Chandler’s style, but thankfully, the story is not plastered with them. It's part of the story of my life, sitting in cars late at night with stale cigarette smoke in my nostrils and the night birds crying. William Monahan wrote the screenplay, adapting it from the 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville.

Show37 Perry Mason TV Series Wiki | EpisodePages / Show37

Since nothing in this book felt like a Philip Marlowe novel, I tried to read The Black-Eyed Blonde in the same way I would read any other pulp.That smile: it was like something she had set a match to a long time ago and then left to smolder on by itself. Marlowe, kaip visada, kreipiasi „damsel in distress“ – gražuolė blondinė juodomis, kaip anglis akimis (oi, ką tik suspoilinau jums romano pavadinimą? Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 41 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE | Kirkus Reviews THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE | Kirkus Reviews

John Banville's convincing imitation of Raymond Chandler's literary detective brings to mind an older Humphrey Bogart . After several viewings, I still don't completely understand the plot of "The Big Sleep" and yet I love it. When Marlowe shakes hands with someone, “It was like being given a sleek, cool-skinned animal to hold for a moment or two. Of course Marlowe carries on and solves the case and learns once again that a beautiful woman can harbor a lot of secrets.I decided not to share this happy coincidence with her, imagining the jaded smile and the twitch of disdain at the corner of her mouth that would greet it. The telephone on my desk had the air of something that knows it's being watched," Marlowe tells us, as a blonde enters his heat-hazed office, regards him from a pair of black eyes – "black and deep as a mountain lake" – and regales him with a tale of a disappearing lover. The Black-Eyed Blonde was better than Perchance to Dream but the bar was set so low that I think Benjamin Black must have tripped over it. The first person narration gives us a sharp and amusing turn of phrase, there’s a varied cast of sneaks and heavies ready to threaten our hero, and a truly convoluted mystery for him to solve.

The Black-Eyed Blonde’, by Benjamin Black | Financial Times ‘The Black-Eyed Blonde’, by Benjamin Black | Financial Times

Black ticks all the boxes - a man with a gun in his hand comes through the door more than once - and the set-pieces, which include an interview with a starlet on a back-lot and a visit to a creepy, swanky country club staffed by oddballs, are magnificent . Veteran narrator Boutsikaris turns in a mixed performance in this audio edition of Black’s resurrection of Raymond Chandler’s intrepid Bay City PI Philip Marlowe. Do not forget to read: Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration it has some excellent stories with Marlowe. For some reason this brought a mild flush to her cheeks, and she looked down, then quickly up again. Now let’s look at the protagonist; clearly not Philip Marlowe but someone trying to impersonate this great detective.

Maybe it was time I forgot about Nico Peterson, and his sister, and the Cahuilla Club, and Clare Cavendish. Marlowe had its world premiere on 24 September 2022, as the closing film of the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival.