Trouble Was His Business -- Raymond Chandler

Filming at the Bradbury Building, which is filled with garment workers! "...The dialogue, as clever as it was then, had become totally dated. I couldn't use 90% of it." -- Stirling Silliphant, screenwriter

Kevin Thomas writes a feature about filming Chandler's novel "The Little Sister" while it was in production in 1968. A special surprise for me: Sugar Giese, the dance captain at the Florentine Gardens in the 1940s, turns up as an extra. Although "The Little Sister" was only 19 years old, Los Angeles had changed so much that it was impossible to make a period film, Thomas said. The movie, with an updated setting, was eventually released with the title "Marlowe."

Comments

[Arye Michael Bender]

While Stirling Silliphant was a superb writer, he missed the tone of Chandler by setting the story in contemporary times. 'Marlowe' was an unremarkable effort. Vintage L.A., with its architecture, smell of decay, and slang cadences, is as much a character in his works as Philip Marlowe himself.

BTW: A mutual friend of Silliphant, Muriel Seligman, used to affectionately call him 'Silly Elephant'.

[Greg]

Nice photo of the Alvarado Hotel (mentioned on page 1 at bottom of column 1) can be seen here:

http://digarc.usc.edu/assetserver/controller/view/search/CHS-2428