Lehman, David. “Hammett and Chandler.” In The Perfect Murder: A Study in Detection. New York: Free Press, 1989. Chandler is represented in this comprehensive study of detective fiction as one of the authors who brought out the parable at the heart of mystery fiction. A useful volume in its breadth and its unusual appendices: one a list of further reading, the other, an annotated list of the critic’s favorite mysteries. Includes two indexes, one of concepts and one of names and titles. Definitely my favorite Chandler, beating out The Big Sleep by a star and more than a dozen memorable lines. This book is absolutely soaking in quotables and may have the best prose of any noir I’ve ever read. Add in a classic main character and a solid plot and you have a nice shiny bundle of win. The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in. When embarking on a night’s work he makes the observation, “I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance. I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun.”

Fresh off The Big Sleep detective Philip Marlowe is at it again in this sequel to that highly popular and well-written mystery. Farewell, My Lovely is an admirable followup, but it would be tough to meet or top one of the best detective novels of all time.

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If possible the plot/story-line of Farewell, My Lovely is even more convoluted than its predecessor, The Big Sleep. Marlowe meeting new players with each twist and turn of the investigation and getting physically bounced around on a regular basis. (For the politically correct there are a handful of racial slurs here which may make the reader cringe.) But somehow the author ties it all together in the end with maybe a not so neat bow.

Anne Riordan congratulates Marlowe, but he still refuses to kiss her. Three months later, a detective finds Velma/Helen Grayle in Baltimore; she shoots him, and then herself, rather than be taken prisoner. Marlowe relates this story to Lt. Randall at the end of the novel. He ends on a note of regret: “I rode down to the Street floor and went out on the steps of the City Hall. It was a cool day and very clear. You could see a long way—but not as far as Velma had gone.” Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since.”–Paul Auster And another: I don’t think so. I suppose Lizard (that is, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) were the first of the on-again, off-again power couples.

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T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision.”–Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books Hiney, Tom. Raymond Chandler: A Biography. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997. Supplements but does not supersede Frank MacShane’s biography. Hiney makes good use of memoirs, critical studies, and new archival material documenting Chandler’s life and career. Throughout the story, Chandler takes the reader in a multitude of directions and when Marlowe makes any sort of headway, a new element is introduced thus changing the case. It’s often a wonder Marlowe gets anything done when half the time he’s soaking himself in bourbon while seemingly trying to burn bridges with his smarmy attitude and general distaste for anyone he meets. But, you always get the mean streets of Los Angeles no matter how you picture Marlowe. These streets range from the seedy joints lining Central Avenue to the estates in Beverly Hills and Brentwood Heights. The streets lead of course to Chandler's fictional Bay City, loosely based on what was a crooked Santa Monica right down to the gambling boats three legal miles offshore.

Philip Marlowe is looking for a woman's missing husband when he encounters Moose Malloy, a brute fresh out of prison, looking for his lost love Velma. Moose kills a man and Marlowe gets corralled into looking for the missing Velma. In the mean time, Marlowe gets another gig as a bodyguard and soon winds up with a corpse for a client. Will Marlowe find Velma and get to the bottom of things? I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance. I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.” As I've said before, noir fiction and I go together like chronic constipation and heroin addiction. Farewell, My Lovely, Philip Marlowe's sophmore adventure, is one of the better noir tales I've ever read.Gene Siskel gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that "if a remake of Farewell, My Lovely isn't something fresh—and following on the heels of Chinatown doesn't make it any fresher — at least the casting of Mitchum as Marlowe was inspired. Mitchum, the actor who makes nodding off seem glamorous, plays Marlowe with a delicious ease. He sounds just like Marlowe should sound." [12] Marlowe discovers that Lindsay Marriott holds a mortgage on Jessie Florian’s house; this is the indirect connection between Helen Grayle and Moose Malloy. Grayle invites Marlowe to her house. She is a beautiful blond, and Marlowe finds her very attractive. She is married, however, and so, according to Marlowe s chivalrous code of honor, she must remain unattainable as the Holy Grail. It is probably no accident that her name is homophonous with the elusive goal of the medieval knights. She throws herself into Marlowe’s lap, and he succumbs to the temptation and kisses her. Just then, her husband walks in. Marlowe exits, embarrassed. Philip Marlowe is one of the most memorable detectives in literary history. He’s smart, strong, handsome, but most of all witty and clever. And tough when he has to be. He’s also, seen more clearly by today’s standards, not admirable; he’s homophobic, at times seemingly racist, certainly arrogant with some women if not misogynist, with addictions to booze and cigarettes. Which is also to say that for 1940 he is in step with the times in the old US of A. So why is he still seen as one of the Big Three of all time in this genre? It’s the writing, at turns lyrical and then witty. Here’s just some examples: Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist.”— The Boston Book Review

Whereas Spade’s every move seems coordinated and cross-referenced like a well-rehearsed play, Marlowe is all reaction, counterpunch and intuitive hunches. There was loneliness and the smell of kelp and the smell of wild sage from the hills. A yellow window hung here and there, all by itself, like the last orange. Cars passed, spraying the pavement with cold white light, then growled off into the darkness again. Wisps of fog chased the stars down the sky. According to Mitchum, Kastner originally wanted the role of Philip Marlowe to be played by Richard Burton, with whom Kastner had worked a number of times. However, Burton was busy so they approached Mitchum. (Richards says he was only ever interested in doing the film with Mitchum.) [5] The star later recalled: As both investigations unfold, Marlowe's life and personality come into plainer view. He is a tough-talker and more intelligent than most people give him credit for. He has a great many friends on the police force, some of them help grudgingly, others are invaluable to Marlowe. He also enjoys the company of an exciting woman. In Farewell, My Lovely, Marlowe meets two very different women who prove to be equally interesting and attractive to him. Anne Riordan is the Irish girl next door. She is young, fresh, full of ideas and sometimes too impetuous for her own good. Anne has a good heart and a just-pretty-enough face. On the other hand, Mrs. Grayle smolders. Her blond hair and ample figure hold Marlowe's attention a little too well. Mrs. Grayle is a woman with a secret, however, which makes her a liability. At the end of the day, though, Marlowe likes his life the way it is: sparse and edgy with few emotional attachments. Marlowe also likes his liquor, medicinal and otherwise. I didn’t say anything. I lit my pipe again. It makes you look thoughtful when you’re not thinking.”

Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the score by David Shire and the casting of Mitchum as Marlowe both seemed "exactly right", but criticized the voice-over narrative, finding that "the effect undercuts the visual splendors and reveals the plot complications at their most preposterous. Too bad, because it breaks the fine mood Richards & Company establish and makes Farewell, My Lovely an interesting but mixed blessing instead of the unmitigated triumph it almost was." [15]