Marlowe [VHS]

As others have said, you can see a lot of Jim Rockford in this... and James Garner, too! Good story and great acting. I just wish it had Closed Captioning. Even with my hearing aids, I have difficulty with whispering and soft voices. Not much of either here, but I did miss some dialog.

What a grand movie from the past in a who done it !!!!

It would be a few years before James went on to play his landmark detective character, Jim Rockford. You can see a lot of what would become Rockford Files in this movie. A PI down on his luck who just can't give up, no matter what the odds against him are. He even says his rate is "$100 a day plus expenses" at one point; in Rockford Files it had went to $200 a day. Carroll O'Connor plays a law enforcement officer who's at the top of his game; it's weird to think that just a few short years later that he would play the lovable bigot, Archie Bunker. Jackie Coogan, Uncle Fester, makes an appearance on here. It's a wonderful movie that I would have given 5 stars if not for the crappy print Amazon is using. This looks like it was sourced from an old VHS tape made in 1984. It is a very soft picture, absolutely no crispness, and it is in 4x3, so it's "pan and scan." If you're looking to get this on DVD or blu-ray, this is fine to preview it, but I wouldn't waste my money to purchase the digital copy.

As many have stated, we all have our Marlowe. My father's was Robert Mitchum. My first long term romance had his flag firmly planted for Elliot Gould. For me, it has to be James Garner. For a detailed film review, read any of the excellent reviews already posted here on Amazon. This concerns the video.I have purchased both the DVD and Amazon Instant Video, at different times, obviously. I watch this so often I tired of going to get the disc. The video presented here, streaming, is clearly from the same source, the Warner Archive remaster. While they did remaster the film for release on disc, they chose not to release it on Blu-ray and, similarly, did not release an HD streaming copy (at least as of August, 2017). The best disc edition, currently, in the world, is the Warner Archive DVD and the video on the Amazon streaming service, SD, is identical, right down to the little pixellations and flaws during various interchanges throughout the film, which are, fortunately, rare. As such, the picture quality is very good, given the age, and the print shows only minor color distortions, occasionally tending a bit toward yellow but, overall, staying true to color. The sound quality is excellent, given the age of the film, but only very good when compared to modern film sound quality.As stated, I am biased as James Garner is my perfect Marlowe so, of course, I love this film. But, who cares. You can read reviews, watch clips and decide for yourself. If you are considering this particular film, be advised that the Warner Archive Collection DVD and the Amazon streaming video are the same digital print and the quality difference will depend only on your television's upscaling capabilities as compared to the upscaling on a blu-ray player and your streaming speed and quality.Good luck finding what you want.

There have been 6 major film adaptations featuring Raymond Chandler's "poor but honest" LA private detective Philip Marlowe. It starts in 1945 with Dick Powell in MURDER, MY SWEET (changed from FAREWELL MY LOVELY) which is closely followed by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's THE BIG SLEEP (shot in 1944 but released in 1946). Flash forward almost a quarter of a century to 1969's MARLOWE with James Garner set in then contemporary LA. Even more contemporary was 1973's THE LONG GOODBYE with Elliot Gould in Robert Altman's extremely unorthodox take on the character and private eye movies in general. Finally, Robert Mitchum starred in two very different versions. One is a remake of FAREWELL MY LOVELY (with the title restored) from 1975 which is a beautifully evocative recreation of the 1940s while 1978's remake of THE BIG SLEEP is transplanted to contemporary London and is better than its reputation.Of the 3 movies that attempt to update Philip Marlowe, the 1969 version with James Garner is the most successful. Unlike the other 2 where the detective seems like a fish out of water, James Garner's effortless take on the character makes it easy to believe that Marlowe could be a contemporary of the "Age of Aquarius". In addition to Garner the film is filled with choice character bits from old pros like Kenneth Tobey and Jackie Coogan as well as memorable moments from up-and-coming performers like Bruce Lee and Carroll O'Connor. There's also a remarkably sexy turn from WEST SIDE STORY star Rita Moreno. The screenplay by Stirling Silliphant captures most of Chandler's iconic dialogue and the direction by TV specialist Paul Bogart (no relation to Humphrey) moves the story along in a straightforward but effective manner. This is another made on demand DVD-R which means no extras but the transfer is fine and in the proper aspect ratio which looks great on a flatscreen TV.

Good flick

Quintessential James Garner

I love James Garner and I love private eye movies, so I decided to take a chance on this. Leonard Maltin does rate it at three stars -- a rating he doesn't hand out easily. It's an entertaining movie and Garner makes the most of his role as usual. I wouldn't put it up there with The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon, but it is fun to watch and has some clever twists as you'd expect from a Philip Marlow story. Not what I'd call a classic, but enjoyable.

This is James garner at his best and feels so fresh and exciting to watch

I loved the film. The quality of the image was a bit, how to put it "without digital restoration" but it gave the picture very nice vintage flavour.

Very enjoyable. Good atmosphere, James Garner is always fun to watch. If you like Chandler you will be pleased with this.

Perfect condition thanks. Good, fun movie. Garner is great at this and his comedy, with more than a grain of toughness approach works very well. I love Chandler but fair imitation can be OK too, I think.

Film noir with the gorgeous James Garner. Glorious escapism.