Marlowe (The Little Sister) (1968)
From
Adam H. Kerman@3:633/280.2 to
All on Fri Jun 6 17:35:48 2025
Those of us who are fans of hard-boiled detective fiction in the movies
would hire Philip Marlowe to find this movie's missing scenes so the
movie could be re-edited into something with a coherent plot.
I got the bright idea to track down home video of this movie. The DVD
release has the unsatisfactory theatrical edit of the movie, a trailer,
and nothing else.
The theatrical release was edited with a chainsaw. You don't get the
necessary film noir opening of the detective getting hired. It opens with
the photographer taking the photographs used to blackmail the actress, then
it cuts to Marlowe (James Garner) looking for the photographer Orrin. Only later, after a murder by icepick, do we get a scene with an unhappy Orfamay (Sharon Farrell) to learn that she hired Marlowe to find her brother Orrin.
Essentially, there are three separate plots, the little sister blackmailing
her successful actress big sister Mavis (Gayle Hunnicutt) over her
relationship with gangster Sonny Steelgrave (H.M. Wynant) because she
plays America's sweetheart in a top-rated sitcom, Dolores's (Rita Moreno) jealousy that her good friend Mavis abuses their friendship and takes men
away from her (including Steelgrave), and whatever the hell Lagardie is
up to, mostly off screen.
To the extent we get any plot at all, it's Marlowe monologing backstory
about Steelgrave and Lagardie that he couldn't possibly know. Steelgrave
was a New York gangster who relocated to Los Angeles, whose henchmen had
been taught an assasination technique with icepicks by an intern doctor
whom Marlowe figured out was Lagardie.
The Lagardie stuff is especially frustrating. There's simply no reason
given for Orrin's association with Lagardie nor why Lagardie would have
taught Orrin the icepick technique. When Marlowe comes to see Lagardie, Lagardie drugs him, saying he needs more time. Why? What is he up to? We
never find out.
I like the performances a lot, except for Gayle Hunnicutt, who really
doesn't get much to do (despite second billing) till the scene after Steelgrave's murder and then at Marlowe's apartment, to confront her
little sister. Otherwise, Rita Moreno steals all her scenes and has
great chemistry with Garner. Her striptease/fandance at the end is
erotic as hell. Sharon Farrell as the vile sister who hasn't matured
beyond age 8 is quite convincing and she's literally older than
Hunnicutt!
Carroll O'Connor does a slow burn in all his scenes, leading to his
spectacular blowup at Garner, not buying that Marlowe had restaged
Steelgrave's murder to fake a suicide.
Jackie Coogan has a couple of short scenes near the beginning that are memorable, and of course Bruce Lee has two spectacular comic moments
that are the movie's most memorable scenes.
Garner's performance has been crticized for lacking grit, but that's the lightened up Stirling Silliphant screenplay that threw out all of
Raymond Chandler's "outdated" dialogue. Hint: No one read Chandler for
his plots, absurdly convoluted. It's the witty dialogue, descriptions,
and feeling that puts the writer into dangerous old Los Angeles.
But we get modern, sunny Los Angeles and a more comic Philip Marlowe,
hence Garner's performance. The only concession to old Los Angeles we
get is Marlowe's office in the Bradbury Building.
U like the movie's jazzy score. However, this time it bothered me that
the title song, supposed to be Orfamay's theme, is given to Dolores as
the music she strips too. Dolores should have had her own theme. It's
also used by the dancers in another television production.
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