Amazon.com
For this set, you'd better peel off your trench coat, pour yourself a stiff drink, and get ready for a slick look at the dirty secrets of Deco Era Hollywood with the private dick who knows them all. HBO's Philip Marlowe, Private Eye takes Raymond Chandler's grittiest short stories and transforms them into stylish, atmospheric production pieces. In these six hour-long tales, you're taken on a tough tour through the decaying glamour of Los Angeles, from the mansions and movie studios to the jazz joints and one-night cheap hotels. Every character has a story to tell, and every one of them has a secret to keep. Powers Boothe does a wonderful job bringing the hardest of hard-boiled detectives to life in these colorful cases of corruption and revenge. In early episodes, the supporting players are occasionally overwhelmed by Boothe's talent, but overall, the acting is tight--and Chandler's dialogue is still razor sharp decades after it was written. The stories will keep you guessing until the end...which is exactly what you'd expect from a master of mystery. But the real triumph of the series is in bringing the grim noir morality tales to life, painstakingly re-creating the sweaty streets and penthouse suites of a great city gone to seed. When all the elements come together, you can almost taste the cigarettes, feel the sweat, and smell the aroma of cordite and dime-store perfume. --Grant Balfour
Description
Take on a pair of mysterious cases as Raymond Chandler's legendary favorite hard-boiled detective returns in Philip Marlowe: Private Eye. Emmy Award-winner Powers Boothe (THE STORY OF JIM JONES, NIXON) is perfectly cast as the tough, seen-it-all private investigator made famous in THE BIG SLEEP and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY. Chandler's best short stories come to life as Marlowe combs L.A.'s seedy sidestreets, smoke-filled barrooms and elegant Hollywood mansions solving mysteries in a town filled with crooked cops, cons, high rollers and low-lifes.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable Series with Excellent Marlowe.......2007-01-02
Indeed Powers Boothe is perhaps the best Marlowe and he alone makes the series totally worthwhile. All of the shows are enjoyable but the supporting acting is very uneven. The first 4 shows of the series also show a very limited budget and the video transfers are not the best. However, if you can put these issues aside you are in for a treat as Philip Marlowe comes alive on the screen.
Good series, lousy transfer.......2006-11-28
HBO's Philip Marlowe series is an accurate and enjoyable adaptation of Raymond Chandler's short stories. Some people consider it the most accurate screen adaptation of Marlowe available.
That said, the digital transfer on this edition is mediocre at best, and this should be considered "For hardcore fans only".
hard-boiled fan.......2006-11-09
Overall quality was good. First three were the best and went a little downhill thereafter. If you are a fan of Raymond Chandler, Dashell Hammett, or Erle Stanley Gardner's early work, you will love these 1930's rough and tumble, always a last minute surprise detective stories.
Original Tough Guy.......2006-06-11
Raymond Chandler practically invented the detective noire genre with his Phillip Marlowe novels and stories. The trench coat. The fedora. The monotone first-person narration and the cynical outlook on life. They all started with Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe.
So it's only appropriate that several actors have brought Phillip Marlowe to life over the years, most notably James Garner and Humphrey Bogart.
It's hard not to keep Humphrey Bogart's portrayal in mind when watching a Phillip Marlowe mystery, and most actors understandably pale by comparison. That said, Powers Boothe still does a worthy job. He perfectly portrays Phillip Marlowe as a cynical private investigator with a tough exterior but a heart of gold.
The episodes of "Phillip Marlowe: Private Eye" are filled with clever twist and turns, exciting gun fights, and plenty of tough-talking wise guys. If nothing else, it will inspire you to seek out the writings of Raymond Chandler.
Best Marlowe EVER.......2005-12-21
I was watching my old tapes of this series last night. I taped it off HBO, and loved it. The tapes are worn and stretched, so I thought I'd check to see if the series was available on DVD. God bless Goldhl!!
Powers Boothe is, without a doubt, the best Marlowe ever. Bogart was good, but he's more of a Sam Spade than a Philip Marlowe. Powers Boothe managed to take an icon, and not exactly breathe new life into it, but breathe Chandler's vision of Marlowe into it. I had a difficult time at first with Kathryn Leigh Scott, since I kept seeing her as Maggie Evans in Dark Shadows. But once I got past that, she was actually quite good. The sets and costumes are certainly authentic, the cars are fabulous, and the music, with it's wonderful jazz bass line, sets the tone magnificently.
I just wish they had the funds to do all of Chandler's short stories.
Very very very highly recommended. I only gave this five stars because Amazon doesn't give the option to give six.
Amazon.com
For this set, you'd better peel off your trench coat, pour yourself a stiff drink, and get ready for a slick look at the dirty secrets of Deco Era Hollywood with the private dick who knows them all. HBO's Philip Marlowe, Private Eye takes Raymond Chandler's grittiest short stories and transforms them into stylish, atmospheric production pieces. In these six hour-long tales, you're taken on a tough tour through the decaying glamour of Los Angeles, from the mansions and movie studios to the jazz joints and one-night cheap hotels. Every character has a story to tell, and every one of them has a secret to keep. Powers Boothe does a wonderful job bringing the hardest of hard-boiled detectives to life in these colorful cases of corruption and revenge. In early episodes, the supporting players are occasionally overwhelmed by Boothe's talent, but overall, the acting is tight--and Chandler's dialogue is still razor sharp decades after it was written. The stories will keep you guessing until the end...which is exactly what you'd expect from a master of mystery. But the real triumph of the series is in bringing the grim noir morality tales to life, painstakingly re-creating the sweaty streets and penthouse suites of a great city gone to seed. When all the elements come together, you can almost taste the cigarettes, feel the sweat, and smell the aroma of cordite and dime-store perfume. --Grant Balfour
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable Series with Excellent Marlowe.......2007-01-02
Indeed Powers Boothe is perhaps the best Marlowe and he alone makes the series totally worthwhile. All of the shows are enjoyable but the supporting acting is very uneven. The first 4 shows of the series also show a very limited budget and the video transfers are not the best. However, if you can put these issues aside you are in for a treat as Philip Marlowe comes alive on the screen.
Good series, lousy transfer.......2006-11-28
HBO's Philip Marlowe series is an accurate and enjoyable adaptation of Raymond Chandler's short stories. Some people consider it the most accurate screen adaptation of Marlowe available.
That said, the digital transfer on this edition is mediocre at best, and this should be considered "For hardcore fans only".
hard-boiled fan.......2006-11-09
Overall quality was good. First three were the best and went a little downhill thereafter. If you are a fan of Raymond Chandler, Dashell Hammett, or Erle Stanley Gardner's early work, you will love these 1930's rough and tumble, always a last minute surprise detective stories.
Original Tough Guy.......2006-06-11
Raymond Chandler practically invented the detective noire genre with his Phillip Marlowe novels and stories. The trench coat. The fedora. The monotone first-person narration and the cynical outlook on life. They all started with Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe.
So it's only appropriate that several actors have brought Phillip Marlowe to life over the years, most notably James Garner and Humphrey Bogart.
It's hard not to keep Humphrey Bogart's portrayal in mind when watching a Phillip Marlowe mystery, and most actors understandably pale by comparison. That said, Powers Boothe still does a worthy job. He perfectly portrays Phillip Marlowe as a cynical private investigator with a tough exterior but a heart of gold.
The episodes of "Phillip Marlowe: Private Eye" are filled with clever twist and turns, exciting gun fights, and plenty of tough-talking wise guys. If nothing else, it will inspire you to seek out the writings of Raymond Chandler.
Best Marlowe EVER.......2005-12-21
I was watching my old tapes of this series last night. I taped it off HBO, and loved it. The tapes are worn and stretched, so I thought I'd check to see if the series was available on DVD. God bless Goldhl!!
Powers Boothe is, without a doubt, the best Marlowe ever. Bogart was good, but he's more of a Sam Spade than a Philip Marlowe. Powers Boothe managed to take an icon, and not exactly breathe new life into it, but breathe Chandler's vision of Marlowe into it. I had a difficult time at first with Kathryn Leigh Scott, since I kept seeing her as Maggie Evans in Dark Shadows. But once I got past that, she was actually quite good. The sets and costumes are certainly authentic, the cars are fabulous, and the music, with it's wonderful jazz bass line, sets the tone magnificently.
I just wish they had the funds to do all of Chandler's short stories.
Very very very highly recommended. I only gave this five stars because Amazon doesn't give the option to give six.
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DVD
DVD
General
| Action & Adventure
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Mike Hammer, Private Eye - The Complete Series
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer - Double Feature (More Than Murder / Murder Me, Murder You)
Philip Marlowe's Guide to Life
Hammett
The Big Sleep
