Looking for the Connections

Reconsidering Altman's "The Long Goodbye" I think Altman's rendition of The Long Goodbye gets a bad rap. Fans of Raymond Chandler's poetic novels and Bogart's iconic portrayal find Elliot Gould as a smart-ass, sleepy "Rip Van Marlowe" too much of a change in character. Gould's Philip Marlowe is a man who fell asleep in the … Continue reading Looking for the Connections

February Smith

Created by Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) "I am a private dick...That means, according to all the storieds I've read, that I'm tough, resilient and bullet proof. Also infallibly brilliant. So don't worry..." -- (people should worry) FEBRUARY SMITH is the hero of "The Death Dealer," a 1943 novella by Leigh Brackett, written a year before her … Continue reading February Smith

No Good from a Corpse

An excerpt from the 1944 novel by Leight Brackett Featuring Ed Clive September 1999 EDITOR'S NOTE: In September 1999, we were really pleased to present this excerpt from Leigh Brackett's classic 1944 novel, featuring private eye Ed Clive, which was republished that year by Dennis McMillan. The bullet hit the rotten step and kept going. The gun … Continue reading No Good from a Corpse

Ed Clive

Created by Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) She was wearing a white raincoat with the hood thrown back. There were raindrops caught in her soft black hair, but the drops in her thick lashes never came out of a Los Angeles sky. Her arms went around him, tight. He kissed her. "Hello, tramp." EDMOND CLIVE's your classic, … Continue reading Ed Clive

Leigh Brackett

(1915-1978) "Hawks liked my dialogue and called my agent.  He was somewhat shaken when he discovered that it was Miss and not Mister Brackett, but he rallied bravely and signed me on anyway..." -- Leigh Brackett "In walked a rather attractive girl who looked like she had just come in from a tennis match.  She … Continue reading Leigh Brackett

Don Corey, Jed Sills, Chris Devlin & Dr. Carl Hyatt (Checkmate)

Created by Eric Ambler In Checkmate, a fondly-remembered television show from the early sixties, DON COREY and JED SILLS run a very fancy, very expensive, high-tech San Francisco detective agency whose aim is "to thwart crime and checkmate death (by) stopping the slide downhill to tragedy." It was a lofty and intriguing concept, arguably ahead … Continue reading Don Corey, Jed Sills, Chris Devlin & Dr. Carl Hyatt (Checkmate)