The Brasher Doubloon [The High Window] **** (1947, George Montgomery, Nancy Guild, Conrad Janis, Florence Bates) – Classic Movie Review 2496

Director John Brahm’s 1947 film noir detective thriller The Brasher Doubloon is smart and intriguing, though, even so, it is probably the least good (apart from Michael Winner’s The Big Sleep) and least well-known (apart from 1942’s Time to Kill) of all the Philip Marlowe movies.

The film’s title refers to the rare coin the tough, cynical, wisecracking gumshoe Marlowe (George Montgomery) is after, though Raymond Chandler’s famous hard-boiled source novel (his third Marlowe book) was called The High Window, the movie’s title in Britain.

Florence Bates plays the Pasadena rich old widow lady Mrs Elizabeth Murdock, who hires Marlowe to find the rare doubloon after it has been stolen from her safe. Mrs Murdock suspects her son’s estranged, former singer wife Linda Conquest of stealing it.

Conrad Janis plays her son, Leslie Murdock, who steals the coin from his mother to give to a newsreel photographer in exchange for film being used for blackmail. That leaves Nancy Guild as the femme fatale, Merle Davis, the attractive, deranged secretary to Mrs Murdock.

The film commands the attention because of the splendid, authentic, seedy film noir mood and atmosphere, the uniquely crazy characters, and the gripping private eye material, with Chandler’s story practically guaranteeing a must-see movie. The famous plot for those who have never read the book centres on a man being pushed out of the high window of the novel’s title by a woman, while it was being caught on film.

But, though solid, Montgomery isn’t in the class of those peerless other Marlowes Humphrey Bogart (in the 1946 The Big Sleep) or Dick Powell as ‘a shop-soiled Sir Galahad’ (in the 1944 Farewell, My Lovely), director Brahm fumbles the pacing, and the 20th Century Fox studio didn’t splash out on the big production on what at 72 minutes is a B-movie or at best a co-feature.

However, there is plenty of brooding noir spirit in Brahm’s gothic-style direction and in the expressionistic visuals of cinematographer Lloyd Ahern. Dorothy Bennett (screenplay) and Leonard Praskins (adaptation) simplify the novel, understandably for a shortish movie, but keep the crackling wit of the original.

[Spoiler alert] Bates is outstanding in her chilly performance and Fritz Kortner is an excellent, oily villain as Rudolph Vannier.

The main cast are George Montgomery as Philip Marlowe, Nancy Guild as Merle Davis, Conrad Janis as Leslie Murdock, Roy Roberts as Police Lt. Breeze, Fritz Kortner as Rudolph Vannier, Florence Bates as Mrs Elizabeth Murdock, Marvin Miller as Vince Blair, Reed Hadley as Dr Moss, Houseley Stevenson, Ed Gargan, Bob Adler, Jack Conrad, Alfred Linder, Jack Overman, Jack Stoney, Ray Spiker, Paul Maxey, Joe Palma and Al Eben.

Chandler’s novel had already been filmed as 1942’s Time to Kill, with a script reworked as a Michael Shayne mystery, another virtually unknown Marlowe film, starring Lloyd Nolan. To date in 2015 there are no further film adaptations.

All of Chandler’s seven novels except Playback have been made into movies, some several times.

The High Window was published in 1942 and 20th Century-Fox bought the film rights that May 1942 and used it as the basis of Time to Kill. After Murder My Sweet (1944) and the Chandler-written Double Indemnity (1944) were hits, Chandler became popular in Hollywood: Warner Bros filmed The Big Sleep, MGM made The Lady in the Lake (1946), and Paramount shot a Chandler original, The Blue Dahlia (1946). So Fox decided to remake The High Window again, this time more faithfully.

George Montgomery is appearing in the final film of his 20th Century Fox contract.

Fred MacMurray, Victor Mature, and Dana Andrews were all previously announced by Fox as having been cast as Philip Marlowe.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2496

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

George Montgomery appears in the final film of his 20th Century Fox contract.