Ross Macdonald is probably my second favorite
crime author of the classical pulp era (first one - needless really to point out - being
Chandler) and his Lew Archer the second coolest P.I. ever (after you
know of course who being the first one). Apparently Paul Newman liked him a lot
also and was happy to play the part under one condition – name Archer needed to
be substituted with Harper because letter H was his lucky one (after filming The Hustler and Hud).
And he’s okay but I think he’s overdoing
the part just a little bit. Yes, we know he’s supposed to be cynical but sometimes
he’s acting like he’s being in comedy and not in a hard-boiled crime. I don't know, there are
just too many of those facial grimaces. He is not at all bad and doesn’t damage
the movie (like Frank Sinatra for example might) and especially his lines with
witty dialogues and one-liners are delivered perfectly. But credits for that probably
go more to its brilliant literary source.
Anyways, he’s okay but supporting cast is magnificent.
Especially Lauren Bacall, Shelley Winters (once again!!!) and Janet Leigh. Bacall
seems to be having really good time filming this and she plays her bitchy
character to perfection. Real joy to watch, she was so cool!
Movie too is okay but has few faults. With almost
two hours of running time it is for sure too long for mystery flick and story
gets too convoluted. It doesn’t drag on and it never gets boring but both
characters introductions and suspense building simply take too long. Seems like
screenwriters tried too hard to stick to the book as much as
possible when adapting it. Which was probably not needed since it was published
in 1949 so they could afford a bit of tweaking it. I think it would be better
to drop some character (like Harper’s wife and whole thing about divorce) or
sub-plots altogether. Who knows…
Still a great movie and very enjoyable to
see every few years or so, it doesn’t age at all! And last thing totally worth
mentioning is hilarious poster – I simply must give Harper an extra star for
it!
8/10
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