POODLE SPRINGS (1998)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
Film versions of Raymond Chandler's novels represent exception to
the rule of good literature being adapted into bad movies. Chandler's
opus served as inspiration for some of Hollywood's classics. This
might be an encouragement to new filmmakers willing to adapt
Chandler's texts, but it also sets standards unlikely to be met. This
problem was encountered by the makers of POODLE SPRINGS, 1998
cable television film directed by Bob Rafelson.
The plot, based on Robert S. Parker's treatment of Chandler's
unfinished manuscript, is set in 1963. Philip Marlowe (played by
James Caan) is aging Los Angeles private detective whose career was
supposed to end with the marriage to Laura Parker (played by Dina
Meyer), successful attorney and daughter of powerful real estate
broker P.J. Parker (played by Phillip Baker Hall). Marlowe
nevertheless tries to reconcile his professional life with new marital
obligation and allows one phone call to bring him to the murder
scene. Marlowe, himself a suspect, starts investigation in order to
clear his name. In the meantime, wife tries to brings him to Poodle
Springs, booming new town on Nevada border. There his services are
hired by powerful men and investigation leads to Laura's best friend
Muffy Blackstone (played by Julia Campbell).
Bob Rafelson, faced with budgetary constraints of cable television,
succeeds in updating Chandler's world of 1940s Los Angeles to early
1960s. Michael Small's music soundtrack is right for this sort of film
and contributes to the atmosphere. Tom Stoppard's script is also
good, although political corruption subplot looks like an
afterthought. The main problem of the film is James Caan who,
although convincing as world-weary private detective, simply can't
walk in Humphrey Bogart's and Robert Mitchum's shoes. Another
problem is in Dina Meyer, actress who plays her role quite
convincingly but that doesn't compensate for her lack of chemistry
with Caan. On the other hand, those who don't expect this film to be
in the same league with classic Chandler's adaptations won't be
disappointed with POODLE SPRINGS.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
Review written on September 28th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
========== X-RAMR-ID: 38710 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1323659 X-RT-TitleID: 10004533 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 5/10
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews