****SPOILERS**** George Montgomery playing a far more handsome but less rugged looking, then Humnprey Bogart or William Powell, private eye Philip Marlowe gets himself involved with a rare missing gold Basher Doulloon coin that has something to do with the accidental death, by falling out of a 10th floor window,of Mr. Murdock some five years ago. This happened when Murdock was watching the Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade and slipped fell or was pushed to his death while supposedly getting himself good and drunk. It's Murdock's wife Liz, Florence Bates, who hires Marlowe to find the coin that she claims she knows who stole it from her but doesn't want to get the police involved. It was her spoiled rotten good for nothing son Leslie, Conrad Janis, who's behind his mother's back has been playing the horses in Hollywood and Santa Anita Parks and running up a $5,000.00 tab who took the coin in order to pay off his bookies whom he's been holding out on.
Marlowe for his part seems at first very uninterested in taking on the case due to Mrs. Murdock nasty way of talking to him but it's Mrs. Murdock's pretty but scared of men private and in-house secretary Merle Davis, Nancy Guild,who by taking a shine to him that makes Marlowe suddenly change his mind. Taking on the case leads to three murders of persons who are connected with the rare coin as well as Marlowe himself getting kidnapped and worked over by the mob lead by Vince Blair, Marvin Miller, before finally realizing that it's not the elusive Basher Boubloon coin that's causing all this mayhem. But it's the film, shot at the fatal-from Mr. Murdock-Tournament of Roses parade by escapee from Nazi Germany, by photographer Rudolph Vannier, Fritz Kortner, that everyone including Mrs. Murdock is really after!
***SPOILERS***Not that bad of a movie despite the terribly miscast but strikingly handsome George Montgomery in the lead role as PI Philip Marlowe who never , unlike a Bogart or Powell, gets as much as his hat or suite messed up or crumpled in all the actions and beatings he suffers throughout the film. In the end Marlowe solves the case by finding the missing film and playing it in the police station to not only expose Mr. Murdock's killer but what lead up to the three other murders because of it. This has Mr. Murdock's as well as later Vannier's killer totally crack up and end up a crazed and soon to be committed homicidal lunatic as he or she was lead away-screaming biting and kicking-in handcuffs to the total shock of everyone on hand.
Marlowe for his part seems at first very uninterested in taking on the case due to Mrs. Murdock nasty way of talking to him but it's Mrs. Murdock's pretty but scared of men private and in-house secretary Merle Davis, Nancy Guild,who by taking a shine to him that makes Marlowe suddenly change his mind. Taking on the case leads to three murders of persons who are connected with the rare coin as well as Marlowe himself getting kidnapped and worked over by the mob lead by Vince Blair, Marvin Miller, before finally realizing that it's not the elusive Basher Boubloon coin that's causing all this mayhem. But it's the film, shot at the fatal-from Mr. Murdock-Tournament of Roses parade by escapee from Nazi Germany, by photographer Rudolph Vannier, Fritz Kortner, that everyone including Mrs. Murdock is really after!
***SPOILERS***Not that bad of a movie despite the terribly miscast but strikingly handsome George Montgomery in the lead role as PI Philip Marlowe who never , unlike a Bogart or Powell, gets as much as his hat or suite messed up or crumpled in all the actions and beatings he suffers throughout the film. In the end Marlowe solves the case by finding the missing film and playing it in the police station to not only expose Mr. Murdock's killer but what lead up to the three other murders because of it. This has Mr. Murdock's as well as later Vannier's killer totally crack up and end up a crazed and soon to be committed homicidal lunatic as he or she was lead away-screaming biting and kicking-in handcuffs to the total shock of everyone on hand.