Raymond Chandler, on writing:

The challenge is to write about real things magically.

- Raymond Chandler.

On this day in movie history - The Big Sleep (1978 movie & novel):

The Big Sleep

directed and written by Michael Winner,

based on the novel by Raymond Chandler,

was released in the United States on March 13, 1978.
Narrated by Robert Mitchum.
Music by Jerry Fielding.

Cast:

Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Richard Boone, Candy Clark, Joan Collins, Edward Fox, John Mills, James Stewart, Oliver Reed, Harry Andrews, Colin Blakely, Richard Todd, Diana Quick, James Donald, John Justin, Simon Fisher Turner, Martin Potter.

Recommended reading:

The Big Sleep

By Raymond Chandler.

Published by Penguin.

First published 1939.

ISBN-10: 0241970776

ISBN-13: 978-0241970775

Description:

The Big Sleep is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective, Philip Marlowe.

A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

In 1999, the book was voted 96th of Le Monde's "100 Books of the Century".

On this day in movie history - The Long Goodbye (1973):

The Long Goodbye

directed by Robert Altman,

written by Leigh Brackett,

based on the novel by Raymond Chandler,

was released in the United States on March 7, 1973.
Music by John Williams.

Cast:

Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson, David Arkin, Jim Bouton, Warren Berlinger, Pancho Córdova, Enrique Lucero, Rutanya Alda, Jack Riley, Jerry Jones, John S. Davies, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Raymond Chandler, on writing:

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

- Raymond Chandler.

On this day in movie history - The Brasher Doubloon (1947 movie & novel):

The Brasher Doubloon

directed by John Brahm,

written by Leonard Praskins and Dorothy Bennett,

based on the novel The High Window by Raymond Chandler,

released in the United States on February 6, 1947.

Music by David Buttolph.

Cast: George Montgomery, Nancy Guild, Conrad Janis, Roy Roberts, Fritz Kortner, Florence Bates, Marvin Miller, Reed Hadley.

Recommended reading:

Recommended reading:

The High Window

By Raymond Chandler.

Filmed as The Brasher Doubloon (1947), directed by John Brahm.

Published by Penguin.

First published 1942.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0241980658

ISBN-13: 978-0241980651

Description:

Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe’s on a case: his client, a dried-up husk of a woman, wants him to recover a rare gold coin called a Brasher Doubloon, missing from her late husband’s collection. That’s the simple part. It becomes more complicated when Marlowe finds that everyone who handles the coin suffers a run of very bad luck: they always end up dead. That’s also unlucky for a private investigator, because leaving a trail of corpses around LA puts cops’ noses seriously out of joint. If Marlowe doesn’t wrap this one up fast, he’s going to end up either in jail or in a wooden box in the ground...