Raymond Chandler's THE HIGH WINDOW: RGBIB Ep. 83

[@doncar9]

My favourite Chandler line comes from this book, ."A face packed with shabby cunning".

[@Scottmbradfield]

That's a good one! s

[@larrycarr4562]

Hey Scott, so I finished The Thin Man, boy drinking was thing back then. Seems like I’m overdue for reading Marlowe…Long Goodbye say hello. By the way you mentioned sticking pins in the map… if that’s still a thing put a pin in Cabos de San Jose, Baja MX por favor… it’s our winter escape for 3 months from Cape Cod, then onto Palm Desert March into April. Retirement is fun, and the Kindle means travel 🧳 with 📚 for the 🛁!

[@Scottmbradfield]

I just saw the great scriptwriter Scott Frank has a new series coming with Clive Owen as a retired Sam Spade in Europe, which sounds fun...

[@rlathbury]

"The High Window" is Chandler's third novel, not his second. It is special in that, unlike with "The Big Sleep," "Farewell, My Lovely" and "The Lady in the Lake," Chandler didn't construct it out of cannibalized stories but wrote afresh. As such it owes rather much to Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" (the doubloon is like the falcon, a MacGuffin), but the plot has more linear drive than the others. Although Chandler had doubts about it, Blanche Knopf recognized that it was "a rattling good story," and so it is, and one of the best, with plenty of Chandler's cynical, self-regarding wit.

[@suechef1170]

Sadly there are some people who DON'T know Chandler.

[@AndalusianIrish]

Did you know that John Banville wrote a novel supposedly in the style of Chandler? It is called The Black Eyed Blonde and he did it under his crime pseudonym Benjamin Black. I enjoyed it but it was a bit too high falluting. Banville is also a big Westlake fan. I love Chandler and Hammett. Real good fun.

[@Scottmbradfield]

You have good instincts. Banville is a dud. Try Ross Macdonald? S

[@AndalusianIrish]

@@Scottmbradfield Picked up The Goodbye Look from my local library but haven't started it yet. I bumped into Banville at Belfast Central Station a couple of years ago on his way to a crime fiction festival. He was dressed as if he were James Joyce. 🙈

[@TomFazzini]

Hi Scott, Tom here once more from Leeds UK. Was it Playback which he wrote whilst drunk throughout?.. Think I heard that! A fascile question, I grant you. I should know better. (And I'm sober.)

[@Scottmbradfield]

Hey Tom in Leeds. Can I put you on the map? (I lived in Leeds for several months back in the mid eighties! Great pubs then.) From the biographies I read over the years. Chandler was apparently drunk throughout the last half of his life, and while writing just about everything he wrote. There are some funny stories from Billy Wilder about delivering cases of booze to the guy every morning when he was writing the script for Double Indemnity. PLAYBACK probably has that rep because it was his last complete novel and a real falling off from his best work-Marlow actually gets married in it, as I recall! So maybe be was just more drunk than usual... Scott

[@TomFazzini]

@@Scottmbradfield Happy to be on the map Scott - count me in. So you're no stranger to these here parts?.. I'm surprised. PS. I liked that Robert Mitchum film version of one of his books - Farewell My Lovely (?) - and a line like '.. suddenly a long tall shadow fell over my chop suey.' Mitchum made a good Marlowe.. Laconic personified.

[@Scottmbradfield]

You're already on it! I like the Mitchum version too, and try Robert Montgomery's subjective camera version of Lady in the Lake!

[@normanjohnson3850]

I've read some Chandler a few years ago (Big Sleep/Farewell My lovely), so I've just dug out The High Window which I knew I had somewhere. I also found two volumes of stories / novellas I'd forgotten about. Bearing in mind what you said about the novels being basically re-jigged short stories, do you rate these as being a worthwhile read in their own right?

[@Scottmbradfield]

All of Chandler makes fun bathtub reading, but High Window may be my favorite of the early stuff. But nothing compares to the beauty of The Long Goodbye!

[@normanjohnson3850]

Just realised, I've got The Long Goodbye also, still unread! You've re-awakened my interest in Chandler, for which, many thanks!