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Great P.I. Films
Topic Started: May 4 2014, 07:19 AM (768 Views)
Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
A friend of mine recently became a licensed private investigator (!) -- I know, right? -- which has motivated me to put together a list of the great Private Eye films for future reference and potential group-viewing purposes. I'm not entirely sure what the criteria for selection should be (or how limited the range of possibility), so I'll just start with a few obvious examples and then we'll see if we can't populate the list as we go.

For starters, the obvious Hammet-/Chandler-based classics:

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

These are a couple of the true originals, I think, both of which he's seen, and both of which help to define just what it is that we're looking for. Private Dick gets sucked into a case that's a good deal over his head and has to scramble just to survive, let alone bring the case down around his enemies necks. (Which he doesn't necessarily achieve, of course. This is noir we're talking about here.)

Two more that define the neo-noir reinvention of the P.I. film in the '70s:

The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)

I've yet to see the former (looking forward to it!), but the latter is the obvious Granddaddy of the genre and certainly not to be missed (on a list like this or otherwise).

Finally, an example of a fun twist on the genre (starring none other than the late, great Bob Hoskins himself):

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis, 1988)

This one is already seen and much loved by my P.I. pal (a childhood favourite, I believe), but it's definitely got all the trappings of the classic Private Eye noir and it should certainly be on the list.

As far as criteria go, then, I think the only real limitation is that the film must include (or preferably revolve around) a proper Private Investigator. Something like Citizen Kane certainly offers a great mystery plot, but the investigator is more a journalist than a P.I., and his presence is ultimately more peripheral than otherwise. A more modern example might be L.A. Confidential, which has all the requisite noir trappings, but the investigators are policemen, rather than private eyes, so it too would have to be excluded, I think.

Anyway, that's what I've got so far. What are some of the other great P.I. films of the last hundred years or so?
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
Guess I should keep a list of the films mentioned (that fit the criteria), so I'll be updating this post with suitable entries as we go:

The '20s
The Canary Murder Case (Malcolm St. Clair, 1929) - Yancy
The Greene Murder Case (Frank Tuttle, 1929) - Yancy

The '30s
The Maltese Falcon (Roy Del Ruth, 1931) - Jiggy
The Kennel Murder Case (Michael Curtiz, 1933) - Yancy
The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934) (more entries to follow) - d.
Satan Met a Lady (William Dieterle, 1936) - Jiggy
There's Always a Woman (Alexander Hall, 1938) - vorn

The '40s
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944) - Jiggy
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946) - Yancy
Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery, 1947) - Jiggy
Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947) - Jiggy

The '50s
D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté, 1950) - Dirt
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955) - d.
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) - Jiggy

The '60s
Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) - Dirt
Harper (Jack Smight, 1966) - Yancy
Tony Rome (Gordon Douglas, 1967) - Yancy
Lady in Cement (Gordon Douglas, 1968) (sequel to Tony Rome ('67), both w/Sinatra) - Yancy
Marlowe (Paul Bogart, 1969) - Yancy

The '70s
Gumshoe (Stephen Frears, 1971) - Jiggy
Klute (Alan Pakula, 1971) - Yancy
Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971) (and sequels) - Yancy
Hickey & Boggs (Robert Culp, 1972) (w/Bill Cosby!) - Yancy
The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Farewell, My Lovely (Dick Richards, 1975) (same source as Murder, My Sweet [1944]) - Jiggy
The Drowning Pool (Stuart Rosenberg, 1975) - Yancy
Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975) - Jiggy

The '80s
Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, 1981) - Jiggy
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (Carl Reiner, 1982) - d.
Blood Simple (The Coens, 1984) - Conty
52 Pick-Up (John Frankenheimer, 1986) - Conty
Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987) - d.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis, 1988)

The '90s
The Two Jakes (Jack Nicholson, 1990) - Yancy
Dead Again (Kenneth Branagh, 1991) - Yancy
Zero Effect (Jake Kasdan, 1998) - Russ
Twilight (Robert Benton, 1998) - Conty

The '00s
Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005) - d.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black, 2005) - Jiggy
Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin, 2005) - Jiggy
Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, 2007) - Conty

The '10s
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014) - Aaron
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Russ
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Bark! Go away
This list needs more Kasdan: specifically Lawrence (Body Heat) and son Jake (Zero Effect).

This should be a fun thread.

EDIT: strike Body Heat - I thought the protagonist was a P.I. Instead of a lawyer.
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Mister Jiggy, Esq.
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I would note that The Maltese Falcon was the third screen version of the story. The two from the thirties, while inferior, are of interest.

You should add the other Philip Marlowe entries - Murder, My Sweet (1944), The Lady in the Lake (1947), and Farewell, My Lovely (based on Murder, My Sweet) (1975).

Another key neo- noir - Night Moves (1975). More later.
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
Thanks, gents!

Jiggy: had some vague notion re: earlier versions of TMF, but nothing very glowing. "Of interest" as distinct from "great", yes? And are they at all readily available in one form or another, or will this lead to late-night YouTube searches or Torrent site scourings?

Edit: Russ, I'm wondering if we mightn't allow films where an unsuspecting individual is sort of forced into becoming a private investigator. Must be some of these that fit the bill just as well as the Chandler/Hammet classics. (Edit 2: e.g., Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear (1944), which does indeed include a P.I., although he's a peripheral character, and which forces the lead to take on most of the characteristics of the classic lone investigator. See also, Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935). Perhaps, though, these are both better suited to the Nightmare-Noir category than the Private Eye film....)
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Continental Op
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Dr. R
 
Edit: Russ, I'm wondering if we mightn't allow films where an unsuspecting individual is sort of forced into becoming a private investigator. Must be some of these that fit the bill just as well as the Chandler/Hammet classics. (Edit 2: e.g., Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear (1944), which does indeed include a P.I., although he's a peripheral character, and which forces the lead to take on most of the characteristics of the classic lone investigator. See also, Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935). Perhaps, though, these are both better suited to the Nightmare-Noir category than the Private Eye film....)


Jiggy already beat me to Night Moves, which I just happened to see the other day for the first time. But if we are going to stretch it a bit to this idea of someone being forced into becoming an impromptu PI, I also just watched 52 Pick-Up (John Frankenheimer, 1986), and I'd argue it fits into that perfectly…Harry Mitchell (the incredible Roy Scheider) is being blackmailed for an affair he's having, and instead of just wallowing about and handing money over, he starts to do some digging and goes after the guys squeezing him.
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
John Frankenheimer and Roy Scheider? Sold!

Edit: Not to mention an Elmore Leonard source, with a screenplay partially by the man himself. Sweet.
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Aaron
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Should be a fun list.

I think you'd have to add The Thin Man series from the 1930s and Brick from the 2000s.

I'm sure there are plenty others, just can't think of them right now.

Edit: just remembered Mickey Spillane. Kiss Me Deadly is a must. There are others that I haven't seen.
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Mister Jiggy, Esq.
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Swingin' on the Flippity-Flop
Dr. Raskolnikov,May 4 2014
12:13 PM


Jiggy: had some vague notion re: earlier versions of TMF, but nothing very glowing. "Of interest" as distinct from "great", yes? And are they at all readily available in one form or another, or will this lead to late-night YouTube searches or Torrent site scourings?

Both films - the 1931 version and 1936's Satan Met a Lady - are included as "extras" on The Maltese Falcon special edition DVD.
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
Mister Jiggy
Esq.
Both films - the 1931 version and 1936's Satan Met a Lady - are included as "extras" on The Maltese Falcon special edition DVD.

Excellent. So that makes that easy.

And d.: The Thin Man, yes. One of the things I was wondering was how far back the tradition could be said to stretch, specifically the classic noir model (The Thin Man series is in a lighter, comic mode, yes?), but I suppose the investigative narrative tradition originates in literature with Poe ("The Murders in the Rue Morgue"), among others, solidifies with Doyle and Christie, and then meets noir during the great depression/Second World War. I actually don't know much about the cinematic side of things, though, and this seems like a good way to self-educate.
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Aaron
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Dr. Raskolnikov,May 4 2014
04:14 PM
And d.: The Thin Man, yes. One of the things I was wondering was how far back the tradition could be said to stretch, specifically the classic noir model (The Thin Man series is in a lighter, comic mode, yes?), but I suppose the investigative narrative tradition originates in literature with Poe ("The Murders in the Rue Morgue"), among others, solidifies with Doyle and Christie, and then meets noir during the great depression/Second World War. I actually don't know much about the cinematic side of things, though, and this seems like a good way to self-educate.

Oh yes, it is very much a light and comic franchise, and is well worth watching for self education or otherwise. Plus they are based on Hammett's work. The Doyle and Christie comparisons are fair, and they certainly influenced Hammett, Chandler and Spillane, who explored the darker sides of the characters as war approached.

And I would re-emphasize Kiss Me Deadly for the 1950s. It is very much in the style that I think you are targeting. I'd consider it one of the better and possibly the most experimental and daring noir films.
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
dissent
 
And I would re-emphasize Kiss Me Deadly for the 1950s. It is very much in the style that I think you are targeting. I'd consider it one of the better and possibly the most experimental and daring noir films.

Heh. Didn't even question that one. Put it in right away. :)
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YancySkancy
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Administrator
EDIT: Just realized that not many of these would qualify as "great," but opinions will vary on that anyway, so do what you will with 'em.

I assume Sherlock Holmes doesn't quite fit the criteria here? Is this an American-only thing?

I was thinking of Philo Vance, whose best-known film appearance is probably Curtiz's The Kennel Murder Case (1933) starring William Powell (who was in two previous Vance films, The Canary Murder Case and The Greene Murder Case (both 1929). Others who played Vance on film include Warren William, Basil Rathbone, Paul Lukas, Edmund Lowe and Alan Curtis.

Then there's:

Henry Hathaway's The Dark Corner (1946), starring Mark Stevens, Lucille Ball and Clifton Webb.

Harper (Jack Smight, 1966), with Paul Newman as a renamed Lew Archer, and its 1975 sequel, The Drowning Pool (Stuart Rosenberg).

Isn't Donald Sutherland a P.I. in Klute (Alan Pakula, 1971)?

Got to have a little "black private dick" -- Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971) and several sequels.

Dead Again (Kenneth Branagh, 1991).

James Garner played Philip Marlowe in Marlowe (Paul Bogart, 1969).

Don't forget the Chinatown sequel, The Two Jakes.

Tony Rome (Gordon Douglas, 1967) and the sequel, Lady in Cement (Douglas, 1968), both with Frank Sinatra.

A big fave of mine is Robert Culp's Hickey & Boggs (1972), starring Culp and Bill Cosby.
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vornporn
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A Ryan Seacrest type.
I just watched a fairly entertaining Thin Man knock-off, starring Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell as the husband & wife detective duo. It's called There's Always a Woman, and while it's not as good as the first couple Thin Man movies I wish they'd gotten a run of their own because they worked well together.
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Continental Op
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Blood Simple (Coen, 1984)…what not to do as a PI? A cautionary tale for your buddy? :P

Gone Baby Gone (Affleck, 2007)…the absolutely atrocious final act still lingers, but some really great PI stuff from Casey Affleck
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