if the truth be know and the truth and a ever and be pretty murky in this raymond chandler rip off raymond st. ives and the writer who be hire out of nowhere a a private eye and be merely a nom de plume . the character real name and well and almost real and be charles bronson . he the taciturn and muscular guy who can be throw into an empty elevator shaft by three hood and save himself after fall down a few floor by grab a cable and slide to a halt and haul himself up to a doorway into an empty warehouse and and deck the three arm goon who still pursue him . the thugs include robert englund and later to surpass himself a freddie kruger and the mad killer of the friday the thirteenth slasher movie and and jeff goldblum and ditto and a neurotic scientist . bronson be hire by the immensely wealthy john houseman to recover some steal journal . houseman mistress and jacqueline bisset and be throw into the mix so she can pop into bed at one point with the protagonist . why you ask . do houseman hire bronson and a not too successful novelist and ex crime reporter to act a a go between who deliver the forty million dollar in exchange for the purloined letter . i do not know . but the plot and such a it be and follow raymond chandler rather closely otherwise . it as complicate a a rubik cube . i admit i be lose now and then . a couple of cop be corrupt . people double cross each other all the time . bronson keep stumble across dead body and a habit that doesn not endear him to the police . bronson also know a lot of louche people and bounce from one to the other in his search for the solution to the various mystery . bronson ask one of his friend represent do you know a guy name parisi . the friend reply represent you will have to see boykins about that . bronson go to boykins and who tell him represent i do not do the job but i know finley wasn not in on it and but pedo can tell you more than i can . i have the name mix up but i do not care any more than the writer care . i think one of the big turn offs be the production design . bronson be describe a living in a cheap hotel . i find the apartment rather charm and a hell of an improvement over this abandon railway car that i live in . and wardrobe and make up have do their best to turn every character into a simulacrum of a rich hollywood actor . the rich hollywood screenwriter who assemble this kaleidoscope of mysterioso doings have no idea of what it like to be less than rich . the grease monkey under the car have four precisely apply and somewhat become oil mark applies to his face and forehead . everyone dress in suit and tie except the goon who wear tatter and wool cap so you will know theyre goon . bronson and the down on his luck writer and drive a jaguar . everyone else drive a boxy look american car at least forty foot long . a gimcrack job and and a disappointment consider who be in front of the camera and behind it and many of them season professional like j. lee thompson and lalo schifrin and lucien ballard . why do it look so much like a cheap television movie set in los angeles .