History of crime fiction quite complicated, forcing him to embark on an odyssey through the urban landscape. He is involved with organized crime and other lowlifes on the "mean streets" of, preferably, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, or Chicago. A hard-boiled private eye has an ambivalent attitude towards the police. It is his ambition to save America and rid it of its mean elements all by himself. As Raymond Chandler's protagonist Philip Marlowe—immortalized by actor Humphrey Bogart in the movie adaptation (1946) of the novel "The Big Sleep" (1939)—admits to his client, General Sternwood, he finds it rather tiresome, as an individualist, to
Wife Wanted (1946 film) Wife Wanted (1946 film) Wife Wanted is a 1946 American crime directed by Phil Karlson, featuring Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh and Robert Shayne. This was Kay Francis's last film. The film's screenplay was written by Caryl Coleman and Sidney Sutherland, based on the novel "Wife Wanted" by Robert E. Callahan. Carole Raymond (Francis) is a film star whose best years are behind her so she decides to buy in a real estate plan with Jeff Caldwell (Cavanagh), who's really running an illegitimate matrimonial service. Kay Francis was unhappy with the first script, so she and director Phil Karlson set about