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
Chandler (film) Chandler (film) Chandler (also known as "Open Shadow") is a 1971 neo noir film directed by Paul Magwood and based on a story of his own creation. The film stars Warren Oates as a man with the single name of Chandler: "as in Raymond," he says at one point. It co-stars Leslie Caron, married at the time to the film's producer, Michael Laughlin. Cameo roles feature Gloria Grahame and Scatman Crothers. In a deliberate throwback to 1940s films noir, a former private eye from that period, Chandler, takes up his old work again, and finds himself constantly driving old cars.