''Poodle Springs'' is a 1998

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

HBO

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

directed by

Bob Rafelson Robert Jay Rafelson (February 21, 1933 – July 23, 2022) was an American film director, writer, and producer. He is regarded as one of the key figures in the founding of the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s. Among his best-known films as a ...

, starring

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Suppo ...

as private detective

Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...

. The film is based on the unfinished novel ''

Poodle Springs ''Poodle Springs'' is the eighth Philip Marlowe novel. It was started in 1958 by Raymond Chandler, who left it unfinished at his death in 1959. The four chapters he had completed, which bore the working title ''The Poodle Springs Story'', were ...

'' by

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

, completed after his death by Robert B. Parker and published in 1989. Playwright

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and polit ...

wrote the screenplay.

Plot

In 1963, an aging Philip Marlowe (

) is newly married to young socialite Laura Parker (

Dina Meyer Dina Meyer (born December 22, 1968) is an American actress. She began her career appearing in a recurring role on the Fox teen drama series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1993–94), before landing a leading role opposite Keanu Reeves in the 1995 fi ...

). The private investigator leaves his Los Angeles apartment behind and sets up a new base of operations in Poodle Springs, an upscale community in the desert a couple hours from L.A. (a parody of

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...

), where he and his wife intend to live. "I don't do divorces," Marlowe impatiently explains to potential clients in a peaceful, relatively crime-free town. His rich wife Laura would prefer that Philip get out of this line of work entirely and live off her money or come into business with P.J. Parker ( Joe Don Baker), her politically connected father, but Marlowe isn't ready to permanently hang up his gun. As might be expected, crime follows Marlowe wherever he may be. While looking into a matter at a gambling club just beyond the city limits, Marlowe sets out to find a photographer with a gambling debt and is soon mixed up in blackmail and murder. Larry Victor, the photographer ( David Keith), is a bigamist, two-timing Laura's wealthy friend Muffy (

Julia Campbell Julia Campbell (born March 12, 1962) is an American film and television actress. Her most noted role to date was "mean girl" Christie Masters in ''Romy and Michele's High School Reunion''. Career Campbell had a starring role in the feature fil ...

) with a drug addict named Angel (

Nia Peeples Virenia "Nia" Peeples (born December 10, 1961) is an American R&B and dance music singer and actress. Peeples is known for playing Nicole Chapman on the hit TV series '' Fame''; Pam Fields on the drama '' Pretty Little Liars''; Karen Taylor Wi ...

), and he is threatening to expose photos of a former stripper (La Joy Farr) who is now running with Muffy's billionaire father, Clayton Blackstone ( Brian Cox). As things progress, Marlowe realizes that his new father-in-law is involved in a land swindle on such a massive scale that it could end up altering the California/Nevada state border. And any further snooping on the detective's part could quickly put an end to his wedded bliss.

Cast

as Laura Parker-Marlowe * David Keith as Larry Victor/Charles Nichols * Joe Don Baker as P.J. Parker *

Tom Bower Thomas Michael Bower (born 28 September 1946) is a British writer and former BBC journalist and television producer. He is known for his investigative journalism and for his unauthorised biographies, often of business tycoons and newspaper pr ...

as Lt. Arnie Burns *

as Miriam "Muffy" Blackstone-Nichols * Brian Cox as Clayton Blackstone *

as Angel * Mo Gallini as J.D.

References

External links

* {{Chandler American detective films Films based on American novels Films directed by Bob Rafelson Films scored by Michael Small Films set in 1963 1998 television films 1998 films Films set in Palm Springs, California Films with screenplays by Tom Stoppard Films based on works by Raymond Chandler Films based on British novels American neo-noir films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films