Poodle Springs (film)

*Poodle Springs*
Poodle Springs
Genre	Crime; Drama
Based on	Poodle Springs; by Raymond Chandler; Robert B. Parker
Screenplay by	Tom Stoppard
Directed by	Bob Rafelson
Starring	James Caan; Dina Meyer; David Keith
Music by	Michael Small
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Jon Avnet; William Horberg; Jordan Kerner; Sydney Pollack
Producer	Tony Mark
Cinematography	Stuart Dryburgh
Editor	Steven Cohen
Running time	100 minutes
Production companies	Avnet/Kerner Productions; Mirage Enterprises; HBO Pictures; Universal Television
Original release
Network	HBO
Release	July 25, 1998

Poodle Springs is a 1998 neo-noir HBO film directed by Bob Rafelson, starring James Caan as private detective Philip Marlowe.^[1]

The film is based on the unfinished novel Poodle Springs by Raymond Chandler, completed after his death by Robert B. Parker and published in 1989.^[1]

Playwright Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay.^[1]

Plot

In 1963, an aging Philip Marlowe (James Caan) is newly married to young socialite Laura Parker (Dina Meyer). 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 of hours from L.A. (a parody of Palm Springs), 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.

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) with a drug addict named Angel (Nia Peeples). 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. Also, any further snooping on the detective's part could quickly end his wedded bliss.

Cast

James Caan as Philip Marlowe
Dina Meyer as Laura Parker-Marlowe
David Keith as Larry Victor / Charles Nichols
Joe Don Baker as P.J. Parker
Tom Bower as Lieutenant Arnie Burns
Julia Campbell as Miriam "Muffy" Blackstone-Nichols
Brian Cox as Clayton Blackstone
Nia Peeples as Angel
Mo Gallini as J.D.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Bhob Stewart (2014). "Poodle Springs". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2014-10-18.

External links

Poodle Springs at IMDb

[NYT-1] Bhob Stewart (2014). "Poodle Springs". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2014-10-18.

[1]

v t e Tom Stoppard
List of awards and nominations
Stage plays	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Enter a Free Man The Real Inspector Hound After Magritte Jumpers Travesties Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land Professional Foul Every Good Boy Deserves Favour Night and Day Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth 15-Minute Hamlet Undiscovered Country On the Razzle The Real Thing Rough Crossing Dalliance Hapgood Arcadia Indian Ink The Invention of Love The Coast of Utopia Rock 'n' Roll The Hard Problem Leopoldstadt
Radio plays	Artist Descending a Staircase The Dog It Was That Died In the Native State Darkside
Screenplays	The Romantic Englishwoman Three Men in a Boat The Boundary Despair Squaring the Circle Brazil Empire of the Sun Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (also directed) The Russia House Billy Bathgate Poodle Springs Shakespeare in Love Enigma Anna Karenina Parade's End Tulip Fever

v t e Works by Raymond Chandler
Novels	The Big Sleep Farewell, My Lovely The High Window The Lady in the Lake The Little Sister The Long Goodbye Playback Poodle Springs (unfinished)
Characters	Philip Marlowe
Short stories and collections	"Blackmailers Don't Shoot" "Nevada Gas" "Smart-Aleck Kill" The Simple Art of Murder Killer in the Rain
Non-fiction	Raymond Chandler Speaking
Screenplays	Double Indemnity And Now Tomorrow The Unseen The Blue Dahlia Strangers on a Train
Film adaptations	Time to Kill (1942) The Falcon Takes Over (1942) Murder, My Sweet (1944) The Big Sleep (1946) Lady in the Lake (1947) The Brasher Doubloon (1947) Marlowe (1969) The Long Goodbye (1973) Farewell, My Lovely (1975) The Big Sleep (1978) Poodle Springs (1998)
TV adaptations	"The Big Sleep" (1950) "The Long Goodbye" (1954) Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983–1986)