Full of so much divine writing - the dialogue and the descriptions, not to mention vivid characters:Marlowe of course, the PI almost masochistic in his determination to do the right thing; Vivian, sexy, smart and harsh; Carmen, psychotic and constantly nude; General Sternwood, dying in his chair with that great intro scene (we want to see him again but when you see him again it's not worth it and you go 'there was no point to that we may as well have just had him in one scene'); the principled-or-is-he gangster Eddie Mars; the not-very-smart blackmailer Joe Brody; Geiger, the bisexual blackmailer; Carol, his violent, swear-happy lover (who doesn't appear in many adaptations); Agnes, the luckless woman; Mrs Eddie Mars, the lover of Reagan, caught up in a vicious crew; Regan, the soldier of fortune described but never met; Owen Taylor, the chauffeur whose murdered famously Chandler didn't know; the super killer Canino (a worthy threat)/
Some of the plotting is bodgy - Chandler really should have made it clear who killed Owen, and also the character of Harold Young, Agnes' feller, felt added on. And there was no resolution with the Eddie Mars character.
There's an unpleasant strand of homophobia, which one guesses was typical of the period. But great atmosphere and characterisation, even if you do get the feel Chandler is making it up as he goes along.
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