Movie Review: The Brasher Doubloon(1947)

The Brasher Doubloon is another film noir movie, featuring gumshoe investigator, Phillip Marlowe. It is an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s 1942 pulp fiction novel, ‘The High Window’. The role of the legendary Marlowe has been played by many famous stars like Robert Mitchum, Bogart, Danny Glover, Nick Powell, James Garner, etc. This time, he is portrayed by George Montgomery.

The plot begins with Marlowe visiting the mansion of an affluent widow, Elizabeth Murdock, where he is invited in by a young lady, Merle Davis. Davis requests Marlowe to be tolerant, when he meets Mrs.Murdock. She tells Marlowe, that beneath Mrs. Murdock’s harsh exterior, is a caring compassionate person. Marlowe then meets Leslie Murdock, Elizabeth’s spoilt and rude son, who is not thrilled about Marlowe’s presence in the house, and makes a failed attempt to send the latter away.

When Elizabeth meets Marlowe, we learn that the unusual title of the movie, Brasher Doubloon refers to a rare coin that Elizabeth owned, but has now been stolen. Elizabeth, as expected, hires Marlowe to find the missing treasured coin. After meeting with Elizabeth, Marlowe approaches Merle once again. He learns that she is suffering some sort of phobia and offers to help. (This interaction will be revisited later).

The search of the diamond would take Marlowe on a dangerous path, where he encounters questionable coin collectors, suspicious cops who dislike Marlowe, a shady landlord and many murders. He would learn that Elizabeth’s husband’s death, from a few years before he took on the case, happened under very mysterious circumstances.It is also revealed that Merle saw the unfortunate man fall to his death, from a high window. Did she have a part in his death? How Marlowe finds the killer, forms the rest of the plot.

This is by no means the best Marlowe movie. George Montgomery, a former stuntman who took on the role of Marlowe, is not a fit and is nothing like the hard boiled sleuth that Chandler described. Montgomery seems more like a sleazy philanderer. There were some scenes that were very awkward and to be honest, hard to watch.

Nancy Guild who plays Florence Davis looks no older than a teenager. There is a scene early in the movie where we see a much older Marlowe make moves on her, by pulling her close and then attempting to kiss her. She stops Marlow, saying she is uncomfortable about ‘being touched’. Marlowe’s advances, would in contemporary times, easily qualify for sexual harassment. There are a few scenes later in the film where Marlowe and Dais are passionately kissing, which seem very inappropriate. ( I was somewhat relieved when I deduced that Nancy Guild who played Davis was 22 when the movie was made.)

Further, the predictable end and mediocre acting, all around, make this a very average movie. Do not bother with this movie unless, you are a hardcore Film Noir buff.