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The High Window
Toby Stephens stars in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatization of Raymond Chandler s third Philip Marlowe mystery.
Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the 40s and 50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amid the corruption he encounters daily.
In The High Window, Marlowe starts out on the trail of a single stolen coin and ends up knee-deep in bodies. His client, a dried-up husk of a woman, wants him to recover a rare gold coin called a Brasher Doubloon missing from her late husband s collection. That's the simple part.
But Marlowe finds that everyone who handles the coin suffers a run of very bad luck: they always end up dead. If Marlowe doesn t wrap this one up fast, he's going to end up in jail - or worse, in a box in the ground.
Starring Toby Stephens, this thrilling dramatization by Robin Brooks retains all the wry humor of Chandler s serpentine suspense novel. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 8 October 2011.
Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the 40s and 50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amid the corruption he encounters daily.
In The High Window, Marlowe starts out on the trail of a single stolen coin and ends up knee-deep in bodies. His client, a dried-up husk of a woman, wants him to recover a rare gold coin called a Brasher Doubloon missing from her late husband s collection. That's the simple part.
But Marlowe finds that everyone who handles the coin suffers a run of very bad luck: they always end up dead. If Marlowe doesn t wrap this one up fast, he's going to end up in jail - or worse, in a box in the ground.
Starring Toby Stephens, this thrilling dramatization by Robin Brooks retains all the wry humor of Chandler s serpentine suspense novel. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 8 October 2011.
2 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2011
9 people want to read
About the author
Robin Brooks
33 books2 followersRobin Brooks was born in Leeds and brought up in Sheffield and Manchester.
He won an exhibition at Christchurch College, Oxford, where he studied English Literature. He started writing for Empty Space Theatre company in 1989. His first critical success was an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which was performed all over the world from 1990 to 1997. He started writing Radio drama for BBC Radio 4 in 1992 and has since written many plays and series. Robin is one of the most commissioned writers of Radio Drama, working with the BBC and other independent companies as well as for his own company, Allegra Productions. He lives and works in Suffolk.
He won an exhibition at Christchurch College, Oxford, where he studied English Literature. He started writing for Empty Space Theatre company in 1989. His first critical success was an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which was performed all over the world from 1990 to 1997. He started writing Radio drama for BBC Radio 4 in 1992 and has since written many plays and series. Robin is one of the most commissioned writers of Radio Drama, working with the BBC and other independent companies as well as for his own company, Allegra Productions. He lives and works in Suffolk.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 28, 2017
Highly entertaining and lively full-cast dramatization. Ed Bishop evokes a cigarette-smoky William Holden. He makes Marlowe come alive. Witty, humourous and engaging. Quite a lot of fun!
September 3, 2018
I’ve not heard of this one before. If there’s one thing Chandler can write it’s awful people.
And boy, Mrs Murdock is a doozy. She’s lost the Brasher Doubloon, a gold coin from her husband’s collection. It was a condition of his will that it not be sold but it’s very rare and worth maybe $10,000. She didn’t know it was missing until a coin dealer rang her to check if it was for sale. She assumes her son’s absent wife stole it; she was a bar singer aptly named Linda Conquest. She wants it back quietly… but once Marlowe is involved things get overly complicated.
And he notices too much. He notices that the Mrs Murdock’s secretary, Merle, is a nervous young woman who seems terrified of something and uses a man’s handkerchief to wipe her tears. He notices the guy tailing him badly. And he notices how nervous Mrs Murdock’s son Leslie is and how he doesn’t know why Marlowe has been hired.
The missing wife is easily found. She’s singing in a bar.
Soon the bodies start piling up and most oddly, someone posts the missing doubloon to Marlowe. When he rings Mrs M to tell her, she fires him, saying her own coin has been returned.
As if being fired will make Marlowe give up.
One detective gives Marlowe a reference by saying that he’s a man things happen to.
Indeed.
I think it was his doctor friend who calls him a shop soiled Sir Galahad. And it’s oddly appropriate.
And it’s funny, with some brilliant lines and a whole scene of so many people messing with a gun that it’s had multiple fingerprints put on and wiped off before the cops arrive.
By the end, Marlowe has wound everything up and solved more than one case, and rescued the damsel in distress. The dames can look after themselves.
5 stars
And boy, Mrs Murdock is a doozy. She’s lost the Brasher Doubloon, a gold coin from her husband’s collection. It was a condition of his will that it not be sold but it’s very rare and worth maybe $10,000. She didn’t know it was missing until a coin dealer rang her to check if it was for sale. She assumes her son’s absent wife stole it; she was a bar singer aptly named Linda Conquest. She wants it back quietly… but once Marlowe is involved things get overly complicated.
And he notices too much. He notices that the Mrs Murdock’s secretary, Merle, is a nervous young woman who seems terrified of something and uses a man’s handkerchief to wipe her tears. He notices the guy tailing him badly. And he notices how nervous Mrs Murdock’s son Leslie is and how he doesn’t know why Marlowe has been hired.
The missing wife is easily found. She’s singing in a bar.
Soon the bodies start piling up and most oddly, someone posts the missing doubloon to Marlowe. When he rings Mrs M to tell her, she fires him, saying her own coin has been returned.
As if being fired will make Marlowe give up.
One detective gives Marlowe a reference by saying that he’s a man things happen to.
Indeed.
I think it was his doctor friend who calls him a shop soiled Sir Galahad. And it’s oddly appropriate.
And it’s funny, with some brilliant lines and a whole scene of so many people messing with a gun that it’s had multiple fingerprints put on and wiped off before the cops arrive.
By the end, Marlowe has wound everything up and solved more than one case, and rescued the damsel in distress. The dames can look after themselves.
5 stars
July 5, 2012
Fast read. Pot boiler.
December 11, 2012
My third Raymond Chandler and my favorite so far.
March 30, 2024
While still a good story, this one isn’t one of my favourite Philip Marlowe stories.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews