Here are a pair of posters for very different interpretations of Raymond Chandler’s classic private eye tough guy Philip Marlowe.

The most famous incarnation of Marlowe is of course Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep, although former song-and-dance man Dick Powell’s surprisingly tough Marlowe in Murder My Sweet (an adaptation of Farewell My Lovely) runs him close. Any subsequent versions have rather tended to live in the shadow of these 1940s classics.

In 1975’s version of Farewell My Lovely, Marlowe is played by an ageing Robert Mitchum. Mitchum in many ways is perfect casting for Marlowe, it’s just a pity he didn’t get to play the role a few years earlier in his prime. Curiously, he repeated it shortly after for Michael Winner’s version of The Big Sleep, only this time the film was set rather incongruously in  present day London.

The Farewell My Lovely UK quad poster is for sale here.

Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye was a very divisive movie when it came out in 1973, given Elliot Gould’s interpretation of the role is as something of a shambolic loser, who cannot even hold onto his cat. Its reputation has grown over the years. I sold this French ‘grande’ poster to a buyer in the US earlier this year, who loved its quirky design.  Certainly nothing screams “1970s” more than a pair of giant bell-bottoms!