308:. One day there was a quarrel between Lee and Betty, and later Lee was found dead, with Betty trying to place the neck brace back on the body. The case drew widespread publicity in the newspapers (which is why the blackmailer recognized Mayfield on the train), and with Cumberland's influence on the jury, Mayfield was found guilty of murder. But the judge in the case, who saw more than a reasonable doubt, in keeping with North Carolina law granted a standard defense motion for a directed acquittal after the verdict of the tainted jury was returned.
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253:. Joseph Sistrom was assigned to produce the film and it was intended Chandler would write the script. The novel was reworked by Chandler from the screenplay. The script, thought by some to be superior to the novel (generally considered to be the weakest of the seven Marlowe novels, perhaps because of its less complex plot and pat resolution), was published posthumously.
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Cumberland vowed to hound
Mayfield wherever she went, and so she fled to Esmeralda; Cumberland was presumably behind the hiring of Marlowe in the first place. Cumberland arrives in Esmeralda to confront Mayfield, but Marlowe, with the help of the local police captain, scares him off. (In the British
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During her train ride west, Mayfield had been recognized by a man who then tried to blackmail her, for reasons disclosed at the end of the story. While
Marlowe is poking around Esmeralda, the blackmailer is found dead on the balcony of Mayfield's hotel room. She panics and calls Marlowe for help.
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Marlowe encounters numerous characters with dubious motivations, including a taciturn lawyer and his smart secretary (with whom
Marlowe has a sexual encounter), a "retired" gangster, overconfident would-be tough guys of varying morals, a hired killer (whose wrists Marlowe smashes), decent police
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officers, and an affectingly desperate example of the immigrant underclass in the United States in the 1950s. Marlowe also has an encounter in a hotel lobby with a reflective elderly gentleman, Henry
Clarendon IV, which gives rise to an extended philosophical conversation.
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Mayfield marries a local criminal turned respectable citizen, who has taken a romantic interest in her. Marlowe lets her go ahead but has a frank talk with the ex-criminal, who has not entirely mended his ways, as he was behind the killing of the blackmailer.
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Through intermediaries, an anonymous client hires
Marlowe to find Betty Mayfield, who is traveling under the name Eleanor King. Marlowe trails Mayfield to the small coastal resort town of Esmeralda, California.
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Marlowe learns that Betty
Mayfield had been married to Lee Cumberland, the son of Henry Cumberland, a big shot in a small North Carolina town. Lee's neck had been broken during the
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is the only
Marlowe novel completed by Chandler that is set somewhere other than Los Angeles. The setting is the town of Esmeralda, a fictional name for
404:: "There was nothing to it. The Super Chief was on time, as it almost always is, and the subject was as easy to spot as a kangaroo in a dinner jacket."
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called it "smooth, competent, enjoyable and undistinguished... after a wait of four and a half years it's a mousy labor from such a mountain."
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At the book's conclusion, Marlowe is rewarded by providence when his old flame, Linda Loring, gets back in touch.
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On 8 January 1947 Universal announced they had bought a story from
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Criminals at Large By ANTHONY BOUCHER. New York Times 16 Nov 1958: BR53.
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as part of a season of Chandler adaptations. Marlowe was played by
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The opening lines of the second chapter served as inspiration for
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is the only one never to have been adapted into a film.
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472:"Playback," original 1949 screenplay -
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234:is a novel by American-British writer
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44:Please help
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838:(1983–1986)
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335:Adaptations
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683:The Unseen
612:Nevada Gas
586:Characters
467:Faded Page
373:Ted Benoît
306:neck brace
62:April 2022
509:Works by
351:In 2011,
323:Reception
187:paperback
183:hardcover
144:Publisher
85:Playback
830:" (1954)
823:" (1950)
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469:(Canada)
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261:La Jolla
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112:Language
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408:Sources
181:Print (
134:Mystery
115:English
54:removed
38: (
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