The detective story is not a genuinely cinematic genre, bur rather a nineteenth century literary invention.
Edgar Allan Poe is credited with the invention of the genre, and “Murder in the Rue Morgue,” published in 1841, is regarded as the first detective story.
Raymond Chandler supplanted Dashiell Hammett as major detective writer source of the 1940s, the best decade in Hollywood for the genre.
Chandler’s creation, Philip Marlowe, was just about played by every major actor.
Movie Genres: Detective Stories
The detective story is not a genuinely cinematic genre, bur rather a nineteenth century literary invention.
Edgar Allan Poe is credited with the invention of the genre, and “Murder in the Rue Morgue,” published in 1841, is regarded as the first detective story.
Raymond Chandler supplanted Dashiell Hammett as major detective writer source of the 1940s, the best decade in Hollywood for the genre.
Chandler’s creation, Philip Marlowe, was just about played by every major actor.
Dick Powell in Murder My Sweet, 1944
Bogart in The Big Sleep, 1946
Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake, 1945
James Garner in Marlowe, 1969
Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My ovely, 1975