The Marlowe ending is unexpected, but it ties everything together in this neo-noir thriller. Directed by Neil Jordan from a screenplay by William Monahan, Marlowe follows famed private detective Philip Marlowe, a character created by author Raymond Chandler in the 1930s. The character of Marlowe, played here by Liam Neeson, has appeared in several film adaptations, and has been portrayed by numerous actors, including Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep. This Marlowe movie was a box office bomb before finding a new life on streaming services.
Marlowe ends with Neeson’s detective figuring out the conspiracy at the center of his investigation. After Nico Peterson finds him, he implores Marlowe to give Clare Cavendish, the daughter of a wealthy Hollywood star, a message to meet him in the props warehouse of Pacific Film Studios. It isn’t a lovers’ reunion when Clare meets Nico there, killing him and burning the evidence Nico brought with him that would have outed the studio ambassador. Clare asks Marlowe to be the head of security at the movie studio, an offer he declines, leaving Cedric, Lou Hendricks’ former henchman, with the job.
Marlowe centers on the disappearance of Nico Peterson, a props master at Pacific Film Studios. Nico faked his death because he was afraid for his life. He had a record of the ambassador’s bootlegging ledger, including every sale of drugs he’d made. Nico had run off with the briefcase of information regarding what was being packed and shipped through the props warehouse. Nico must have known that the ambassador, and Lou Hendricks, were on to him, and staged his death, so they wouldn’t come after him anymore.
Nico flees to Mexico for his safety. If Clare hadn’t asked Marlowe to investigate, Nico probably would’ve gotten away with it. He also knew that what he knew could have cost him his life if he returned, and by the Marlowe ending, his fears were more than warranted.
Clare tells Marlowe that she is looking for Nico because it’s unlike her lover to just run off, and she knew he wasn’t really dead because she’d seen him in Mexico. But what Clare really wanted was to make sure that Nico was dead. The detailed information he had regarding the drug transactions threatened to ruin not only the ambassador but Clare as well, since she had some huge aspirations of her own.
She had a vested interest in maintaining the ambassador’s reputation, primarily because it was a way to get back at her mother and become an executive at the film studio by the end of the neo-noir film. If she had stuck by Nico’s side, she wouldn’t have gotten any of that, and Claire chose her career future over her romantic relationship with Nico. For Clare, it was money and power above all else.
Marlowe realizes Clare’s plan and even sees her shoot Nico. Marlowe knows that Claire also set Nico and the props warehouse on fire, but the private detective doesn’t do anything about it. Marlowe tends to avoid authorities altogether and doesn’t have any real evidence against Clare to justify her going to prison – even though he knows she is guilty of murder for financial reasons. It’s possible Marlowe is also concerned about himself too because he knows too much by the end of the crime drama.
If the private detective had attempted to turn Clare in, there’s no telling what kind of consequences there would have been. After all, Clare had powerful and wealthy connections, and the ambassador’s ledger had already been burned. Marlowe was complicit in the murder in the end, but he likely had plans to save his own skin rather than do the right thing and risk his own life and future.
Throughout Marlowe, the characters often discuss “Mexican powder,” which is a reference to heroin, which likely came straight from Mexico (hence the name). Floyd Hanson (Danny Huston), the country club owner, was involved with the ambassador and nightclub owner Lou Hendricks in packing the heroin into various props and moving it from the props warehouse to various other locations. The ambassador likely used Lou Hendricks, the nightclub owner, and Hanson to funnel the heroin through to club members, and other notorious people.
It was a lucrative business, one involving secrecy and sleazy people trying to make money and maintain their power, regardless of who was harmed in the process. He was just as guilty and had just as much to lose if Nico Peterson had released the evidence he had built up against the studio, which is why he takes things into his own hands when he sees Marlowe investigating the situation.
Hanson has restrained Cedric and is torturing Cedric’s boss, Lou Hendricks for information about who the mysterious Serena is. However, it turns out that Serena is not a woman, but is what Hendricks calls the mermaid statue carrying the “Mexican powder” heroin. While saving his boss, Cedric fires a gun, and it accidentally topples “Serena,” which destroys the statue and the drugs. Hendricks begins to yell at Cedric and tells him that he will remain indebted to him forever to pay back this financial loss.
That is likely the reason he shoots his boss because he knows it is his only way to escape this situation. He is with Marlowe by this time, and the detective is friends with the cops, so he knows there won’t be any consequences. Cedric knows more about the drug scheme than anyone else because of his proximity to it, and by escaping Peterson’s clutches, he can join forces with Marlowe and they can watch each other’s backs.
Clare offers Marlowe a job as head of security at the movie studio where she now works as an executive, but he rejects it. It doesn’t seem like Marlowe wants to be under Clare’s thumb, and he’s not interested in security or being involved in shady dealings while cleaning up Clare and the ambassador’s messes. Marlowe wanted to extricate himself from Clare and the entire drug operation going on behind closed doors at the film studio. The private detective was a loner and didn’t want to knowingly be involved in illegal activity.
Marlowe is exasperated by the search for Nico and doesn’t want to continue being a part of the illicit affairs of others. Turning his head on the murders, and especially on the cold-blooded murder that Clare just pulled off just for a position of power, was close to Marlowe crossing a line. However, if he takes the job, he will likely remain complicit in more crimes, and he knows that is a path he does not want to walk.
The film adaptation is based on the authorized 2014 novel, The Black-Eyed Blonde, by John Banville, which takes its influence from Chandler’s original Marlowe novels. The Black-Eyed Blonde acts as a sequel to The Long Goodbye, which itself was made into a movie in 1973 starring Elliott Gould. In that story, Marlowe is accused of aiding a man who murdered his wife by helping him flee the country following the crime.
The authorized novel sticks to Chandler’s voice and expands on Marlowe’s character as he grows older. The film adaptation takes its cues from that. The Black-Eyed Blonde carries on Marlowe’s legacy, which was first established in the 1930s. The neo-noir employs some of the same dialogue and catapults Marlowe into a new, dangerous story, introducing Marlowe to a new generation of fans in a new era.
Like many neo-noir films, Marlowe features murder, seedy characters, and a dark conspiracy tying it all together. At the heart of Marlowe are the themes of power and wealth, and its effects on those without it. That is showcased in the stories of both Nico Peterson and his sister, a sex worker who is impacted by her half-brother’s dealings. The film adaptation subverts expectations surrounding the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Instead of nostalgia, viewers are met with the wicked underbelly of Los Angeles and its key players — the wealthy and well-connected, be they film studio executives, club managers, or heiresses. Marlowe showcases the lengths these people will go to stay on top and in control. Be it killing, raping, or blackmailing, nothing is off the table. Through this lens, Marlowe unveils the inequality and darkness that exists just beneath the surface, covered up by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Here, the little man, like Nico, doesn’t stand a chance of surviving, no matter how much evidence he’d gathered.