The High Window

By: Raymond Chandler

Narrated by: Full Cast, Toby Stephens

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 amidst 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 dramatisation by Robin Brooks retains all the wry humour of Chandler’s serpentine suspense novel.

Small Book, But Good, it was worth listening.

It was a good, and worth listening because it really was not long at all.

Highly enjoyable

Just wish it were twice as long! It’s a tidy little piece of work - no filler material - and there are some hilarious turns of phrase.
‘Nuf said.

Too Many Twists & Turns To Transfer Well To Radio

Any additional comments?

I love those 40's $ 50's radio plays and they actually did an amazing job of recreating that same atmosphere. The only drawback of this was that it seemed to be trying to pack too much material into a short 1.5 hours. The result ends up sounding very condensed, giving it the feeling of taking a twist turn every 5 or 10 minutes. As you can imagine, even for the most enthousiastic listener, this gets tiresome.

Toby Stevens is pitch perfect!

All of the BBC adaptations of Chandler ' s canon of Marlowe novels are riveting and well worth a listen. The cast us in fine voice, their American accents believable. I felt transported to 1940s Los Angeles!

A Good, 2011 Dramatic Performance of A 1940 Novel

This is a good dramatic, 2011 BBC radio performance of a good, not great, 1940 novel. I liked the performance better than the story. There is a definite "Noir" aspect to this story. I am glad that I listened to it. I enjoy studying American Noir. Although the performance is very good, the story is just OK. If a listener is not a fan of 1940s noir crime stories, this may not suit your taste. Think You...