Time to Kill

This is a fun little detective movie. It actually follows the storyline of The High Window a lot more closely than the later (and much inferior) The Brasher Doubloon. I gather that Michael Shayne's character is quite the wise-ass (he certainly is in this movie), but that's not too much of a stretch from the original Philip Marlowe, and Lloyd Nolan is quite enjoyable in the role.

Of course, like all Chandler adaptations, this one moves much too quickly to capture the hot, sticky southern California atmosphere that pervades so many of the original novels. The running time is too short to include every aspect of the novel, of course, and a couple of my favorite parts were left out, but overall, this is far superior to the version of the same novel that came out a few years later starring George Montgomery (The Brasher Doubloon). One of the better "second-tier" 40s mysteries I've seen.