# Fictional detectives who never made it in the movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198 "2007-03-16T13:49:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/61 "2007-03-17T07:30:40Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] N The Dick Tracy films were fairly lamentable, up to and including the most recent with Warren Beatty. I [/QUOTE] Well, except for the dresses Madonna almost wore. 😉 :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/62 "2007-03-17T14:44:42Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] Both of them!! That’d be great. Who would play Davenport? [/QUOTE] [Michael Madsen](http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/he/photo/movie_pix/cannes/cannes_2003_photos/michael_madsen/cannes.jpg) might be good for the part. He can be fairly menacing and is big enough to carry off my mental picture of Davenport. ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/63 "2007-03-17T17:12:37Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] [Michael Madsen](http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/he/photo/movie_pix/cannes/cannes_2003_photos/michael_madsen/cannes.jpg) might be good for the part. He can be fairly menacing and is big enough to carry off my mental picture of Davenport. [/QUOTE] That’s an interesting choice and I never would have thought of him. He might work. Brooding, dark hair & blue eyes. I picture Lucas as tall and slender, mid-length dark hair and a little sullen. I was picturing a Tom Cruise type but not Tom Cruise. What would you think of Clive Owen with an american accent? ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/64 "2007-03-17T18:24:46Z")
I’ve always had a soft spot for [Gil Hamilton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Hamilton). Or maybe I just want **Known Space** to finally make it to the big screen. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/65 "2007-03-17T18:44:50Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] That’s an interesting choice and I never would have thought of him. He might work. Brooding, dark hair & blue eyes. I picture Lucas as tall and slender, mid-length dark hair and a little sullen. I was picturing a Tom Cruise type but not Tom Cruise. What would you think of Clive Owen with an american accent? [/QUOTE] [Chris Noth](http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/3991/intv103105noth4vx.jpg) (the image on the right)! I seem to recall that the book indicates that Lucas is pretty broad across the shoulders, somewhat intimidating, and able to take care of himself. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/66 "2007-03-17T20:10:06Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] BTW, which one did you give her? [/QUOTE] I am not entirely certain. I had most and as a rule I usually would only loan out out ones I had doubles of, which I seem to remember were Dreadful Yellow Sky, Turquoise Lament, Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper and Empty Copper Sea. But as I said, I was kind of interested in this young lady so I probably would have bent my standing rules a bit. It was quite a while ago and I am not certain. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/67 "2007-03-17T20:16:03Z")
[QUOTE=Ferd Burfel] Wasn’t Frank Sinatra’s Tony Rome supposed to be Travis McGee (or at least a thinly disguised version)? [/QUOTE] [Apparently](http://www.thrillingdetective.com/eyes/rome.html) I [was](http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2005/05/my_secret_addic.html) [wrong](http://www.mysteryfile.com/Inquiries_Albert.html). ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/68 "2007-03-17T20:27:17Z")
On a slightly reversed direction; I understand that the Philo Vance movies were pretty successful in the 1930s. Why? If there ever was a static one-dimentional, long-winded, efete detective, it was Vance. I have read all of the novels with him as the detective (even the Gracie Allen Murder Case) and I am amazed at that too (my actually reading them when I never really warmed to them, I mean). ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/69 "2007-03-17T22:01:12Z")
[QUOTE=TV time] I appreciate your coming up with the information. Reading the piece on it, it looks like it was pretty good. [/QUOTE] “Boney” was an excellent series - very fondly remembered as a high water mark in 70’s Australian TV mm ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/70 "2007-03-17T22:14:08Z")
[QUOTE=sinjin] [Hi Jack]BTW anyone read his sci-fi book, _The girl, the gold watch and everyting?_ [bye Jack, stolen from another doper 🙂] [/QUOTE] That’s one of my favourite books of all time! I was just thinking about re-reading it. 'bye, Jack, from me, too. To address the topic, how about John Marshall Tanner, My Secret Fictional Boyfriend? Author, Stephen Greenleaf. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/71 "2007-03-17T23:28:59Z")
They’d probably end up being terrible, but it still might be interesting to see film versions of the Carnacki stories by William Hope Hodgson and the John Silence stories by Algernon Blackwood. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/72 "2007-03-18T06:06:31Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Of my favorites who got (largely) left out, one at least makes some sense. Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op had a couple strikes against him - he was short and fat (though tough) and worked for a detective agency instead of being a romantic loner. Still you’d think he’d make a good subject for a modern film. [/QUOTE] The basic plot for the Continental Op’s chief novel, _Red Harvest_ has been used a couple of times, but not as detective movies. **Yojimbo** and **Fistful of Dollars** everyone knows. [**Roadhouse Nights**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021305/) might come closer to the novel, but I doubt it. I suspect it is to _Red Harvest_ as [**Satan Met a Lady**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028219/) is to _The Maltese Falcon_. **Miller’s Crossing** has attributions to _Red Harvest_ – as well as _The Glass Key_ – but I gotta say it’s hard to discern either. I would love to see _Red Harvest_ as originally written – 20’s era mining town in Idaho with the Op blowing into town and setting things to rights – but I doubt it will ever happen unless there’s a major Hammett revival. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198/73 "2007-03-18T16:16:09Z")
[QUOTE=TV time] On a slightly reversed direction; I understand that the Philo Vance movies were pretty successful in the 1930s. Why? If there ever was a static one-dimentional, long-winded, efete detective, it was Vance. I have read all of the novels with him as the detective (even the Gracie Allen Murder Case) and I am amazed at that too (my actually reading them when I never really warmed to them, I mean). [/QUOTE] The movies were much more standard detective films. And William Powell was the first Vance. He played it as jaunty William Powell. Worth seeing just for him. In the same way, the first few Ellery Queen mystery novels were heavily based on Vance, but the movie Ellery was much lighter, jauntier I guess, than the book Ellery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-detectives-who-never-made-it-in-the-movies/396198.md?page=3)