Who was Doghouse Riley?

[Robot_Arm]

@jbaker

Marlowe calls himself “Doghouse Reilly, the man that grew too tall,” the second time that he and Carmen meet. It’s probably just because she remarked that he was tall the first time they met.

Well, she tried to sit in his lap while he was standing up.

[bizzwire]

@Marion_Wormer

Well, I read it in the lyrics of this song and another one that Phil Harris used to sing:

Now, when I die, bury me in my straight-leg britches,
Put on a box-back coat and a stetson hat,
Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain,
So you can let all the boys know I died standing pat.

Anyway, now that I was thinking about it, I started rooting around and it seems to be an indicator of a gambler or a pimp, or someone who was a flashy dresser, but not in a nice way.

It’s from the “Saint James Infirmary Blues,” which I always associate with Cab Calloway.

[pBronze]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the discussion, I learned something new here. I know this is a way back thread, but thanks anyway.
This is a random guy from China and trying to translate Big Sleep in Chinese by myself and for myself. There’re published works but to be honest they are lame, ignoring the cultures and backgrounds and poor Chinese. I tried to look everything up to make sure not missing anything behind the words, and the Doghouse Reily leads me here.
Well, At least I found a reasonable explanation from urban dictionary: Urban Dictionary: Doghouse Riley]
It says

When a lonely elderly person moans for the sake of moaning because they have given up on life and are scared of what lays ahead in the future. They tend not to deal well with things moving forward or advances in modern life. They also harp on about things that happened in the fifties. 99.9% of what they say tends to be mind numbingly boring and not interesting.

[Ike_Witt]

Hmm. An interesting take on the term. And the urban dictionary definition would work in the context of the book (years not withstanding).

[Smapti]

@jbaker

But why was Marlowe “the man who grew too tall”? The Death House Reilly theory doesn’t address that, at least not in any obvious way.

Too tall to hang, maybe?

[Jasmine]

Oh, it was just some guy who got that nickname because he was always getting into trouble with his wife.

[Mk_VII]

From my recollection of the film, when Carmen meets him for the first time she says, “not very tall, are you?” (and Bogey was actually short, though his films usually disguised it)

[Dandan]

The urban dictionary refers to the guy as a “right” Doghouse Riley - that is Brit usage. There are some of that sort on the Dope, any recognition there?

I favor the jazz connection - a stand-up bass can be referred to as a doghouse.

Dan

[Treppenwitz]

@Dandan

The urban dictionary refers to the guy as a “right” Doghouse Riley - that is Brit usage. There are some of that sort on the Dope, any recognition there?

I favor the jazz connection - a stand-up bass can be referred to as a doghouse.

Dan

“That sort” meaning British? Well!

Never heard the expression; but I do have a few slang dictionaries and, prompted by the suggestion that this may be British, I took a look. This is the best I have, from Partridge’s Dictionary of the Underworld:

Dog-house: A railroad calaboose : Tramps : 20th C 1931, Godfrey Irwin; by 1940, railroad s. Ex its formerly small size.
2. “a small garage in a residential neighbourhood, often one owned by a householder and rented by a gang of automobile thieves in which to store their stolen cars until pursuit and discovery seem unlikely” Irwin, 1931; since ca 1920. Humorous.
3 “watch tower on a prison wall,” Rose, 1934 : convicts’ : since the middle 1920’s. Derisive.

In fact, all of those usages look more US than UK to me (UK would say railway, for example. Partridge was born in NZ but his career was in the UK, so I take it that when he uses the word railroad it implies US).

Something more to speculate about, I suppose.

j

[Roderick_Femm]

@jbaker

Marlowe calls himself “Doghouse Reilly, the man that grew too tall,” the second time that he and Carmen meet. It’s probably just because she remarked that he was tall the first time they met.

@Smapti

Too tall to hang, maybe?

@Mk_VII

From my recollection of the film, when Carmen meets him for the first time she says, “not very tall, are you?” (and Bogey was actually short, though his films usually disguised it)

But in the books, Marlowe is quite tall (6’ 1-1/2", tall for those days).

I wonder if there were the same sorts of moans then about short Bogart playing tall Marlowe, as there are now about short Tom Cruise playing tall Jack Reacher?

[kayaker]

@Roderick_Femm

I wonder if there were the same sorts of moans then about short Bogart playing tall Marlowe, as there are now about short Tom Cruise playing tall Jack Reacher?

Apples and oranges. Bogart was 5’ 8" tall, while Cruise is just a bit under 3’.

[Robot_Arm]

@Mk_VII

From my recollection of the film, when Carmen meets him for the first time she says, “not very tall, are you?” (and Bogey was actually short, though his films usually disguised it)

I recently saw part of the 1978 version of The Big Sleep. As I recall, Marlowe still refers to himself Doghouse Reilly, but Carmen’s references to his height were rewritten. Robert Mitchum played Marlowe, and he’s 6’1".

I think the ending may have been changed a bit as well.

[Fleetwood]

@kayaker

Apples and oranges. Bogart was 5’ 8" tall, while Cruise is just a bit under 3’.

:p:p:p

[mixdenny]

I did a search of all US newspapers using both spellings and the only hits were in movie reviews.

Dennis