Daily Dialogue — February 3, 2020

Philip Marlowe: You know it just happens I got a bottle of pretty good rye in my pocket. I’d rather not get wet in here.
Acme Book Shop Proprietress: Well.

She moves to the door and shuts it. Flips the sign to ‘closed’. Lowers the shade.

Acme Book Shop Proprietress: Looks like we’re closed for the afternoon.

— The Big Sleep (1946), screen play by William Faulkner & Leigh Brackett & Jules Furthman, short story by Raymond Chandler

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Private Eye.

Trivia: During shooting, Howard Hawks added the strong implication that Marlowe and the bookstore clerk are about to make love as the scene ends. There is no such indication in the novel, but Hawks was so struck with the 19-year-old Dorothy Malone’s mature sexuality that he decided to make the scene steamier.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Dorothy Malone does create some steam in this scene with private eye Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart).