I’ve been listening to some radio dramas, Philip Marlowe in particular, produced in the late 40’s. (1940s. I’ll be specific because hey, they tell me the internet is forever.) I picked these up as research on style a while back. I’ve talked about that before, getting a sampling of a style to reproduce for practice. But I keep it around for more; it’s a really good listen for driving a car through the rain or when I’m just in the mood for something with a slightly beat-up white knight in a gray world. 1
My main point this time: One of the things I like in these adaptations are the occasional metaphors and imagery sprinkled in. I want to mention a few here to show what I’m talking about.
A woman: “Her green eyes were so much green ice as she sized me up”
A wrestler: “Into the ring came something that looked like a Sherman tank in a toga and leather sandals”
The wind: “It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that, every booze party ends in a fight and neat little housewives feel the edge of a carving knife and study their husband’s necks. Anything can happen when the Santa Ana blows in from the desert.”2
Ruminating: “I wandered aimlessly, trying to make something close to four out of two and two.”
Another woman: “…she was gone. There was only the heady scent of taboo in the air.”
A client: “He looked like a man who’d forgotten how to smile.”
Cousin of said client: “I can heartily recommend him to nobody.”
Himself: “I could tell I was as welcome as whooping cough at a glass blowing convention.”
A stickup artist: “I didn’t recognize you without your broomstick.”
Several times there are longer ones, like the wind paragraph; sometimes it’s small little one-offs. There are several, like the glass blowing convention, that I just really love. Unfortunately I didn’t write them all down the first time through and I literally don’t have the time to find them again. It’s a good chunk of media to listen to. I’m thinking of trying some similar language things out myself another time in the near future.
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- It has problems, sure; it’s a product of its time. There’s some interesting scenes about cultural appropriation in Hawai’i for example or some interesting stereotypes in Chinatown. I don’t want to excuse them but I do want to say it’s interesting that in a murder mystery of most times, they tend to give people more agency and sidestep some stereotypes because they’re trying to not go for the “expected” endings. So even the nice girls might hide secrets; even the suspicious-sounding gentleman without a job might be an innocent who wants to turn his life around. This is neither here nor there, it’s just something that I notice when I listen. ↩︎
- This one’s an intro and has more of a direct line to Raymond Chandler, creator and original writer of the character of Philip Marlowe. One of the things that makes me chuckle is the intro “From the pen of Raymond Chandler comes his most famous character in…” Yeah, sure, Raymond is writing the whole series, I’m sure. No, no, just the character came from his pen, we’re not lying to you. ↩︎
