Playback (novel) - Trivia

Trivia

The opening lines of the second chapter served as inspiration for Jonathan Lethem's science fiction/detective novel Gun, with Occasional Music: "There was nothing to it. The Super Chief was on time, as it almost always is, and the subject was as easy to spot as a kangaroo in a dinner jacket."

Playback is the only Marlowe novel that Chandler completed that is set somewhere other than Los Angeles. It's set in a town called Esmeralda, which is a made-up name for La Jolla, where Chandler lived his last few years. Poodle Springs, which Chandler did not finish, is set in Palm Springs.

Of all Chandler's novels, Playback is the only one never to have been filmed.

In 2011, Playback was adapted for radio by BBC Radio Four as part of a season of Chandler adaptations. Marlowe was played by Toby Stephens.

Works by Raymond Chandler
Novels
  • The Big Sleep
  • Farewell, My Lovely
  • The High Window
  • The Lady in the Lake
  • The Little Sister
  • The Long Goodbye
  • Playback
  • Poodle Springs
Characters
  • Philip Marlowe
Short story
collections
  • Five Murderers
  • Five Sinister Characters
  • Fingerman and Other Stories
  • The Simple Art of Murder
  • Killer in the Rain
  • The Midnight Raymond Chandler
  • Trouble is My Business
  • Pickup on Noon Street
  • Spanish Blood
Non-fiction
  • Raymond Chandler Speaking
  • Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler
Screenplays
  • Double Indemnity
  • And Now Tomorrow
  • The Unseen
  • The Blue Dahlia
  • Strangers on a Train
  • Playback
Film
adaptations
  • Time to Kill (1942)
  • The Falcon Takes Over (1942)
  • Murder, My Sweet (1944)
  • The Big Sleep (1946)
  • The Brasher Doubloon (1947)
  • Lady in the Lake (1947)
  • Marlowe (1969)
  • The Long Goodbye (1973)
  • Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
  • The Big Sleep (1978)
  • Poodle Springs (1998)

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