David Watkins

Chandler once said that Powell was his favourite - not, naturally, his ideal - screen Marlowe. Though "Bogart is always excellent as Bogart", he wasn't Marlowe.

Claire Trevor is the classic proof of how personality is more important than looks, even in sexy parts. Short, powerfully built, coarse-featured, she comes across here as overpoweringly glamorous and alluring.

Not being American, I won't be accused of pique for pointing out that Godard, as a Swiss, is in a very poor position to sneer at America for its lack of history, and in particular for its part in WW2. Perhaps his next movie will be about Switzerland's glorious contribution to allied victory. (Anyway, didn't rather more Americans than even Frenchmen die fighting the Germans?).

It's true that Hollywood presents a version of history nearly always falsified and sentimentalised, but of how many national film industries is it not true?

To be honest, I may be unfair to late Godard, since even the early Godard which everybody else praises usually leaves me baffled and bored.