Cheap Philip Marlowe, Private Eye: Pickup on Noon Street/Guns at Cyrano's (Video) (David Wickes, Robert Iscove, Bryan Forbes, Peter R. Hunt, Sidney Hayers) Price

In this first video of the three-tape set, Marlowe (effortlessly played by Powers Boothe) tries to rescue a would-be starlet (Robin Givens) from the seamier side of tinseltown, then tries to sniff out the thugs who put a lethal fix on a boxing champ and his torch singer girlfriend. In a perfect world, a man as capable and dedicated as Marlowe would succeed on both counts--but the fractured reality Marlowe navigates is far from perfect. And it's the idiosyncrasies that breathe life into these stories decades after their archetypal elements have been flogged nearly to death. From the devotion of a straight-razor-wielding albino bodyguard ("Don't call him Whitey...") to the faint glimmer of machismo underneath the foppish mannerisms of a matinee idol, there are enough low-key accents to bring the performances to life. Admittedly, in these earlier episodes some of the lines fall flat, but those fade away when compared to the countless succession of rapid-fire tough-guy gems. In this series, the soundtrack is smoky and the locations reek of cigarettes, sweat, and liquor; the thugs all know from cracking wise and all the dames are cool as silk. --Grant Balfour