Philip Marlowe
"Farewell, My Lovely" was the first Philip Marlowe novel to be filmed. In 1942, "The Falcon Takes Over", a 65-minute film that was the third in the "Falcon" series about Michael Arlen's gentleman sleuth Gay Lawrence (played by George Sanders), used the plot of "Farewell, My Lovely". In 1944, Dick Powell played the part of the hard-boiled detective, named Philip Marlowe this time, in a classic film noir release—alternatively entitled "Murder, My Sweet" (in the United States) and "Farewell, My Lovely" (in the UK)—two years before cinema-goers saw Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe in "The Big Sleep" (1946). In 1975, Robert Mitchum starred in a remake of "Farewell, My Lovely".