Lost Martial Arts Cinematic Treasure: Bruce Lee in Marlowe

Premise: Bruce Lee makes his Hollywood big screen debut with a small but memorable part in this Raymond Chandler noir meets swinging sixties scene, starring James Garner as the wisecracking, Detective Phillip Marlowe.

Although not technically a Martial Arts film "Marlowe" is significant in that it marks Bruce Lee's first appearance in a Hollywood feature film. And in fact Lee's performance, as the charming but dangerous mob henchman, Winslow Wong could be considered one of his best. "Marlowe" was adapted from The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler and scripted by Bruce Lee collaborator/friend/student, Sterling Silliphant. The film stars James Garner, taking an amusing turn as Phillip Marlowe. Filmed in Los Angeles of the late 60s, "Marlowe" is something of a collusion between classic 40s noir and a kind of hokey-Hollywood idea of hippie counter-culture. 

The plot follows the convoluted thread of a girl from Kansas trying to find her dead brother, and a starlet trying to get a hold of some risque photos of herself, that have fallen into Marlowe's hands. As in seemingly all RaymondChandler stories, the thread of course leads to murder. Or in this case, a string of ice pick murders. As the ever wisecracking, Marlowe blunders closer to the truth, the baddies dispatch Bruce as, Winslow Wong, to buy him off the trail. 

Striding in some thirty-one minutes into the film, looking cool and laidback in his modish attire, Bruce's Winslow Wong has an instant onscreen appeal that only multiplies when he suddenly sidekicks a hole in the wall of Marlowe's office and does a lightning quick karate chop that splits a hat stand in two. Still somewhat boyish, and known mainly from his stint as Kato on the Green Hornet, Lee is a diamond in the rough. With his immaculate mod gear, and pixie haircut, he is on screen for only a few moments yet still manages to exude cool the whole time. Smiling pleasantly but menacingly, he trades barbs with Garner's Marlowe and attemps to buy him off with $500 cash.