EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND

Humphrey Bogart portrayed Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye, Philip Marlowe, pretty much by just being Bogart. But who’d ever guess that the best of the other big-screen Marlowes started out as a song-and-dance man in such films as Footlight Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933? Dick Powell made a relatively seamless transition to tough-guy roles, most notably as the streetwise L.A. shamus in 1944’s Murder, My Sweet. Screening tonight at 6:30 in the Durwood Film Vault at the Kansas City, Missouri, Central Library (14 West 10th Street, 816-701-3400), that classic noir launches the free film series “Channeling Chandler,” a cinematic appreciation of the legendary novelist as both adapted author and credited screenwriter. Screening Monday evenings and Saturday afternoons in January, the series includes The Blue Dahlia, The Big Sleep, Lady in the Lake and Strangers on a Train, among others. See kclibrary.org for a complete screening schedule.

Mon., Jan. 4, 6:30 p.m., 2010