The Long Goodbye (1973)

Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Leigh Brackett (screenplay), Raymond Chandler (novel)

Stars:

Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Elliott Gould	...	Philip Marlowe
Nina van Pallandt	...	Eileen Wade
Sterling Hayden	...	Roger Wade
Mark Rydell	...	Marty Augustine
Henry Gibson	...	Dr. Verringer
David Arkin	...	Harry
Jim Bouton	...	Terry Lennox
Warren Berlinger	...	Morgan
Jo Ann Brody	...	Jo Ann Eggenweiler
Stephen Coit	...	Detective Farmer (as Steve Coit)
Jack Knight	...	Mabel
Pepe Callahan	...	Pepe
Vincent Palmieri	...	Vince (as Vince Palmieri)
Pancho Córdova	...	Doctor (as Pancho Cordoba)
Enrique Lucero	...	Jefe

Storyline

In the middle of the night, private eye Philip Marlowe drives his friend Terry Lennox to the Mexican border. When Marlowe returns home police are waiting for him and learns that Terry's wife Sylvia has been killed. He's arrested as an accessory but released after a few days and is told the case is closed since Terry Lennox has seemingly committed suicide in Mexico. Marlowe is visited by mobster Marty Augustine who wants to know what happened to the $350,000 Lennox was supposed to deliver for him. Meanwhile, Marlowe is hired by Eileen Wade to find her husband Roger who has a habit of disappearing when he wants to dry out but she can't find him in any any of his usual haunts. He finds him at Dr. Veringer's clinic and brings him. It soon becomes obvious to Marlowe that Terry's death, the Wades and Augustine are all somehow interconnected. Figuring out just what those connections are however will be anything but easy.

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Plot Keywords:

neo noir | detective | malibu california | private detective | suicide | 

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Taglines:

Nothing says goodbye like a bullet.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller | Mystery

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 March 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Tod kennt keine Wiederkehr

Filming Locations:

1100 Block, Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

E-K-Corporation, Lion's Gate Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The opening scene with Philip Marlowe and his cat came from a story a friend of Robert Altman's told him about his cat only eating one type of cat food. Altman saw it as a comment on friendship.

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Goofs

Boom mic and operator are reflected off a black car in Malibu Court.

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Quotes

Colony guard: Oh. Hi, Mr. Lennox. Say, you're up kinda late.
Terry Lennox: Come on, lay it on me.
Colony guard: Okay. Let's see, I didn't - Barbara Stanwyck, I've been working on Barbara Stanwyck.
[as Barbara Stanwyck]
Colony guard: 'I don't understand. I don't understand it at all. I've never understood it, Walter. I just don't understand why I don't understand it all. I don't...
Terry Lennox: Okay, just remember that and you'll be alright.

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Connections

References The Jazz Singer (1927)

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Soundtracks

Hooray for Hollywood
(uncredited)
from Hollywood Hotel (1937)
Music by Richard A. Whiting
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
Performed by Johnnie Davis

User Reviews

Pivotal Seventies Masterpiece

Altman was on a roll by 1973 when he chose to film Leigh Brackett's screenplay of Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye", which is considered his last great novel. But Altman decided to transmogrify the novel's serious hard-nosed private eye, Philip Marlowe into a bumbling "Rip Van Winkle" type character who has figuratively been asleep for the last two decades and has missed all the psychedelia of the Sixties and the dark cloud descended in the Seventies. And who better to play such a role, than the great Elliot Gould? Even though the novel's tone and time period have been changed, the highly-complex plot remains, and due attention must be paid.

One of the film's greatest strengths, is the cinematography by the great Hungarian DP, Vilmos Zsigmond. He has worked with Altman on "McCabe & Mrs Miller" (1971) and "Images" (1972) and on the former, he used a technique known as "flashing", this was an unpredictable method for eliminating contrast from the negative to give a pastel look to the show and to bring out subtle shadows in the nighttime scenes by exposing the already-exposed negative to more light in the lab during processing. But on "McCabe", it was used in moderation, but on "The Long Goodbye", he, Altman and Skip Nicholson at Technicolor all worked together to more or less use varying degrees of flashing for the WHOLE picture! It was a big risk, but it paid off - the movie has a look all of it's own. The camera constantly keeps moving in this film and gives a the viewer a great sense of voyeurism and keeps you studying the frame for details. This film is a visual marvel, in my opinion.

Altman excelled himself here, he took risks and put all he could into the film, and I think that "The Long Goodbye" can now be seen as a pivotal Seventies masterpiece - though those words may be hard to swallow for some people.

Thanks for reading.