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Farewell, My Lovely

  • 1975
  • R
  • 1h 35m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
9K
YOUR RATING
Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
Trailer 1
Play trailer2:29
1 Video
27 Photos
CrimeMysteryThriller

Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by paroled convict Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend Velma, former seedy nightclub dancer.Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by paroled convict Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend Velma, former seedy nightclub dancer.Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by paroled convict Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend Velma, former seedy nightclub dancer.

  • Director
    • Dick Richards
  • Writers
    • David Zelag Goodman
    • Raymond Chandler
  • Stars
    • Robert Mitchum
    • Charlotte Rampling
    • John Ireland
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Dick Richards
    • Writers
      • David Zelag Goodman
      • Raymond Chandler
    • Stars
      • Robert Mitchum
      • Charlotte Rampling
      • John Ireland
    • 109User reviews
    • 50Critic reviews
    • 70Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 1 win & 3 nominations total

    Videos1

    Farewell, My Lovely
    Trailer 2:29
    Watch Farewell, My Lovely

    Photos27

    Robert Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling in Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Robert Mitchum, Harry Dean Stanton, and John Ireland in Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Robert Mitchum and Jack O'Halloran in Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
    Charlotte Rampling in Farewell, My Lovely (1975)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Robert Mitchum
    Robert Mitchum
    • Marlowe
    Charlotte Rampling
    Charlotte Rampling
    • Mrs. Grayle…
    John Ireland
    John Ireland
    • Nulty
    Sylvia Miles
    Sylvia Miles
    • Mrs. Florian
    Anthony Zerbe
    Anthony Zerbe
    • Brunette
    Harry Dean Stanton
    Harry Dean Stanton
    • Billy Rolfe
    Jack O'Halloran
    Jack O'Halloran
    • Moose Malloy
    Joe Spinell
    Joe Spinell
    • Nick
    Sylvester Stallone
    Sylvester Stallone
    • Jonnie
    Kate Murtagh
    Kate Murtagh
    • Amthor
    John O'Leary
    • Marriott
    Walter McGinn
    Walter McGinn
    • Tommy Ray
    Burton Gilliam
    Burton Gilliam
    • Cowboy
    Jim Thompson
    • Mr. Grayle
    Jimmy Archer
    • Georgie
    • (as Jimmie Archer)
    Ted Gehring
    Ted Gehring
    • Roy
    Logan Ramsey
    Logan Ramsey
    • Commissioner
    Margie Hall
    • Woman
    • Director
      • Dick Richards
    • Writers
      • David Zelag Goodman
      • Raymond Chandler
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In the novel, Philip Marlowe was in his 30s. Robert Mitchum, who plays him in this film, was 57.
    • Goofs
      At 0:15:45, Marlowe gives the flophouse night clerk an "Abraham Lincoln," i.e. a $5 bill for some information. The $5 bill, clearly shown to the camera, is of modern (c. 1975) issue, although this story is set in 1941.
    • Quotes

      Philip Marlowe: [voiceover] The house itself wasn't much. It was smaller than Buckingham Palace and probably had fewer windows than the Chrysler building.

    • Connections
      Featured in Morning Patrol (1987)
    • Soundtracks
      I've Heard That Song Before
      Words and Music by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn

    User reviews109

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    Nice film; magic Mitchum.
    In the wake of 'The Long Goodbye' and, especially, 'Chinatown', there was a profusion in the mid- to late-70s of recreated films noirs of the Chandlerian bent, many featuring aging stars. 'Farewell My Lovely' is one of the best - while it does not reek of the depravity of Dmytryk's 1944 version, starring Dick Powell, it is broader in scope, and truer to a kind of lived-in realism, as opposed to hard-boiled iconography. It's nice to see 1940s L.A. close to what it might have looked like, and not the vague dreamworlds presented by classic noir. it would be a mistake to assume that this is a progressive, or revisionist movie - while it scores well in its treatment of race, the fundamental misogyny of Chandler's source novel and Dmytryk's film lingers. Indeed, it is less palatable, in that 40s Hollywood made its villainesses glamorous, charismatic and desirable; Charlotte Rampling seems barely to exist on screen, a mere assemblage of corruption and cold amorality.

    The hard-boiled detective fictions of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were created in conscious opposition to the reactionary puzzles of the English Golden Age (eg Agatha Christie), which were exercises in asserting order and social control. Chandler tried to express a bleaker reality, one where arbitrary violence and corruption is not so easily contained, where smaller crimes may be solved, but society itself is rotten, diseased, irredeemable. Chandler pits his hero Philip Marlowe against this malaise, tough, solitary, misanthropic, frequently compared to medieval knights, as hopelessly out of his time as Don Quixote.

    Chandler's novels are completely filtered through the prejudiced narration of Marlowe, so instead of realism we get a barely controlled expressionism, riddled with ideology. Marlowe is unable to trust anyone, and defines himself against everyone else, the Other, especially women and blacks. This is a subtext in the novel, but RIchards foregrounds it in the early scenes of this film. When Marlowe enters a black neighbourhood investigating Velma, he is very uncomfortable in an alien environment. Although, as a detective, he has the freedom to navigate the city, to access both poor black neighbourhoods and obscenely wealthy white mansions in a way neither one of these nor the other can, he is still constrained by ideology, the ideology of his times - he is not as apart from the corruption as he thinks. And so we frequently see him indoors, even imprisoned, by cops and criminals alike - like a conservative, everything is connected for Marlowe, except everything stinks.

    This making mental states physical is important for a narrative seen through its hero's head. It puts us on our guard, distances us from Marlowe in a way Chandler never lets us, allows us to be more critical. Another device is the bizarre use of narrative voiceover. This seems conventional enough, Marlowe telling us the story, controlling, interpreting, often verbatim from the book. But his voiceover is broken - he starts addressing us, then, within that, he tells Nulty a story; so that the viewer is at two removes from a story that we only have it's teller's word for its veracity. In its modest way, the film DOES have revisionist aspirations.

    Unlike Altman's film, 'Farewell' is purely enjoyable on the level of a murder-mystery thriller - the plot is satisfyingly, Chandlerianly (sic?) opaque; there are sufficient interesting supporting characters; the violence seems quaintly 1940s; the music is exciting. The film, therefore, would be pleasant, but harmless, except for one crucial element: Robert Mitchum, America's greatest actor. His aging Marlowe might be more appropriate to 'The Long Goodbye', but this is an astonishing portrait of middle- giving on to old-age, a study of a man struggling with cynicism, trying to maintain order (wisecracks; narration; frequent references to baseball, a game with rules) and humanity (the kid) in a world that only offers diabolic inversions of each.

    Even more resonantly, the film is a film about film noir, about acting, about Robert Mitchum, soon to become famous in the period represented, soon the embodiment of the doomed noir hero. The Chandlerian dialogue that works wonderfully on the page can seem corny and stilted when spoken, but Mitchum pulls it off with melancholy beauty. He is the only screen Marlowe that seems like an actual human being who has lived - not even Bogie quite managed that.
    helpful•71
    23
    • the red duchess
    • Aug 30, 2000

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • August 8, 1975 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Fahr zur Hölle, Liebling
    • Filming locations
      • 1024 S. Grand Avenue, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • EK
      • ITC Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $2,500,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 35 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1(original ratio)

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