The Long Goodbye (Climax!)

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"The Long Goodbye"
Climax! episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 1
Directed by William H. Brown Jr.
Teleplay by E. Jack Neuman
Based on The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler
Presented by William Lundigan
Original air dateOctober 7, 1954 (1954-10-07)
List of episodes

"The Long Goodbye" is a 1954 American television play based on the novel of the same name by Raymond Chandler. It was the first episode of the anthology series Climax! and starred Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe. Powell had played the role previously in Murder, My Sweet. [1]

Contents

The episode was broadcast live. Although there was a rumor that actor Tristram Coffin, playing a corpse under a blanket, had got up and walked off the set in view of the live camera, he himself debunked this in an interview; while the blanket over his body was partially removed before he was out of frame, he did not walk off set in full view of the camera. [2]

Cast

Reception

The New York Times called it "fine entertainment... a piece that held suspense". [3] The Hollywood Reporter went even further, describing it as "beautifully acted and directed," while singling out both Neuman's adaptation and Brown's "imaginative and vigorous" direction and judging the fruit of their labor as superior to any big screen predecessor.

If this new teleseries lives up to its opener in future plays, it should become the number one hour-long dramatic show. [...] There have been several motion pictures based on Chandler's novels, and it must be said that none of them came off as well as this one did here. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Chandler</span> American novelist and screenwriter (1888–1959)

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime. All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

<i>The Big Sleep</i> 1939 novel by Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Marlowe</span> Fictional character

Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The genre originated in the 1920s, notably in Black Mask magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op and Sam Spade first appeared. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep, published in 1939. Chandler's early short stories, published in pulp magazines such as Black Mask and Dime Detective, featured similar characters with names like "Carmady" and "John Dalmas", starting in 1933.

<i>Farewell, My Lovely</i> 1940 novel by Raymond Chandler

Farewell, My Lovely is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and radio.

<i>The Long Goodbye</i> (novel) 1953 novel by Raymond Chandler

The Long Good-bye is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1953, his sixth novel featuring the private investigator Philip Marlowe. Some critics consider it inferior to The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, but others rank it as the best of his work. Chandler, in a letter to a friend, called the novel "my best book".

<i>Lady in the Lake</i> 1947 film by Robert Montgomery

Lady in the Lake is a 1947 American film noir starring Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows. An adaptation of the 1943 Raymond Chandler murder mystery The Lady in the Lake, the picture was also Montgomery's directorial debut, and last in either capacity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) after eighteen years with the studio. Montgomery's use of point-of-view cinematography and its failure was blamed for the end of his career at MGM.

<i>Murder, My Sweet</i> 1944 film directed by Edward Dmytryk

Murder, My Sweet is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley. The film is based on Raymond Chandler's 1940 novel Farewell, My Lovely. It was the first film to feature Chandler's primary character, the hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe.

Lew Archer is a fictional character created by American-Canadian writer Ross Macdonald. Archer is a private detective working in Southern California. Between the late 1940s and the early '70s, the character appeared in 18 novels and a handful of shorter works as well as several film and television adaptations. Macdonald's Archer novels have been praised for building on the foundations of hardboiled fiction by introducing more literary themes and psychological depth to the genre. Critic John Leonard declared that Macdonald had surpassed the limits of crime fiction to become "a major American novelist" while author Eudora Welty was a fan of the series and carried on a lengthy correspondence with Macdonald. The editors of Thrilling Detective wrote: "The greatest P.I. series ever written? Probably."

<i>Climax!</i> American anthology TV series

Climax! is an American television anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs of that era to be broadcast in color, using the massive TK-40A color cameras pioneered and manufactured by RCA, and used primarily by CBS's rival network, NBC. Many of the episodes were performed and broadcast live, but, although the series was transmitted in color, only black-and-white kinescope copies of some episodes survive to the present day. The series finished at #22 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1955–1956 season and #26 for 1956–1957.

<i>Playback</i> (novel) Novel by Raymond Chandler

Playback is a novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler featuring the private detective Philip Marlowe. It was first published in Britain in July 1958; the US edition followed in October that year. Chandler died the following year; Playback is his last completed novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Mowbray</span> British-American actor (1896–1969)

Alan Mowbray MM was an English stage and film actor who found success in Hollywood.

<i>The Long Goodbye</i> (film) 1973 film by Robert Altman

The Long Goodbye is a 1973 American satirical neo-noir film directed by Robert Altman, adapted by Leigh Brackett from Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same name. The film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe and features Sterling Hayden, Nina Van Pallandt, Jim Bouton, Mark Rydell, and an early, uncredited appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tris Coffin</span> Film and television actor

Tristram Chockley Coffin was a former film and television actor from the latter 1930s through the 1970s, usually in Westerns or other B-movie action-adventure productions.

The Long Goodbye may refer to:

<i>Poodle Springs</i> 1989 novel by Raymond Chandler

Poodle Springs is the eighth Philip Marlowe novel. It was started in 1958 by Raymond Chandler, who left it unfinished at his death in 1959. The four chapters he had completed, which bore the working title The Poodle Springs Story, were subsequently published in Raymond Chandler Speaking (1962), a collection of excerpts from letters and unpublished writings. In 1988, on the occasion of the centenary of Chandler's birth, the crime writer Robert B. Parker was asked by the estate of Raymond Chandler to complete the novel.

<i>Marlowe</i> (1969 film) 1969 film by Paul Bogart

Marlowe is a 1969 American neo-noir film starring James Garner as Raymond Chandler's private detective Philip Marlowe. Directed by Paul Bogart, the film was written by Stirling Silliphant based on Chandler's 1949 novel The Little Sister.

<i>Farewell, My Lovely</i> (1975 film) 1975 film by Dick Richards

Farewell, My Lovely is a 1975 neo-noir mystery film directed by Dick Richards and featuring Robert Mitchum as private detective Philip Marlowe. The picture is based on Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely (1940), which had previously been adapted for film as Murder, My Sweet in 1944. The cast also features Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Spinell, Sylvester Stallone, Jack O'Halloran in his film debut, and hardcore crime novelist Jim Thompson in his only acting role.

The BBC Presents: Philip Marlowe was a series of BBC radio drama adaptations of novels by Raymond Chandler that ran from 1977 to 1978, and again in 1988. The radio show adapted six out of the seven of Chandlers novels starring Philip Marlowe, played by Ed Bishop. The show was adapted by Bill Morrison and produced by John Tydeman. Other actors featured included Don Fellows and Robert Beatty,

<i>Perchance to Dream</i> (novel) Novel by Robert B. Parker

Perchance to Dream is a detective crime novel by Robert B. Parker, written as an authorized sequel to The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Following his post-mortem collaboration with Chandler on Poodle Springs, this 1991 release is the second and final Philip Marlowe novel written by Parker.

William Herbert Brown Jr. was an American television director and producer, a radio dramatist, and a composer, perhaps best known for his work on the 1950s CBS anthology series Climax! and Studio One.

References

  1. Linda Christian, Cesar Romero Set for Roles in Tense TV Dramas Ames, Walter. Los Angeles Times 30 Aug 1954: 28.
  2. "Climax!" The Long Goodbye (TV Episode 1954) - IMDb , retrieved March 4, 2021
  3. Television in Review: 'Climax': Raymond Chandler Play Opens C.B.S. Series Teresa Wright and Dick Powell in Lead Roles By JACK GOULD. New York Times 8 Oct 1954: 34.
  4. Luban, Milton (October 8, 1954). "TV Reviews: Climax! ('The Long Goodbye')". The Hollywood Reporter. p. 12. ProQuest   2338071156. If this new teleseries lives up to its opener in future plays, it should become the number one hour-long dramatic show. Using Raymond Chandler's novel, with an excellent adaptation by E. Jack Neuman, the first vehicle resulted in a gripping murder mystery, beautifully acted and directed, and loaded with suspense. There have been several motion pictures based on Chandler's novels, and it must be said that none of them came off as well as this one did here.