The story's setting was moved from the 1940s to 1970s Hollywood. The film has been called "a study of a moral and decent man cast adrift in a selfish, self-obsessed society where lives can be thrown away without a backward glance ... and any notions of friendship and loyalty are meaningless."[2]
United Artists released the film on March 7, 1973. It received mixed to positive reviews upon release, but its critical assessment has grown over time.[3] In 2021, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4]
Plot
Down-on-his-luck private eyePhilip Marlowe leaves his Los Angeles apartment to buy cat food. When he returns, he finds his close friend Terry Lennox, who begs him for a ride to Tijuana. Marlowe notices scratches on Terry's face, and Terry admits he is in trouble.
After Marlowe returns from Mexico, the police arrest him, explaining that Terry has been accused of killing his wife Sylvia and that Marlowe may be an accomplice. Marlowe spends three days in jail, but is released after Mexican authorities report that Terry has committed suicide in Mexico. Marlowe refuses to believe his friend could have done these things.
Eileen Wade hires Marlowe to find her missing husband, Roger Wade, a macho, alcoholic, and self-destructive novelist. Marlowe finds Roger at a rehab clinic and brings him home, but not before the clinician, Dr. Verringer, demands payment for his services and vows to see Roger again. Marlowe decides to investigate the Wades after learning that they were the Lennoxes' neighbors.
Gangster Marty Augustine roughs up Marlowe, demanding that he help recover $355,000 that Augustine hired Terry to deliver to Mexico City. To underscore the threat, Augustine smashes a broken bottle into his mistress's face.
Marlowe visits the Wades in Malibu. Roger worries that Eileen no longer loves him. To deter Marlowe from competing for Eileen's affections, he boasts to Marlowe that Augustine owes him $50,000. Eileen says that Roger actually owes Augustine money.
Marlowe travels to Mexico, but the Mexican police stick to their story. He returns to Malibu, where the Wades are hosting a party. Dr. Verringer crashes the party, demanding payment. Although Roger drunkenly insults him, he cannot stand being humiliated in front of his friends. He pays Dr. Verringer and walks into the ocean to commit suicide. Eileen and Marlowe chase him, but cannot save him.
Hoping that Terry is still alive, Marlowe theorizes that Roger was having an affair with Sylvia and killed her to hide his infidelity, forcing Terry to flee the country until Marlowe can reveal the truth. He badgers Eileen, who reluctantly confirms his theory. Marlowe asks the police to call off the Lennox investigation; they dismiss his theory, but confirm that Roger met with Sylvia before going to rehab.
Marlowe receives a goodbye letter signed "Terry", with a rare $5,000 bill enclosed. Goons drag him to Augustine's office. After discovering the $5,000 bill, Augustine grows suspicious, noting that Terry's money shipment contained three $5,000 bills. Augustine parades his bandaged mistress in front of Marlowe and threatens to forcibly circumcise him, but Terry's money arrives in the nick of time, and Augustine lets Marlowe go. Marlowe glimpses Eileen driving away. He runs after her, but she does not acknowledge him. During his pursuit, he is hit by a car. He wakes up in a hospital and is given a miniature harmonica by a heavily bandaged patient in the next bed. Eileen has disappeared.
Marlowe returns to Mexico, where he attempts to bribe a local official with the $5,000 bill. The official admits that a man with another $5,000 bill paid him to fake Terry's suicide. Marlowe finds Terry in a Mexican villa. It turns out that Marlowe's instincts were wrong and the cops were right. Terry explains that while there was in fact a Lennox-Wade affair, it was actually Terry who was sleeping with Eileen. Roger discovered the affair and disclosed it to Sylvia, who confronted Terry. Terry accidentally killed Sylvia during a violent argument.
Terry gloats that no one cares about the case anymore since he is legally dead and Augustine got his money back. Marlowe asks him why Terry framed him as a suspect, but Terry dismissively calls Marlowe a loser. In response, Marlowe fatally shoots Terry.
As Marlowe walks away, he passes Eileen, who is driving to meet Terry. She is shocked to see him in Mexico, and realizes that Terry's secret is out. Having obtained his revenge, Marlowe happily plays the harmonica while strolling down the road.
It took a number of years for a film of The Long Goodbye to be made, although a television production was made in 1954 with Dick Powell.[7] By the time of Chandler's death in 1959, his only Marlowe novels that had not been made into films were The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback. Playback remains unadapted.
In October 1965 it was announced that producers Elliott Kastner and Jerry Gershwin held the rights to Goodbye and would film it the following year in Los Angeles and Mexico.[8]
Kastner and producer Jerry Bick bought the rights back and made a production deal with United Artists to finance a film.[12] Chandler's books were selling as well in the early 1970s as they had while he was alive.[13]
Leigh Brackett
The producers commissioned a screenplay from Leigh Brackett, who had been Kastner's client when he was an agent and had written the script for the Humphrey Bogart version of The Big Sleep. Brackett:
set the deal with United Artists, and they had a commitment for a film with Elliott Gould, so either you take Elliott Gould or you don't make the film. Elliott Gould was not exactly my idea of Philip Marlowe, but anyway there we were. Also, as far as the story was concerned, time had gone by—it was twenty-odd years since the novel was written, and the private eye had become a cliché. It had become funny. You had to watch out what you were doing. If you had Humphrey Bogart at the same age that he was when he did The Big Sleep, he wouldn't do it the same way. Also, we were faced with a technical problem of this enormous book, which was the longest one Chandler ever wrote. It's tremendously involuted and convoluted. If you did it the way he wrote it, you would have a five-hour film.[14]
Brian G. Hutton, who had made a number of movies for Kastner, was originally attached as director and Brackett says Hutton wanted the script structured so that "the heavy had planned the whole thing from the start" but when writing it she found the idea contrived.[14]
The script deviates markedly from Chandler's novel. Brackett took many liberties with the story, plot, and characters. In the film, Marlowe kills his best friend, Terry Lennox. Lennox did kill his own wife, because she discovered he was having an affair with Eileen, and he admits this to Marlowe. Neither Sylvia Lennox, her sister, nor her father appears in the film; Roger Wade commits suicide, rather than being murdered; and gangster Marty Augustine and his subplots are additions to the film. Bernie Ohls, Marlowe's sometime friend on the LAPD, is also absent.
The film quotes from the novel when Marlowe, under police interrogation, asks, "Is this where I'm supposed to say, 'What's all this about?' and he [the cop] says, 'Shut up! I ask the questions'?"[15]
Throughout the film are stylistic nods to the Chandler novels and 1950s American culture. Marlowe drives a 1948 Lincoln Continental convertible Cabriolet, in contrast with the contemporary cars others drive. Marlowe also chain smokes in the film, in contrast with a health-conscious California; no one else smokes on screen.
A "making-of" featurette on the DVD is titled "Rip van Marlowe", a reference to the character Rip Van Winkle, to emphasize the contrast between Marlowe's anachronistic 1950s behavior and the film's 1970s setting.[16]
Robert Altman
The producers offered the script to both Howard Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich to direct it. Both refused the offer, but Bogdanovich recommended Robert Altman.[12]
United Artists president David Picker may have picked Gould to play Marlowe as a ploy to get Altman to direct. At the time, Gould was in professional disfavor because of his rumored troubles on the set of A Glimpse of Tiger, in which he bickered with costar Kim Darby, fought with director Anthony Harvey, and acted erratically. Consequently, he had not worked in nearly two years; nevertheless, Altman convinced Bick that Gould suited the role.[12] United Artists had Gould undergo the usual employment medical examination, and a psychological examination attesting to his mental stability.[17]
In January 1972 it was announced Altman and Gould would make the film.[18] Altman called it "a satire in melancholy".[19]
Brackett had problems with Chandler's plot, which she felt was "riddled with cliches", and faced the choice of making it a period piece or updating it.[20] Altman received a copy of the script while shooting Images in Ireland. He liked the ending because it was so out of character for Marlowe. He agreed to direct as long as the ending was not changed.[21]
Brackett recalled meeting Altman while he was doing Images. "We conferred about ten o'clock in the morning and yakked all day, and I went back to the hotel and typed all the notes and went back the next day. In a week we had it all worked out. He was a joy to work with. He had a very keen story mind."[14]
Altman and Brackett spent a lot of time discussing the plot. Altman wanted Marlowe to be a loser. He even nicknamed Gould's character Rip Van Marlowe, as if he had been asleep for 20 years, woken up, and was wandering around Los Angeles in the early 1970s but "trying to invoke the morals of a previous era".[22]
Brackett said her first draft was too long, and she shortened it, but the ending was inconclusive.[20] She had Marlowe shooting Terry Lennox.[23] Altman made several changes to the script, like having Roger Wade commit suicide and having Marty Augustine smash a Coke bottle across his girlfriend's face.[23] Altman said, "it was supposed to get the attention of the audience and remind them that, in spite of Marlowe, there is a real world out there, and it is a violent world".[24]
"Chandler fans will hate my guts", Altman said. "I don't give a damn."[13]
In May 1972 it was announced that Dan Blocker would appear.[28] He was cast as Roger Wade, but died before filming started. The film is dedicated to his memory in the closing credits.
Near the midpoint of the film, during a scene in which Marlowe meets with Marty Augustine, Augustine orders everyone to strip and we see Arnold Schwarzenegger in briefs portraying a thug working for Augustine.[30] Schwarzenegger received neither screen credit nor lines in this appearance.
Filming
Altman did not read all of Chandler's book and instead used Raymond Chandler Speaking, a collection of letters and essays, copies of which he gave the cast and crew, advising them to study the essays.[23] The opening scene with Marlowe and his cat came from a story a friend of Altman's told him about his cat only eating one type of cat food. Altman saw it as a comment on friendship.[21] He decided that the camera should never stop moving and put it on a dolly.[31] The camera movements counter the characters' actions so that the viewer feels like a voyeur. To compensate for Southern California's harsh light, Altman gave the film a soft pastel look reminiscent of postcards from the 1940s.[31]
Altman had Gould and Hayden ad lib most of their dialogue because, according to the director, Hayden was drunk and stoned on marijuana most of the time.[23] Altman was reportedly thrilled by Hayden's performance. Altman's home in Malibu Colony was used as Wade's house. "I hope it works", Altman said during filming. "We've got a script but we don't follow it closely."[13]
As a reference to the American iconography of Chandler's novels, Marlowe wears a tie with American flags on it (the tie looks plain red in the movie due to Zsigmond's post-flashing).[16]
Music
The soundtrack of The Long Goodbye features two songs, "Hooray for Hollywood" and "The Long Goodbye", composed by John Williams and Johnny Mercer. It was Altman's idea to have every occurrence of the latter song arranged differently, from hippie chant to supermarket muzak to radio music, setting the mood for Marlowe's encounters with eccentric Californians while pursuing his case.[32]
Release
The Long Goodbye was previewed at the Tarrytown Conference Center in Tarrytown, New York. Judith Crist, then the film critic for New York magazine, hosted the gala.[24] The film was not well received by the audience, except for Nina van Pallandt's performance. Altman attended a question-and-answer session afterward, where the mood was "vaguely hostile", reportedly leaving the director "depressed".[24]The Long Goodbye was not well received by critics during its limited release in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami.[1][24] The New York opening was canceled at the last minute after several advance screenings had already been held for the press. The film was abruptly withdrawn from release with rumors that it would be reedited.[24]
Studio executives analyzed the reviews for months, concluding that the reason for the film's failure was the misleading advertising campaign in which it had been promoted as a "detective story". They spent $40,000 on a new release campaign that included a poster by Mad magazine artist Jack Davis.[33][34]
MGM Home Entertainment released the film on DVD on September 17, 2002.[35]
Varèse Sarabande released selections from Williams's score on a CD in 2004 paired with the album rerecording of Williams's music from Fitzwilly; in 2015 Quartet Records issued a CD entirely devoted to The Long Goodbye.
When the film screened on TV in 1977, ABC cut Marlowe's shooting of Lennox.[36]
Reception
Though the film has been lauded by critics in the decades since its release, contemporaneous reviews complained of Altman's handling of the noir genre and Gould's portrayal of Marlowe. Time magazine's Jay Cocks wrote, "Altman's lazy, haphazard putdown is without affection or understanding, a nose-thumb not only at the idea of Philip Marlowe but at the genre that his tough-guy-soft-heart character epitomized. It is a curious spectacle to see Altman mocking a level of achievement to which, at his best, he could only aspire".[37]Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times found the film "quite sleek, marvelously and inventively photographed ... The problem is that the Altman-Brackett Marlowe, played by Elliott Gould, is an untidy, unshaven, semiliterate, dim-wit slob who could not locate a missing skyscraper and would be refused service at a hot dog stand. He is not Chandler's Marlowe, or mine, and I can't find him interesting, sympathetic or amusing, and I can't be sure who will."[38] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that the film "is not a movie version of the Chandler mystery that anyone with a liking for Chandler could possibly enjoy ... If you are not prepared to shuffle along from scene to pointless, protracted scene with klutzy old Elliott, there will be little to occupy your time or offset your annoyance."[39]
Roger Ebert, however, gave the film three out of four stars and praised Gould's performance, "particularly the virtuoso ten-minute stretch at the beginning of the movie when he goes out to buy food for his cat. Gould has enough of the paranoid in his acting style to really put over Altman's revised view of the private eye".[40]Gene Siskel also liked the film and gave it three-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "a most satisfying motion picture" with Gould displaying "surprising finesse and reserve" in his performance, though he faulted the "convoluted and too quickly resolved plot".[41]
When The Long Goodbye was rereleased, reviewer Vincent Canby wrote, "it's an original work, complex without being obscure, visually breathtaking without seeming to be inappropriately fancy".[42]
Pauline Kael's lengthy review in The New Yorker called the film "a high-flying rap on Chandler and the movies", hailed Gould's performance as "his best yet" and praised Altman for achieving "a self-mocking fairy-tale poetry".[43]
Despite Kael's effusive endorsement and its influence among younger critics, The Long Goodbye was relatively unpopular and earned poorly in the rest of the United States. The New York Times listed it in its Ten Best List for film for that year, while Zsigmond was awarded the National Society of Film Critics' prize for Best Cinematographer.[34][44] Ebert later ranked it among his Great Movies collection and wrote, "Most of its effect comes from the way it pushes against the genre, and the way Altman undermines the premise of all private eye movies, which is that the hero can walk down mean streets, see clearly, and tell right from wrong".[45]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An ice-cold noir that retains Robert Altman's idiosyncratic sensibilities, The Long Goodbye ranks among the smartest and most satisfying Marlowe mysteries."[3] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 87 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[46]
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.
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and satirical films with overlapping dialogue and ensemble casts. Over his career he received several awards including an Academy Honorary Award, two British Academy Film Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for seven competitive Academy Awards.
Nashville is a 1975 American musical comedy drama film directed and produced by Robert Altman. The film follows various people involved in the country and gospel music industry in Nashville, Tennessee, over the five-day period leading up to a gala concert for a populist outsider running for president on the Replacement Party ticket.
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.
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".
Elliott Gould is an American actor.
Morris the Cat is the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television commercials since the 1970s.
A Wedding is a 1978 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman, with an ensemble cast that includes Desi Arnaz, Jr., Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow, Lillian Gish, Geraldine Chaplin, Howard Duff, Nina Van Pallandt, Amy Stryker, and Pat McCormick. The story is told in typical Altman style, with multiple plots and overlapping humorous dialogue.
Edward II is a 1991 British romantic historical drama film directed by Derek Jarman and starring Steven Waddington, Tilda Swinton and Andrew Tiernan. It is based on the play of the same name by Christopher Marlowe. The plot revolves around Edward II of England's infatuation with Piers Gaveston, which proves to be the downfall of both of them, thanks to the machinations of Roger Mortimer.
The Big Sleep is a 1946 American film noir directed by Howard Hawks. William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay, which adapts Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in a story that begins with blackmail and leads to multiple murders.
Elliott Kastner was an American film producer, whose best known credits include Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976), and Angel Heart (1987).
California Split is a 1974 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of gamblers. It was the first non-Cinerama film to use eight-track stereo sound.
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.
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.
Farewell, My Lovely is a 1975 American neo-noir crime thriller 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 supporting cast features Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Jack O'Halloran, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Spinell, Sylvester Stallone and hardcore crime novelist Jim Thompson, in his only acting role, as Charlotte Rampling's character's elderly husband Judge Grayle. Mitchum returned to the role of Marlowe three years later in the 1978 film The Big Sleep, making him the only actor to portray the character more than once in a feature film.
Getting Straight is a 1970 American comedy film motion picture directed by Richard Rush, released by Columbia Pictures.
M*A*S*H is a 1970 American black comedy war film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner Jr., based on Richard Hooker's 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The film is the only theatrically released feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise.
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.
"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.
Robert Altman was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era. His films are known for having satirical themes, unexpected quirks, with overlapping and improvised dialogue. He has deconstructed classic film genres like Westerns, crime dramas, musicals and classic whodunits. He has worked with frequent collaborators such as actors Shelley Duvall, Elliott Gould, René Auberjonois, Henry Gibson and Lily Tomlin. Over his career he received five Oscar nominations winning the Honorary Academy Award in 2005.
References
Notes
1 2 Long Goodbye' Proves a Big Sleeper Here By PAUL GARDNER. New York Times 8 Nov 1973: 59.
↑ O'Brien, Daniel. Robert Altman: Hollywood Survivor. London: B.T. Batsford, 1995. p. 53. ISBN9780713474817. See also: Phillips, Gene C. (2000). Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction and Film Noir. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky. pp. 156 and 265. ISBN0813121744
↑ 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 08 Oct 1954: 34.
↑ Gene Kelly Readies Musical Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 13 Oct 1965: d12.
↑ Bobby Morse to Co-Star Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 10 June 1967: b7.
↑ MOVIE CALL SHEET: 'Little Sister' on Schedule Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 12 Mar 1968: c13.
↑ Fade-out on Raymond Chandler Lochte, Richard S. Chicago Tribune 14 Dec 1969: 60.
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