Review of The Long Goodbye (1973) by Ross B — 06 Jul 2013

Robert Altman adapts this classic Raymond Chandler novel and updated it for the 1970s in a fun and interesting way. Private investigator Phillip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) simply just wants to get cat food for his cat in the middle of the night when an old friend of his named Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) comes by and asks for a favor.

It seems that Terry needs a quick ride to Tijuana, Mexico after a fight with his wife and needs to go do some business for a local mob boss Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell). The next morning, Marlowe is roughed up and arrested by the police for aiding and abetting Terry escape after supposedly killing his wife.

At the same time, Marlowe begins working for a wealthy woman named Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt), who needs Marlowe to find her missing writer husband, Roger (Sterling Hayden in an impressive beard).

Somehow though these cases seem to be connected in a weird way that Marlowe will need to figure out. Gould is great as Marlowe and plays him as a muttering, wise cracking private eye who seems to be the eventual prototype for John McClaine in the Die Hard franchise.

Altman, who is more known for his huge ensemble casts, is able to create a great vision of Chandler's work, which can be tough to follow at times (just ask Humphrey Bogart and The Big Sleep). The film moves at a brisk pace and Brackett's dialogue from Chandler's book works perfectly as said by a tired and sarcastic Gould.

A great modern film noir that takes more place on the sandy beaches of Southern California than the tough streets of the big cities they usually take place in.