Review of The Long Goodbye (1973) by Stuart K — 20 Feb 2009
Robert Altman took on Raymond Chandler's private eye character Philip Marlowe, by transfering his noirish 1953 novel to the madness of 1970's Los Angeles. It shouldn't work, but amazingly it does thanks to dark humour, spontaneous direction and a good deadpan lead.
It has gumshoe Philip Marlowe (Eliott Gould) taking his friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) to the U.S./Mexico border at Tijuana, after an apparant incident, and this leads him to a case where the rich and beautiful Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt), for Marlowe to find her alcoholic husband (Sterling Hayden), who is at a clinic run by Dr.
Verringer (Henry Gibson), once Marlowe gets Wade back to his wife, he discovers a secret linking Wade to what happened with Lennox. It's a very daring film, and it's also very dark and very savage, but it's well made, and Gould makes a good lead, even if it is restrained but with moments of mischief shining through.
But, Altman's freeform direction gives it a dark edge, as does a good score by John Williams. Oh, and look out for Arnold Schwarzenegger in an unbilled cameo as a heavy with a dodgy moustache. :P.
This review of The Long Goodbye (1973) was written by Stuart K on 20 Feb 2009.
The Long Goodbye has generally received very positive reviews.
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