The Long Goodbye **** (1973, Elliott Gould, Sterling Hayden, Nina Van Pallandt) – Classic Movie Review 1881

Robert Altman’s revisionist 1973 neo-noir film of Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel is expectedly updated to the Seventies but unexpectedly stars a laconic Elliott Gould as the hardboiled but chivalrous and honourable private eye Philip Marlowe.

Director Robert Altman’s revisionist 1973 neo-noir film of Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel The Long Goodbye is expectedly updated to the Seventies but unexpectedly stars a laconic Elliott Gould as the hardboiled but chivalrous and honourable private eye Philip Marlowe, who lets his conscience and courage guide him through a scary world of deceit, blackmail. murder and sadistic violence.

His idea of chivalry and honour aren’t necessarily the same as everybody else’s, actually they are entirely unique. They lead him down some dark alleys, and some very mean streets, and on to an extremely dark climax, a dead end actually. The film is bleak and desperate, right there on the edge.

The updating was pretty much inevitable, but, crucially gnawing away at the heart of the film, the private detective’s old-fashioned ideas of honour and loyalty seem somewhat dislocated in the self-obsessed Los Angeles and Hollywood of the 70s.

Taking so many liberties with the novel, this isn’t really Chandler’s The Long Goodbye at all, but the movie at least starts with his great plot. Marlowe gives his close friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton), who is in a bit of a jam, a lift from LA to the California–Mexico border at Tijuana. Marlowe is later met by two police detectives, who say Lennox has murdered his rich wife, Sylvia, and accuse him of being an accessory, implicated in the murder. After three days in jail, Marlowe is released by the cops because they say Lennox committed suicide in Mexico after guilt and remorse over killing his wife.

While an incredulous Marlowe plans to try to clear the name of his friend over killing his wife, he is hired by blonde femme fatale Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt) to find her missing husband Roger Wade (Sterling Hayden), a self-destructive alcoholic novelist with writer’s block. It turns out that Roger Wade has checked into the clinic of exceptionally creepy Dr Verringer (Henry Gibson), who insists on getting the money he is owed.

Also insisting on the money he is owed is the even-more creepy Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell), a sick, psychotic hoodlum who turns up with his goons, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, at Marlowe’s office thinking he knows where the loot is, or can find it.

Leigh Brackett who co-wrote the screenplay for The Big Sleep in 1946 with Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe, has the thrilling task of adapting Chandler’s great hardboiled 1953 novel. You’d think that she was the perfect person to adapt The Long Goodbye, so it’s sad that she felt Chandler’s plot was ‘riddled with clichés’ and a great pity that her story deviates so much from the novel. But, nevertheless, her dark and dangerous screenplay is lovingly crafted and exuberantly running, and it overflows with the appropriate Chandleresque detail. 

Altman directs commandingly, bringing immense style and intelligence to the project, plus a world-weary atmosphere of violence and greed as the norm, as well as a dangerous sense of humour, again reflecting the source work. But, arguably, the film’s chief pleasure is the huge success of Gould’s offbeat performance as the sour, bitter-sweet private detective. He’s not really the Marlowe of the books, any more than James Garner is in Marlowe (1969), but he is a highly engaging presence in the movie. It’s one of the best things Gould did, from the period of his heyday.

Purists and Marlowe fans may reasonably hate the many drastic departures from Chandler’s plot and characters. But the 70s-style strong language and violence seem to fit perfectly into Chandler’s unpredictable and perilous world, so the updating from a period piece undeniably works. And, also undeniably, for all its little faults, this is a great movie thriller.

Mark Rydell (as Marty Augustine), Henry Gibson (as Dr Verringer), David Carradine (as Socrates), David Arkin (as Harry), Warren Berlinger (as Morgan), Rutanya Alda (as Rutanya Sweet), Stephen Coit (as Detective Farmer) and Jo Ann Brody (as Jo Ann Eggenweiler) also appear. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears uncredited in his second film (as Augustine’s henchman),

Vilmos Zsigmond’s widescreen cinematography, restlessly probing the LA scene, coming up with some brilliant images, and John Williams’s music are both enormous, classy assets, though the theme song is way over-played.

Robert Altman isn’t afraid to digress, letting dialogue ramble and scenes run in ways that seem unnecessary, but he makes them feel essential. They are the soul of the film. Not the heart and soul, of course, because the film doesn’t have a heart. The plot doesn’t kick in until 15 minutes into the film, with Marlowe totally involved in his penthouse flat with his cat and his drug-taking, yoga-practising girly neighbours. This is the kind of stuff that interests Altman, along with Gould’s charming comedy schtick, and the LA atmosphere, never mind Chandler’s plot or characters.

Ultimately the film is admirable, but Gould is likeable as well as admirable.

Jim Bouton was not an actor but a former Major League Baseball pitcher and the author of the bestselling book Ball Four.

Vilmos Zsigmond

Vilmos Zsigmond died on January 1 2016, age 85.  He was known for his use of natural light and vivid use of colour on films like The Long Goodbye (1973) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), for which he won the Oscar for Best Cinematography. He was also nominated for The Deer Hunter (1978), The River (1984) and The Black Dahlia (2006).

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,881

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