The Long Goodbye (1973)

The Long Goodbye

Marty Augustine: It’s a minor crime, to kill your wife. The major crime is that he stole my money. Your friend stole my money, and the penalty for that is capital punishment.

Altman’s reimagination of Philip Marlowe for sunny 70’s California works better than might be expected.

Elliott Gould plays Philip Marlowe as a straight-arrow smart-ass.  He is stuck in the 40’s , wears a suit at all times and maintains a strictly platonic relationship with the dope-smoking topless blondes dancing on the opposing balcony.  As the movie opens, Marlowe’s greatest challenge is to find the correct brand of cat food for his finicky cat in the middle of the night.

But later that night, Marlowe’s friend Terry Lennox drops in.  He says the police are unjustly pursuing him for the murder of his wife.  He asks Marlowe to take him to Mexico.  Marlowe is convinced Terry is innocent and complies.

Upon his return, he finds a group of thugs (including an uncredited Arnold Schwarzenegger) in his house.  They are sure Terry murdered his wife but they are more concerned about the $350,000 Terry owes them.

Marlowe returns to Mexico.  The police tell him Terry has committed suicide.  Marlowe does not believe this either and looks up Terry’s friends Roger (Sterling Hayden) and Eileen (Nina van Pallandt) Wade.  Roger is drying out at a sanitorium run by Dr. Verringer (Henry Gibson).  Marlowe frees Roger, who is a real character.  The plot has numerous twists and turns and I will stop here.

This is neo-noir played out mostly in the bright sunshine of the Pacific Coast.  Altman uses the contrast between the old-timey Marlowe and the thoroughly corrupt rest of the cast to great effect.  It’s more light-hearted than most noirs and Gould is snappy with the one-liners.  John Williams created an evocative score using variations on the first two lines of the theme song.  Recommended.