The Long Goodbye (1973)

In director Robert Altman's deconstructed, post-noir mystery crime-thriller/drama - the revisionist film was criticized for taking liberties and degrading the familiar Raymond Chandler character (in the 1953 published novel), for updating the novel's late 1940s time-frame to the free-spirited 1970s, and for drastically changing the ending. Altman deflected outraged audiences by claiming the plot (which was complex, almost irrelevant and pointless) wasn't as important as the character interactions and the film's style and mood.

The film's script was from Leigh Brackett, famed for co-writing the script for the classic detective noir film The Big Sleep (1946) - another film featuring Philip Marlowe and based upon another Chandler novel. Five of Chandler's noirish novels were being adapted and revived in pictures in the late 60's and 70's: Marlowe (1969), Chandler (1971), The Big Sleep (1978), The Long Goodbye (1973) and Farewell, My Lovely (1975).

Altman's quirky film with an off-beat cast included a first-person, constantly-moving camera (especially in the early scene introducing cat-loving Marlowe), and several versions of the movie's theme song - a John Williams/Johnny Mercer ballad (first sung under the credits). The impressive color cinematography was by Vilmos Zsigmond, who was also noted for his Oscar-winning work in Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). The title song "The Long Goodbye" (by John Williams and Johnny Mercer) was heard throughout the film, but with different arrangements, and via various mediums (via recorded music in a supermarket, a bar piano, a doorbell, a radio song, a funeral dirge by a jazz band in Mexico, etc.). The film's two main taglines were fictionalized quotes from Chandler:

• "Nothing says goodbye like a bullet"
• "I have two friends in the world. One is a cat. The other is a murderer"

The solitary, idiosyncratic and lonely main character, Philip Marlowe, literally rambled to himself throughout the film, joking with other characters and with himself (via a running monologue). The under-rated, definitive detective film lacked any Academy Award nominations, although it had two superb performances by Elliott Gould (in a comeback role) as befuddled, disorganized, anachronistic and out-of-place gumshoe Philip Marlowe, and Sterling Hayden as Hemingway-like, troubled alcoholic writer Roger Wade.

• the film opened (and closed) with the musical song "Hooray For Hollywood" - [Note: It was taken from a promo trailer for WB's Hollywood Hotel (1937) with Benny Goodman and hIs Orchestra.]
• in the opening pre-title credits scene, chain-smoking bachelor and quintessential private eye-detective Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) was drowsily waking up in his shabby LA apartment in the middle of the night, stirred to life by his hungry tabby cat (Morris the Cat) demanding food; the laid-back, hip, slovenly, laconic and casually-cool Marlowe was compelled to go out to buy cat food at the local Thrifty 24 hour supermarket, while his female hippie neighbors nearby on a balcony in the nude were practicing yoga; one of them asked Marlowe to pick up two boxes of fudge brownie mix (to make "hash pies")
• meanwhile, Marlowe's handsome playboy friend Terry Lennox (ex-NY Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton) drove out of his security-guarded "Malibu Colony" residence in his light-colored yellow 1971 Ferrari GTS sports (Daytona Spyder) convertible; the title credits were accompanied by singing of the title song "The Long Goodbye": ("There's a long goodbye And it happens every day When some passer-by Invites your eye To come his way Even as he smiles a quick hello You've let him go You've let the moment fly Can you recognise the theme? On some other street Two people meet As in a dream Running for a plane through the rain They could be lovers Until they die It's too late to try When a missed hello Becomes a long... ")
• once Marlowe returned from his errand without his cat's favorite brand (Courry) for his persnickety pet, he couldn't trick his smart cat into eating substitute cat food that he smashed into an old Courry tin can, and his unsatisfied cat exited through a window with a handwritten sign: "El Porto del Gato"
• Terry Lennox drove up to his friend Marlowe's place and entered, with visible bruises on his face and hands; Marlowe inquired: "You and Sylvia going at it again?"; Lennox asked for a favor - "There's gonna be a lot of people looking for me as a result of my lovely wife" - and claimed that he needed an immediate ride to Tijuana; after parking his car in Marlowe's garage, Terry convinced Marlowe to drive him in his 1948 Lincoln Continental Convertible Cabriolet, and drop him and his suitcase off on the Mexican border at Tijuana
• once Marlowe returned to his apartment by morning, he was confronted as he entered by two inquisitive plainclothes officers, Detective Dayton (John Davies) and Sgt. Green (Jerry Jones), who demanded answers about where he had gone with Lennox in the middle of the night; when he refused to answer, Marlowe was set up with 'assaulting an officer' charge, apprehended, taken to the station, booked (photos and prints were taken), and questioned in an interrogation room by Lt. Farmer (Steve Coit) while viewed through a one-way mirror; Marlowe (with fingerprint ink smeared on his face, while he mimed Al Jolson in "blackface" and chatted about Notre Dame football) was uncooperative and not taking the situation seriously: ("I don't like the way you guys ask questions, and I don't know what you wanna know"); he was finally told that he was implicated as an 'accessory after the fact of murder' and for 'aiding and abetting a felon in unlawful flight' - Lennox had apparently severely beaten and killed his rich wife Sylvia before crossing the border; Marlowe couldn't believe it: "I don't believe it...That Terry Lennox could kill her"
• Farmer accused Lennox (whose real name was Lenny Potts) of additional criminal deeds with a corrupt gambling associate: "The man's a gambler, a hood, he's thick as thieves with Marty Augustine...He was always splitting up with his wife"; Marlowe was jailed for three days and then released; as he left his cell, his cellmate Dave aka Socrates (David Carradine) pontificated: "'Possession' is what you get in here now. Possession of noses, possession of gonads, possession of life....Listen, some day, some day, all the pigs are gonna be in here, and all the people are gonna be out there"; as Marlowe left the station, Lt. Farmer curtly explained the reason for his release: "Terry Lennox is dead, Marlowe. The case is closed"
• as Marlowe was driven home by Morgan (Warren Berlinger), he read the Los Angeles Dispatch report on the murder, bylined Otatoclan, Mexico: "Lennox Suicide Proves Wife's Murder" - "Los Angeles law enforcement officers, together with Mexican police, have concluded today that the suicide of prominent Hollywood playboy, Terry Lennox, reveals that Lennox was responsible for the brutal slaying of his wife Sylvia at their plush Malibu Colony home, playground of the movie world...."; according to Morgan, Lennox "blew his brains out in a little godforsaken town in Mexico" and "left a full confession"; there was a second article on Marlowe, headlined: "Private Investigator Refuses to Talk - Philip Marlowe Held as Accessory in Lennox Murder-Suicide Case"
• the skeptical Marlowe began to conduct his own investigation - unsure and unbelieving that Terry murdered his wife Sylvia or had committed suicide: ("Case closed, all zippered up like a big bag of s--t. Terry Lennox wasn't at the end of his rope. The way he talked, Sylvia wasn't dead then either. I don't believe he killed her. I don't believe he killed himself")
• Marlowe was contacted by mysterious, callous, and beautiful but manipulative blonde Mrs. Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt in her US film debut), who coincidentally lived in the same beach-side Malibu Colony neighborhood where the Lennox couple lived; a running joke was the various movie-star impersonations by the Colony's Guard (Ken Sansom) (e.g., Barbara Stanwyck, Jimmy Stewart, Walter Brennan, etc.)
• Marlowe was allowed into Mrs. Wade's home, but greeted by her barking Doberman pinscher; she revealed that her self-destructive, frustrated alcoholic novelist husband Roger Wade (Sterling Hayden) had gone missing for a week and she was covering up for his absence: "My husband has a drinking problem. Every so often he reaches a stage when he feels he needs professional help"; he normally would "dry out" in a facility, but she hadn't been able to locate him; Marlowe was suspicious about a bruise on the side of her face that she attributed to falling out of bed; she described her husband as a "big" man - a huge "monster" hulk at six foot five and 220 pounds ("Once you've seen his face, you'll never forget it")

Mrs. Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt)

• soon after, Marlowe visited the Burbank Care Center - a private, luxury self-help detox clinic run by Dr. Verringer (Henry Gibson), where he was misled and told that Wade wasn't a patient there; Marlowe went on his own search for Wade in an outdoor garden area of the facility while pursued by Dr. Verringer who was protesting his presence on the private grounds
• Marlowe returned to Mrs. Wade to report back, but she was fearful of returning to the facility with him: "He doesn't want me to find him. He doesn't want me to know why he's hiding out at Verringer's"; she repeated her objective: "I want you to make sure he's all right, and try to bring him home if you can. If you have any trouble, I'll back you up. But I don't think you're afraid of trouble"; she also divulged an important clue - she happened to mention that she was, like Marlowe, a social "friend" to her neighbor Terry Lennox
• that evening, Marlowe returned to the detox-center and overheard Verringer speaking to Wade in his private room, who complained about signing a check to cover his $5,000 bill for treatment; Wade angrily retorted: "You got me all drugged up, Doc...This place stinks, Doc. It's this place that's sick, not the people in it...I'd like to go home, and I'm going home....I'm a man cannot stand confinement. So if you don't start pressin' buttons and get me out of here, I'll tell you, I'll tear you limb from limb and waltz right out through the god-damn wall!"; Verringer innocently responded: "I'm here to help you"; Marlowe intervened, identified himself as a private detective who had been hired to bring him home ("if that's where you wanna go"), and offered to rescue Roger and take him back to his wife Eileen
• Roger happily joined Marlowe (calling him the "Marlboro" man) to return home to his wife and barking dogs; when they arrived, Eileen was upset over Roger causing a commotion due to his erratic behavior: ("If you don't stop this drinking, I'm gonna leave you. I mean it"); after Roger collapsed on a sofa in his writer's study, Eileen confided in Marlowe that the self-destructive Wade suffered from writer's block: "He's really a sick man. More so than you might think. He feels he's all finished as a writer. He sits down and stares at the paper and nothing happens. I don't know what to do. He really needs help"; she was grateful for his assistance
• before leaving, Mrs. Wade briefly asked Marlowe about his friendship with Terry Lennox, and agreed with him that she thought Terry was innocent of the murder charges, even though it was reported that he had confessed: "I can't understand how he could do something like that. How could he kill his wife? I mean, they were nice people"
• later that night outside his apartment, Marlowe (while carrying his laundry in a bag) was violently assaulted by powerful mobster and Jewish loan shark Marty Augustine (director Mark Rydell) with a group of menacing hoods on the street; the mobsters forcibly led Marlowe via his elevator back up into his apartment - they passed by his female neighbors unclothed on the balcony, who Marlowe dubbed "The Rockettes" while Marty exclaimed: "I can't believe what I'm looking at"; the demanding and psychotic Augustine ordered his hoods to ransack Marlowe's apartment - as he detailed his high-living expensive lifestyle: ("I gotta have a lot of money so I can juice the guys I gotta juice, so I can get a lot of money so I can juice the guys I gotta juice")
• Marty blurted out: "You can't take my money. I want my money!" - suspecting that Marlowe - with his picture in the newspaper - had or knew where their mob money was located ($355,000 dollars owed by Terry Lennox to the mob): "You made a deal with Terry Lennox...Your friend was a criminal....The major crime is he stole my money. Your friend stole my money... I don't give a god-damn how he died. All I care about is $355,000 of my money that he was supposed to deliver to Mexico City... I think you know where it is and I want it"
• during Marlowe's shakedown, Jo Ann ("scared" after being left in the car) entered the apartment; and then, after calling Jo Ann "the single most important person in my life," Augustine unexpectedly and deliberately - in the film's most shocking sequence - injured and maimed his own mistress Jo Ann by striking her in the face with an empty Coke bottle; he then warned Marlowe to heed him: "That's someone I love, and you I don't even like. You have an assignment, Cheapie. Find my money!"

Marty's Beautiful Mistress/Girlfriend Jo Ann Eggenweiler (Jo Ann Brody)

The Unexpected and Shocking Maiming of Jo Ann by Marty With a Coke Bottle

• as the gang fled on the slow elevator, Marlowe hurriedly raced down the stairs and beat them to the ground floor; a dim-witted hood named Harry (David Arkin) who had been left behind - stationed to remain there and pursue Marlowe - became distracted by the nude-dancing on the balcony above him, allowing Marlowe to stealthily drive away in his own car; he followed Augustine's car into the Malibu Colony complex, and watched from afar outside the Wade property as Augustine with one of his hoods appeared to threaten Eileen Wade
• the next morning, Marlowe returned to speak to the Wades; as Marlowe stood outside watching the ocean waves, Eileen again reiterated her warning to her husband Roger from the night before: "I simply said if you go on drinking, I'm gonna leave you"; he suggested that he might be the one to leave her, but then apologized and hugged her: "I'm sorry I said that, but you're the only thing I've got left. Don't you know that?...If I could just get you to understand that, you know, when a writer can't write, it's like being impotent"; when she replied that she understood, he startled her by loudly shouting: "Balls, baby! Balls! Why don't you remember the good we had together, the beautiful times?"
• as Eileen walked off, Roger invited Marlowe to join him in a "little old-fashioned, man-to-man drinking party"; during their conversation, Marlowe learned to his surprise that Marty Augustine owed Roger $50,000 dollars; when asked about Terry Lennox, Roger admitted: "I know Terry Lennox, but he's the kind of a guy that if I knew him, I wouldn't let on I knew him....Christ Almighty, I didn't know him... Son of a bitch killed himself, huh?"; when asked about Terry's wife Sylvia, Roger reacted: "A beautiful broad. I don't know, Marlboro. If I was your age, I think I'd sure as hell bust my ass to get into something a little more dignified form of endeavor, well I'll tell ya that...I'm not talkin' about myself"
• the case became extremely complex and interconnected know that Marlowe realized that mobster Augustine knew the Wades, and that Terry's unlikely 'death' was somehow related
• after returning home, Marlowe opened up a letter with a $5,000 bill (with James Madison) inside and a note of apology from Terry: "Good Bye Phil I'm sorry Terry" - Terry was undoubtedly alive
• still with doubts about Terry's suicide, Marlowe traveled to Mexico by bus and strolled into town, where he met with the coroner/doctor (Pancho Cordoba) and was provided with morgue pictures and fingerprints; Terry had presumably died from a self-inflicted gunshot with his own registered gun, and died one hour after arriving at his hotel; all of his personal effects were sent back but there was a discrepancy in the record that he only had one bag
• back in Los Angeles at a beach party in Wade's home where Roger was becoming increasingly drunk, Marlowe listened as Roger in public denigrated the character of the sinister and shady quack-psychiatrist Dr. Verringer: ("It's Minnie Mouse. It's the albino turd himself. Peter Pan. No. The white knight....He is the epitome of what's wrong with this world. He really is, actually, because he pretends to cure people..."); Marlowe listened as the demanding doctor forced Roger to sign a $4,400 check to pay the remainder of his detox-facility bill, and slapped Roger's face when he refused; Roger was confused, smashed his whiskey bottle, and physically spun around, and then yelled at the guests: "Get out, all of you, god-dammit! Get outta here!" and Eileen graciously announced: "It seems the party's come to an abrupt end"; as the guests filed out, Roger signed the check and Verringer departed with the check in his pocket, and told Eileen that Roger could no longer be one of his patients

Dr. Verringer at Wades' Beach Party

Verringer Departing With Roger's Signed Check

Roger Drunk and In a Stupor After Signing Check

• shortly later in the evening, Eileen seductively entertained Marlowe with an impressively fancy dinner of Chicken Kiev and alcohol on her outdoor patio; he abruptly asked her why she had spoken to Marty Augustine on an earlier evening; she explained: "Roger owes him, loaned him some money. Maybe $10,000 or something like that" - the exact reverse of what Roger had claimed; Marlowe then stated how he had heard that Terry Lennox was working for Marty Augustine; and then Marlowe also asked two crucial questions
  • Was Roger having an affair with Sylvia Lennox?
  • And where was Roger the night that Sylvia was killed?
• behind them through the picture window, the drunken Roger was apparently suicidally walking into the ocean to drown himself; Eileen saw what was happening and raced with Marlowe into the waves, but the two were unable to save Roger, although his dog retrieved his cane
• after being questioned by authorities about Roger's drunkenness at the party before his death, Marlowe (sounding like a drunkard) began to piece the clues together; he realized that Roger Wade had been involved in an affair with Terry Lennox's wife Sylvia, and then surmised: "Your crazy, Looney Tune husband could have killed Sylvia Lennox"; Eileen explained further: "I couldn't tell anybody Roger had an affair with Sylvia. And Terry found out. And Sylvia wanted to break it off. And Roger was jealous, and Roger went to see her and then she was dead. And then I read in the paper that Terry confessed, and I don't know what to think"
• on the beachside, Marlowe explained to Lt. Farmer that he had new information from Mrs. Wade about the Terry Lennox case: "Mrs. Roger Wade is prepared to give evidence that her husband was sleeping with Sylvia Lennox the night that she was killed"; Farmer explained how it was impossible for Roger to have murdered Sylvia because he checked into the de-tox clinic a few hours before her murder: "We know that Roger Wade saw Sylvia Lennox that afternoon. We know what time he left her. We know he went directly from the Lennox house to Verringer's clinic...He was there all the time and in sedation at the time that Sylvia Lennox was killed. So will you do me a favor? Go back to your gumshoes and your transom peeping and let us alone"
• Marlowe angrily contradicted Farmer's account: "I saw that man walking into the Pacific Ocean - gave your doctor whatever-his-name-is $5,000 for an alibi so that you could keep your job"
• afterwards, Marlowe visited Marty Augustine, who was still miffed about his missing and stolen $355,000; he complained: "What we have here is a problem in communication. I knew it from the beginning. I mean, I don't hear from you any more. I don't get a phone call, I mean, not so much as a postcard. What's the matter? Where's the money?"; Marlowe kept insisting he didn't know where the money was; [Note: One of Marty's enforcers in the room was Arnold Schwarzenegger!]
• during the meeting in Marty's office, when he forced everyone to strip ("I want you to get naked so you can tell me the truth about my money"), Marlowe joked about Marty's honest claim he didn't have pubic hair until he was 15 years old: "You must have looked like one of the Three Little Pigs"; Marlowe's wallet fell to the floor revealing the $5,000 bill ("a picture of James Madison") sent to him earlier by Terry; Augustine naturally assumed it was part of his money (three Madison bills were in Terry Lennox' suitcase that he took to Mexico)
• fortuitously, the "entertainment for five grand" was interrupted by news that a money bag had just arrived with the missing $350,000 dollars; as Marlowe left, Marty returned Marlowe's $5,000 bill, and Marlowe quipped: "My fairy godmother dropped your $350 grand back in your lap"; as he was leaving, Marlowe noticed Eileen driving away nearby in her 1972 Mercedes-Benz 350 SL yellow sports convertible (with California "LOV YOU" plates), but she ignored him as he chased and called after her; Marlowe was struck by a car and knocked out, and taken by ambulance to a hospital; Marlowe awoke in a hospital bed and told himself: "I just gotta get outta here...nothing broke, nothing broke"; the completely-bandaged 'mummified' patient next to him handed him a miniature harmonica - and Marlowe accepted it and promised to practice

Mrs. Wade Driving Away After Delivering Marty's Missing $350,000

During a Chase After Mrs. Wade, Marlowe Was Struck by a Vehicle

Marlowe's Trippy Female Neighbors

• Marlowe was suspicious that Eileen had returned the money and was planning on selling the Wade house; when he revisited the Wade residence in the Malibu Colony, his hunch was accurate; Eileen had vanished (possibly to Europe), her house was up for sale by the Surfside Realty company in Santa Monica, and the furnishings were being packed up by movers
• upon Marlowe's return to his apartment, he discovered his trippy female neighbors on their balcony - so spaced that they couldn't answer him about the whereabouts of his cat: ("We're dancing in the sand and our bodies are in ecstasy. We're seeing colors, all the most beautiful colors you can imagine. And we're holding hands because we're one, and our breasts become full and our arms become free and our bodies become free. And we are now beautiful. We are now beautiful and we are now one")
• on a hunch, Marlowe traveled to Mexico and after 'bribing' officials to tell the truth (with a "charity" donation with the $5 grand Madison bill), they admitted that the suicide was a "fake" and the coffin and burial were staged; Marlowe was told Terry's location - he walked in and found him alive in a villa on the town's outskirts
• Terry admitted to Marlowe all about his convoluted love affairs - and that his own affair with Eileen Wade had angered his wife Sylvia, who threatened to go to the police during a fierce argument and report Terry's nefarious associations with gangster Marty Augustine; Terry then confessed to brutally beating Sylvia to the point of death to silence her: ("I killed her, but you can't call it murder. Wade told her about Eileen and me, she started screaming. She was gonna tell the cops. She knew I was carrying money for Augustine. She was gonna turn me in. I hit her. I didn't try to kill her. I hit her. I didn't mean it...She didn't give me any choice...I had a dead wife. $350,000 that doesn't belong to me. I had to get out. It's as simple as that"); before fleeing to Mexico, he gave Marty's money ($355,000) to Eileen
• Terry gloated that he had outfoxed everyone because he was "in a jam" - even his "friend" Marlowe - he was legally dead, and he had returned Augustine's money: ("Goddamn simple. Cops have me legally dead, Augustine's got his money. He's not lookin' for me anymore. I got a girl that loves me. She's got more money than Sylvia and Augustine put together. What the hell? Nobody cares"); exasperated for being used and betrayed and uploading a code of honor - Marlowe disagreed: ("Nobody cares but me"), and was upset over being thought of as a naive and "born loser" - and for losing his beloved cat

Marlowe's Fatal Shot at Terry For Betraying Him

Eileen and Marlowe Passing Each Other

• in the film's second most startling act of violence, Marlowe shot Terry Lennox dead; as Marlowe walked down the road back to town, Eileen passed him in a jeep on her way to seeing her lover Terry and she glanced over and noticed him; he played the film's theme song on the tiny harmonica as the film concluded