Runtime: 112 minutes
Directed by: Robert Altman
Starring: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson
From: United Artists
What better way to announce my safe return home to Central Florida after spending a few days in Fort Myers than viewing one of Robert Altman’s most famous movies before it leaves the Criterion Channel after Sunday? Considering the noir and neo-noir I’ve viewed in my life, it seems like a misstep on my part that I’ve never tackled this until earlier in the day. Of course, I’ve viewed some other Philip Marlowe pictures before, but never one set in the 70’s.
Right away, I laughed that the movie opens w/ Marlowe’s forced journey to a 24-hour store to purchase cat food for his constantly-meowing feline. It reminded me of a previous journey to Kansas (this one with my father and late mother) when she helped out sis and fed one of the two cats she had at the time. It wasn’t 3 AM but feeding time was late; the kitty constantly meowed as mom prepared the food, much to my mom’s consternation! No, mom did not smoke constantly like Marlowe did here, nor did she act laconic like Elliott Gould’s portrayal of a man who deliberately felt out of lockstep with his surroundings… a 40’s or 50’s detective who lives right by a bunch of attractive young women who do yoga and love being topless.
Our private eye associates w/ a cad named Terry Lennox; much to his misfortune, Lennox is missing & accused of murdering his wife. The film had some interesting casting; Lennox was played by Jim Bouton… yes, the former baseball player who caused controversy by writing a 1969 book called Ball Four, where people at the time were shocked that pro sports players were human and thus did drugs, drank, and were womanizers. What innocent times back then. Anyhow…
It’s not my favorite movie involving the character nor my personal favorite from Altman-that said, The Long Goodbye was still a very good time. In fact, you might say that it was OK with me… the film was a satirical look at the life of a private eye involved in a convoluted case with various shady characters, some of them real reprobates. Marlowe was a jerk, albeit a funny jerk. It was a nice cast with several other recognizable faces… yes I did know that Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in a scene as a hood, but not that an actor famous at the time had an uncredited part. I wasn’t familiar with Nina van Pallandt but that Danish actress did a swell job.
The biggest assets the film had came from a trio of legends: Gould’s performance as the lead, the jazzy score from John Williams, and the cinematography from Vilmos Zsigmond. The film was downbeat, although given the decade and its neo-noir style, this should not have been a surprise. I’m personally happy that in 2025, several famous 70’s pictures were finally partaken in by me.
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