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The Long Goodbye (film)
Encyclopedia
'The Long Goodbye' is a 1973 neo noir, directed by Robert Altman
and based on Raymond Chandler
's 1953 novel of the same name
. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett
, who co-wrote the screenplay for The Big Sleep
in 1946. The film stars Elliott Gould
as Philip Marlowe
, as well as Sterling Hayden
, Nina Van Pallandt
, Jim Bouton
and Mark Rydell
.
The story's time period was updated from 1949/1950 to 1970s Hollywood. The Long Goodbye has been described as "a study of a moral and decent man cast adrift in a selfish, self-obsessed society where lives can be thrown away without a backward glance ... and any notions of friendship and loyalty are meaningless."
Marlowe is visited by his close friend, Terry Lennox, who is badly scarred and claims to have had an argument with his wife Sylvia. Terry asks for a lift from Los Angeles
to the California
–Mexico
border at Tijuana. Marlowe obliges.
Two police detectives accuse Terry of having murdered his rich wife, Sylvia. Marlowe refuses to give them any information and they arrest him on false charges. He is interrogated at headquarters and does not co-operate. After three days in jail, the police release him due to Terry having committed suicide
in Otatoclan, Mexico. Marlowe is picked up by fellow detective Morgan, who informs him that Marlowe's picture is all over the newspaper. It is an open-and-shut case to the police and the press, but the "official facts" do not sit right with Marlowe.
In the meantime, Marlowe is hired by Eileen Wade, the platinum-blonde trophy wife of Roger Wade, an alcoholic novelist with writers' block, whose macho, Hemingway
-like persona is proving self-destructive. She asks that Marlowe find her husband, who, despite such regular alcoholic binges and days-long disappearances, now seems to be missing.
Marlowe visits Wade's detoxification clinic, where the staff denies any knowledge of either Wade or his physician, Dr. Verringer -- despite the fact that Verringer is there in the room. Marlowe returns that night to find Verringer and Wade arguing about Wade's delinquent payments to the clinic. Verringer refuses to allow Wade to leave without first signing a check, but Marlowe breaks Wade free, and they both return to Eileen's. Marlowe learns that the Wades "knew" the Lennoxes socially. He is increasingly convinced that there is more to Terry's suicide and the murder of Sylvia.
Back at his place, Marlowe is visited by ruthless gangster Marty Augustine, who is convinced that Terry left Marlowe the money he was owed ($355,000). In a fit of rage, Augustine breaks a Coke bottle across the nose of his own mistress to demonstrate his potential for violence, saying: "Her, I love. You, I don't even like." Augustine leaves, but assigns someone to tail Marlowe, who evades him and tails Augustine all the way to the Wades'. He spies on him having a talk with Eileen.
After a side-trip to Mexico, where officials corroborate the details of Terry's death, Marlowe returns to the Wades' house, where Roger and Dr. Verringer cause a scene by publicly arguing over Roger's unpaid bill. Later that night, Marlowe socializes with Eileen, but her attempt at seduction is interrupted when they spot a drunken Roger wandering into the sea; before they can stop him, he drowns, in an apparent suicide. A saddened Eileen confesses to Marlowe that Roger had been having an affair with Sylvia and that he might have killed her. Marlowe tells this to the police, who rebuff the claim, telling him that Roger had a tight alibi.
Marlowe visits Augustine. He is still unaware where Terry left the money. Just as he is about to be castrated by Augustine's men, Eileen Wade drops by, returning the money to Augustine, who pardons Marlowe for having told the truth and lets him walk away. Marlowe tries to catch up with Eileen as she drives down the LA streets, but another car hits him as he runs into oncoming traffic. He is transported to hospital, where he bonds with another patient, who gives him an harmonica as a gift.
After recovering, Marlowe takes a second trip to Mexico, where he bribes the officials into releasing the truth about Terry. They confess to having set up Terry's apparent suicide, and admit that he is alive and well in a Mexican villa. Marlowe finds Terry, who admits to killing Sylvia, reveals that he is having an affair with Eileen, and gloats that Marlowe fell for his manipulations because Marlowe is "a born loser." Marlowe responds with "Yeah, I even lost my cat", shoots and kills Terry, then walks away, past Eileen Wade, who is driving a jeep on her way to meeting Terry. Marlowe pulls out his harmonica and plays the movie's theme.
The Long Goodbye satirizes
the changes in culture between the 1950s, when the private detective genre was popular, and the 1970s, when the film was released; a making-of featurette on the DVD is entitled "Rip van Marlowe,″ to emphasize the contrast between Marlowe's anacrohonistically 50s behavior with the film's 1970s setting. One cliche of the genre invoked in the film is culled from the original novel when Marlowe, under police interrogation, asks "Is this where I'm supposed to say, 'What's all this about?', and he says, 'Shut up! I ask the questions'?" Marlowe's chain-smoking, contrasted with a health-conscious California in which no one else in the movie smokes, is cited as another example of Marlowe's incongruity with his surroundings.
The American iconography that Chandler laid down in his novels is maintained in the film. In addition to the 1948 Lincoln Continental Convertible Cabriolet that Marlowe drives, Gould also wears a tie with American flags on it (the tie looks plain red in the movie due to cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond
's post-flashing).
bought the cinematic rights to The Long Goodbye novel and made a production deal with the United Artists
distribution company. They commissioned the screenplay from Leigh Brackett who had written the script for the Humphrey Bogart
version of The Big Sleep
. The producers offered the script to both Howard Hawks
and Peter Bogdanovich
to direct it. Both refused the offer, but Bogdanovich recommended Robert Altman, who, initially, was uninterested, until allowed to cast Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe — despite the producers' original choices being Robert Mitchum
and Lee Marvin
.
United Artists president David Picker may have picked Gould to play Marlowe as a ploy to get Altman to direct. At the time, Gould was in professional disfavor because of his rumored troubles on the set of A Glimpse of Tiger
, in which he bickered with co-star Kim Darby
, fought with director Anthony Harvey
, and acted erratically. Consequently, he had not worked in two years; nevertheless, Altman convinced Bick that Gould suited the role. United Artists had Elliott Gould undergo the usual employment medical examination and a psychological examination attesting to his mental stability.
Jim Bouton
, cast as Marlowe's friend Terry Lennox, was not an actor. He was a former Major League Baseball
pitcher and the author of the best-selling book Ball Four
.
in Ireland
. He liked the ending because it was so out of character for Marlowe. He agreed to direct but only if the ending was not changed. Altman and Brackett spent a lot of time talking over the plot. Altman wanted Marlowe to be a loser. He even nicknamed Gould's character Rip Van Marlowe, as if he had been asleep for 20 years, had woken up, and was wandering around Los Angeles in the early 1970s but "trying to invoke the morals of a previous era". Her first draft was too long and she shortened it but the ending was inconclusive. She had Marlowe shooting Terry Lennox. Altman conceived of the film as a satire and made several changes to the script, like having Roger Wade commit suicide and having Marty Augustine smash a Coke bottle across his girlfriend's face. Altman said, "it was supposed to get the attention of the audience and remind them that, in spite of Marlowe, there is a real world out there, and it is a violent world".
for the role of Wade, but Blocker died just before principal photography began. He was, however, reportedly thrilled by Hayden's performance despite him being second choice to Blocker.
and Johnny Mercer
. It was Altman's idea to have every occurrence of that song arranged differently, from hippie chant, to supermarket muzak
, to radio music, effectively achieving the correct mood for the hero's encounters with eccentric Californians, while pursuing his case.
. The gala was hosted by Judith Crist
, then the film critic for New York
magazine. The film was not well received by the audience except for Nina van Pallandt's performance. Altman attended a Q&A session afterwards and the mood was "vaguely hostile", leaving the director reportedly "depressed".
The Long Goodbye was not well received by critics during its limited release in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Miami. Time
magazine's Jay Cocks
wrote, "Altman's lazy, haphazard putdown is without affection or understanding, a nose-thumb not only at the idea of Philip Marlowe but at the genre that his tough-guy-soft-heart character epitomized. It is a curious spectacle to see Altman mocking a level of achievement to which, at his best, he could only aspire". As a result, the New York opening was canceled at the last minute after several advance screenings had already been held for the press. The film was abruptly withdrawn from release with rumors that it would be re-edited. They analyzed the reviews for six months, concluding that the reason for the film's failure was the misleading advertising campaign in which it was promoted as a "detective story" and spent $40,000 on a new release campaign, which included a poster by Mad
magazine artist Jack Davis
.
The Long Goodbye was re-released and in his review for The New York Times
, Vincent Canby
wrote, "it's an original work, complex without being obscure, visually breathtaking without seeming to be inappropriately fancy". Roger Ebert
gave the film three out of four stars and praised Elliott Gould's "good performance, particularly the virtuoso ten-minute stretch at the beginning of the movie when he goes out to buy food for his cat. Gould has enough of the paranoid in his acting style to really put over Altman's revised view of the private eye".
The Long Goodbye remained unpopular, and earned poorly in the rest of the U.S.; nevertheless, The New York Times listed The Long Goodbye in its "Ten Best List" for film for that year, while Vilmos Zsigmond was awarded the National Society of Film Critics
' prize as Best Cinematographer. Ebert later ranked it among his "Great Movies" collection and wrote, "Most of its effect comes from the way it pushes against the genre, and the way Altman undermines the premise of all private eye movies, which is that the hero can walk down mean streets, see clearly, and tell right from wrong".
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
and based on Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
's 1953 novel of the same name
The Long Goodbye (novel)
The Long Goodbye is a 1953 novel by Raymond Chandler, centered on his famous detective Philip Marlowe. While some critics consider it inferior to The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, others rank it as the best of his work...
. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett
Leigh Brackett
Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American author, particularly of science fiction. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on famous films such as The Big Sleep , Rio Bravo , The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back .-Life:Leigh Brackett was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California...
, who co-wrote the screenplay for The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep (1946 film)
The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the female lead in a film about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its...
in 1946. The film stars Elliott Gould
Elliott Gould
Elliott Gould is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has remained prolific ever since. Some of his most notable films include M*A*S*H and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, for which he received an Oscar nomination...
as Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...
, as well as Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
, Nina Van Pallandt
Nina van Pallandt
Nina, Baroness van Pallandt is a Danish singer and actress.-Personal life:Born Nina Magdelene Møller-Hasselbalch, she married Frederik, Baron van Pallandt in 1960. They formed a singing duo, Nina & Frederik, and achieved worldwide popularity with their calypso-style songs...
, Jim Bouton
Jim Bouton
James Alan "Jim" Bouton is a former American Major League Baseball pitcher. He is also the author of the controversial baseball book Ball Four, which was a combination diary of his season and memoir of his years with the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, and Houston Astros.-Amateur and college...
and Mark Rydell
Mark Rydell
Mark Rydell is an American actor, film director and producer.-Career:Rydell's initial training was in music. As a youth, he wanted to be a conductor. He began his career as an actor and first became known for his role as Walt Johnson on The Edge of Night and as Jeff Baker on As the World Turns,...
.
The story's time period was updated from 1949/1950 to 1970s Hollywood. The Long Goodbye has been described as "a study of a moral and decent man cast adrift in a selfish, self-obsessed society where lives can be thrown away without a backward glance ... and any notions of friendship and loyalty are meaningless."
Plot
Private investigator Philip Marlowe awakes late one night at the insistence of his hungry cat, but is unable to find the cat's usual brand, Coury, at the grocery store. The cat, refusing to eat a substitute brand, leaves; the disappearance provides a running joke throughout the film.Marlowe is visited by his close friend, Terry Lennox, who is badly scarred and claims to have had an argument with his wife Sylvia. Terry asks for a lift from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
–Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
border at Tijuana. Marlowe obliges.
Two police detectives accuse Terry of having murdered his rich wife, Sylvia. Marlowe refuses to give them any information and they arrest him on false charges. He is interrogated at headquarters and does not co-operate. After three days in jail, the police release him due to Terry having committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in Otatoclan, Mexico. Marlowe is picked up by fellow detective Morgan, who informs him that Marlowe's picture is all over the newspaper. It is an open-and-shut case to the police and the press, but the "official facts" do not sit right with Marlowe.
In the meantime, Marlowe is hired by Eileen Wade, the platinum-blonde trophy wife of Roger Wade, an alcoholic novelist with writers' block, whose macho, Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
-like persona is proving self-destructive. She asks that Marlowe find her husband, who, despite such regular alcoholic binges and days-long disappearances, now seems to be missing.
Marlowe visits Wade's detoxification clinic, where the staff denies any knowledge of either Wade or his physician, Dr. Verringer -- despite the fact that Verringer is there in the room. Marlowe returns that night to find Verringer and Wade arguing about Wade's delinquent payments to the clinic. Verringer refuses to allow Wade to leave without first signing a check, but Marlowe breaks Wade free, and they both return to Eileen's. Marlowe learns that the Wades "knew" the Lennoxes socially. He is increasingly convinced that there is more to Terry's suicide and the murder of Sylvia.
Back at his place, Marlowe is visited by ruthless gangster Marty Augustine, who is convinced that Terry left Marlowe the money he was owed ($355,000). In a fit of rage, Augustine breaks a Coke bottle across the nose of his own mistress to demonstrate his potential for violence, saying: "Her, I love. You, I don't even like." Augustine leaves, but assigns someone to tail Marlowe, who evades him and tails Augustine all the way to the Wades'. He spies on him having a talk with Eileen.
After a side-trip to Mexico, where officials corroborate the details of Terry's death, Marlowe returns to the Wades' house, where Roger and Dr. Verringer cause a scene by publicly arguing over Roger's unpaid bill. Later that night, Marlowe socializes with Eileen, but her attempt at seduction is interrupted when they spot a drunken Roger wandering into the sea; before they can stop him, he drowns, in an apparent suicide. A saddened Eileen confesses to Marlowe that Roger had been having an affair with Sylvia and that he might have killed her. Marlowe tells this to the police, who rebuff the claim, telling him that Roger had a tight alibi.
Marlowe visits Augustine. He is still unaware where Terry left the money. Just as he is about to be castrated by Augustine's men, Eileen Wade drops by, returning the money to Augustine, who pardons Marlowe for having told the truth and lets him walk away. Marlowe tries to catch up with Eileen as she drives down the LA streets, but another car hits him as he runs into oncoming traffic. He is transported to hospital, where he bonds with another patient, who gives him an harmonica as a gift.
After recovering, Marlowe takes a second trip to Mexico, where he bribes the officials into releasing the truth about Terry. They confess to having set up Terry's apparent suicide, and admit that he is alive and well in a Mexican villa. Marlowe finds Terry, who admits to killing Sylvia, reveals that he is having an affair with Eileen, and gloats that Marlowe fell for his manipulations because Marlowe is "a born loser." Marlowe responds with "Yeah, I even lost my cat", shoots and kills Terry, then walks away, past Eileen Wade, who is driving a jeep on her way to meeting Terry. Marlowe pulls out his harmonica and plays the movie's theme.
Cast
- Elliott GouldElliott GouldElliott Gould is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has remained prolific ever since. Some of his most notable films include M*A*S*H and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, for which he received an Oscar nomination...
as Philip MarlowePhilip MarlowePhilip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939... - Nina Van PallandtNina van PallandtNina, Baroness van Pallandt is a Danish singer and actress.-Personal life:Born Nina Magdelene Møller-Hasselbalch, she married Frederik, Baron van Pallandt in 1960. They formed a singing duo, Nina & Frederik, and achieved worldwide popularity with their calypso-style songs...
as Eileen Wade - Jim BoutonJim BoutonJames Alan "Jim" Bouton is a former American Major League Baseball pitcher. He is also the author of the controversial baseball book Ball Four, which was a combination diary of his season and memoir of his years with the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, and Houston Astros.-Amateur and college...
as Terry Lennox - Sterling HaydenSterling HaydenSterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
as Roger Wade - Mark RydellMark RydellMark Rydell is an American actor, film director and producer.-Career:Rydell's initial training was in music. As a youth, he wanted to be a conductor. He began his career as an actor and first became known for his role as Walt Johnson on The Edge of Night and as Jeff Baker on As the World Turns,...
as Marty Augustine - Henry GibsonHenry GibsonHenry Gibson was an American actor and songwriter, best known as a cast member of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and for his recurring role as Judge Clark Brown on Boston Legal.-Early life:...
as Dr. Verringer - David ArkinDavid ArkinDavid G. Arkin was an American actor best known for his numerous supporting appearances in the films of Robert Altman...
as Harry - Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
as Augustine's Henchman (uncredited)
Background
The story and plot of the 1973 cinematic adaptation deviate drastically from those of the 1953 novel; screenplay writer Leigh Brackett took many literary liberties with the story, plot, and characters of The Long Goodbye in adapting it; at story's end, Philip Marlowe kills his best friend, Terry Lennox, in a major plot and character departure from the novel. The father of millionairess Sylvia Lennox is not in the film's storyline; Roger Wade's murder is a suicide in the film; and gangster Marty Augustine and his subplots are entirely cinematic creations.The Long Goodbye satirizes
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
the changes in culture between the 1950s, when the private detective genre was popular, and the 1970s, when the film was released; a making-of featurette on the DVD is entitled "Rip van Marlowe,″ to emphasize the contrast between Marlowe's anacrohonistically 50s behavior with the film's 1970s setting. One cliche of the genre invoked in the film is culled from the original novel when Marlowe, under police interrogation, asks "Is this where I'm supposed to say, 'What's all this about?', and he says, 'Shut up! I ask the questions'?" Marlowe's chain-smoking, contrasted with a health-conscious California in which no one else in the movie smokes, is cited as another example of Marlowe's incongruity with his surroundings.
The American iconography that Chandler laid down in his novels is maintained in the film. In addition to the 1948 Lincoln Continental Convertible Cabriolet that Marlowe drives, Gould also wears a tie with American flags on it (the tie looks plain red in the movie due to cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond
Vilmos Zsigmond
Vilmos Zsigmond, A.S.C. is a Hungarian-American cinematographer.In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild placed Zsigmond among the ten most influential cinematographers in history.-Biography:...
's post-flashing).
Production
Producers Jerry Bick and Elliott KastnerElliott Kastner
-Early life and education:Kastner was born in New York City. He got his education at the University of Miami and Columbia University. During the fifties he was stationed with U.S...
bought the cinematic rights to The Long Goodbye novel and made a production deal with the United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
distribution company. They commissioned the screenplay from Leigh Brackett who had written the script for the Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
version of The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep (1946 film)
The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the female lead in a film about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its...
. The producers offered the script to both Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
and Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
to direct it. Both refused the offer, but Bogdanovich recommended Robert Altman, who, initially, was uninterested, until allowed to cast Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe — despite the producers' original choices being Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
and Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou , he landed more...
.
United Artists president David Picker may have picked Gould to play Marlowe as a ploy to get Altman to direct. At the time, Gould was in professional disfavor because of his rumored troubles on the set of A Glimpse of Tiger
A Glimpse of Tiger
A Glimpse of Tiger is a 1971 novel by Herman Raucher. It was his first original novel; his previous novel, Summer of '42, was based on his own screenplay of the same name, and written at the request of Warner Brothers as a means of promoting the film...
, in which he bickered with co-star Kim Darby
Kim Darby
Kim Darby is an American actress perhaps best known for co-starring with John Wayne and country singer/actor Glen Campbell in the 1969 western True Grit.-Early life and film career:...
, fought with director Anthony Harvey
Anthony Harvey
Anthony Harvey is a British filmmaker who started his career in the 1950s as a film editor, and moved into directing in the mid 1960s. Harvey has fifteen film credits as an editor, and he has directed thirteen films...
, and acted erratically. Consequently, he had not worked in two years; nevertheless, Altman convinced Bick that Gould suited the role. United Artists had Elliott Gould undergo the usual employment medical examination and a psychological examination attesting to his mental stability.
Jim Bouton
Jim Bouton
James Alan "Jim" Bouton is a former American Major League Baseball pitcher. He is also the author of the controversial baseball book Ball Four, which was a combination diary of his season and memoir of his years with the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, and Houston Astros.-Amateur and college...
, cast as Marlowe's friend Terry Lennox, was not an actor. He was a former Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
pitcher and the author of the best-selling book Ball Four
Ball Four
Ball Four is a book written by former Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Bouton in . The book is a diary of Bouton's 1969 season, spent with the Seattle Pilots and then the Houston Astros following a late-season trade. In it Bouton also recounts much of his baseball career, spent mainly with the...
.
Screenplay
In adapting Chandler's book, Leigh Brackett had problems with its plot which she felt was "riddled with cliches" and was faced with the choice of making it a period piece or updating it. Altman received a copy of the script while shooting ImagesImages (film)
Images is a 1972 British-American psychological thriller film directed by Robert Altman.-Plot:Wealthy housewife and children's author Cathryn receives a series of disturbing and eerie phone calls in her home in London one dreary night...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. He liked the ending because it was so out of character for Marlowe. He agreed to direct but only if the ending was not changed. Altman and Brackett spent a lot of time talking over the plot. Altman wanted Marlowe to be a loser. He even nicknamed Gould's character Rip Van Marlowe, as if he had been asleep for 20 years, had woken up, and was wandering around Los Angeles in the early 1970s but "trying to invoke the morals of a previous era". Her first draft was too long and she shortened it but the ending was inconclusive. She had Marlowe shooting Terry Lennox. Altman conceived of the film as a satire and made several changes to the script, like having Roger Wade commit suicide and having Marty Augustine smash a Coke bottle across his girlfriend's face. Altman said, "it was supposed to get the attention of the audience and remind them that, in spite of Marlowe, there is a real world out there, and it is a violent world".
Principal photography
Altman did not read all of Chandler's book and instead utilized Raymond Chandler Speaking, a collection of letters and essays. He gave copies of this book to the cast and crew, advising them to study the author's literary essays. The opening scene with Philip Marlowe and his cat came from a story a friend of Altman's told him about his cat only eating one type of cat food. Altman saw it as a comment on friendship. The director decided that the camera should never stop moving and put it on a dolly. However, the camera movements would counter the actions of the characters so that the audience would feel like a voyeur. To compensate for the harsh light of southern California, Altman gave the film a soft, pastel look reminiscent of old postcards from the 1940s. When it came to the scenes between Philip Marlowe and Roger Wade, Altman had Elliot Gould and Sterling Hayden ad-lib most of their dialogue because, according to the director, Hayden was drunk and stoned on marijuana most of the time. Altman had originally wanted Dan BlockerDan Blocker
Dan Blocker was an American actor best remembered for his role as Eric "Hoss" Cartwright in the NBC western television series Bonanza.-Early life:...
for the role of Wade, but Blocker died just before principal photography began. He was, however, reportedly thrilled by Hayden's performance despite him being second choice to Blocker.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of The Long Goodbye features two songs, "Hooray for Hollywood" and the eponymous "The Long Goodbye," composed by John WilliamsJohn Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
and Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
. It was Altman's idea to have every occurrence of that song arranged differently, from hippie chant, to supermarket muzak
Muzak
Muzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 1934, Muzak Holdings is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....
, to radio music, effectively achieving the correct mood for the hero's encounters with eccentric Californians, while pursuing his case.
Critical reception
The Long Goodbye was previewed at the Tarrytown Conference Center in Tarrytown, New YorkTarrytown, New York
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line...
. The gala was hosted by Judith Crist
Judith Crist
Judith Crist is an American film critic. She appeared regularly on the Today show from 1964-1973 and has appeared in one film, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories...
, then the film critic for New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine. The film was not well received by the audience except for Nina van Pallandt's performance. Altman attended a Q&A session afterwards and the mood was "vaguely hostile", leaving the director reportedly "depressed".
The Long Goodbye was not well received by critics during its limited release in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Miami. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Jay Cocks
Jay Cocks
Jay Cocks is a film critic and motion picture screenwriter.He is a graduate of Kenyon College. He was a critic for Time, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone, among other magazines, before moving into film writing....
wrote, "Altman's lazy, haphazard putdown is without affection or understanding, a nose-thumb not only at the idea of Philip Marlowe but at the genre that his tough-guy-soft-heart character epitomized. It is a curious spectacle to see Altman mocking a level of achievement to which, at his best, he could only aspire". As a result, the New York opening was canceled at the last minute after several advance screenings had already been held for the press. The film was abruptly withdrawn from release with rumors that it would be re-edited. They analyzed the reviews for six months, concluding that the reason for the film's failure was the misleading advertising campaign in which it was promoted as a "detective story" and spent $40,000 on a new release campaign, which included a poster by Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
magazine artist Jack Davis
Jack Davis (cartoonist)
Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...
.
The Long Goodbye was re-released and in his review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
wrote, "it's an original work, complex without being obscure, visually breathtaking without seeming to be inappropriately fancy". Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film three out of four stars and praised Elliott Gould's "good performance, particularly the virtuoso ten-minute stretch at the beginning of the movie when he goes out to buy food for his cat. Gould has enough of the paranoid in his acting style to really put over Altman's revised view of the private eye".
The Long Goodbye remained unpopular, and earned poorly in the rest of the U.S.; nevertheless, The New York Times listed The Long Goodbye in its "Ten Best List" for film for that year, while Vilmos Zsigmond was awarded the National Society of Film Critics
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
' prize as Best Cinematographer. Ebert later ranked it among his "Great Movies" collection and wrote, "Most of its effect comes from the way it pushes against the genre, and the way Altman undermines the premise of all private eye movies, which is that the hero can walk down mean streets, see clearly, and tell right from wrong".
External links
- The Long Goodbye trailer at You Tube