The Long Goodbye

Director Robert Altman clearly didn't give two figs about fidelity to Raymond Chandler in his filmization of Chandler's novel The Long Goodbye. Indicative of Altman's attitude towards the source material is the fact that private detective Philip Marlowe, played with a surfeit of 1970s insolence by Elliot Gould, admits during the film that he may not even be Phillip Marlowe. On its own merits, however, Long Goodbye is a crackling good detective melodrama, with moments of jaw-dropping sudden violence (who can forget gangster Mark Rydell smashing a coke bottle on the face of his lovely mistress, just to prove a small point to Marlowe?) The plot is motivated by Marlowe's efforts to prove that his best friend (played by former pro baseball player Jim Bouton) didn't murder his wife. Among the suspects is obnoxious alcoholic-author Sterling Hayden, the husband of apparently put-upon Nina Van Pallandt. Hayden is taken out of the running when he, too, is killed. The Byzantine plotline ends when Gould realizes that he's been played for a sucker; his cold-blooded response to this revelation has been removed from the TV print of The Long Goodbye, so catch this one on videotape instead. Also, keep a lookout for Arnold Schwarzenegger (billed as Arnold Strong), playing a minor hoodlum.