Sometimes in a detective story the mystery is not half
as fun as the detective stuck in the chaos of the story. Philip Marlow is one
of those detectives. His name is synonymous with Hollywood noir and in The
Long Goodbye (1973), he dives deep into a mystery involving a murder, then
a suicide, then a missing person, and eventually a very violent gangster
operating in sunny Los Angeles. One thing I love about this version is that
this detective loves his cat enough to go buy him food at three o’clock in the
morning. Now that is a dedicated pet lover.
The late great director Robert Altman starts the
action at a slow pace to introduce Marlowe (Eliott Gould) as he wakes up to his
hungry cat. Here is a man who falls asleep in his clothes, always the same suit
and tie, and is either constantly smoking or lighting a new cigarette. He is a
friendly person, nice enough to pick up an item for his neighbours while going
out to get cat food. It probably helps that said neighbours are five young women
who spend most of their time either dancing or doing yoga, usually half naked.
When he can’t find the right brand of cat food at the store, Marlowe tries to
be smart and pour the contents into the can of the brand he usually serves his
cat. The little fur ball doesn’t fall for the trick and runs out the door, much
to Marlowe’s chagrin.
Those are good introductory scenes that lead to the
inciting incident. Marlowe’s old friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) shows up
asking for a lift to the Mexican border to spend time away from his wife after
a particularly nasty fight. Marlowe does his old friend this favour, which he
soon regrets. Upon his return two detectives are waiting for him with questions
about Terry’s whereabouts since his wife was found murdered. Sincerely believing
in his friend’s innocence, Marlowe doesn’t feel like cooperating and spends
three days in jail. You get the feeling this is not his first time being
interrogated or spending time behind bars. When he is finally told he is free
to go he responds with irritation, “I was free to begin with.”
Things escalate from there, with a new case involving
a missing writer with shades of Ernest Hemingway, a dubious doctor (Henry
Gibson) from a mental health clinic, a missing suitcase full of money last seen
in Terry’s possession, and the violent gangster Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell)
who would very much like to get his hands on that money. As the protagonist
from another detective story set in Los Angeles once said, this story has a lot
of ins, a lot of outs. Still, Marlowe is determined to find the answers, while also
taking time to see if anyone has seen his cat.
One thing I really like about this movie is how
grounded it feels. While in jail Marlowe recognizes an African American clerk
from his grocery store. “They got you too?” he asks as though this happens
frequently. While in his cell Marlowe listens to the musings of cellmate,
locked up for marijuana possession, saying one day it’s the police who will be
behind bars. Meanwhile Marlowe’s richer client live in a gated community where
they a greeted by a security guard who does celebrity impressions. Then there
is the crew of Augustine that is as racially diverse of the streets of Los Angeles.
Marlowe spots an Irishman, a Mexican, and…isn’t that a young Austrian muscle
man by the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger? Well, so it is.
When the mystery eventually unravels not everything makes complete sense, but then again that often happens in noir mysteries. I didn’t care because I enjoyed the ride and Elliott Gould’s performance as Marlowe. Prior to this I only knew him from Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels, and as Trapper in Robert Altman’s M.A.S.H. Many actors have portrayed Marlowe since Raymond Chandler first published his novels and it would have been interesting to see more of Gould’s take on the character. Over the course of this one movie, you get the feeling he has been through other investigations, talked to a lot of cops, and had his fair share of drinks with dubious. He has been there; he has done that. Now, if only he could find that cat and give him the right kind of food.
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