Further proof that some films deserve a second chance - Altman's Long Goodbye

THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I had first seen Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye" twenty years ago at a Psychology of Film class. The sound was poor and the projection of the film seemed off, not to mention the fact that the ending put me off and made me angry. As a result, I hated the film but I didn't quite forget it. Having seen it again recently and being a little older and wiser, I realize now that all my initial emotions were correct - Altman has reinvigorated the film noir genre by imbuing it with haziness, with an unclear and random focus. In other words, Altman simply made an Altman film, no different than "M.A.S.H" or "Nashville" in terms of select randomness and off-the-wall comic touches and radically shredding the conventions associated with the genre in question. It is like no other Philip Marlowe picture ever made and that is how Altman would like it to be remembered.

Elliott Gould is Marlowe, a role that initially was met with skepticism by people in the industry. After all, he doesn't look like the Marlowe that Bogart played and lacks the requisite toughness - or so we think. Only a few years earlier, James Garner took a crack playing the famous private eye and, frankly, he seems miscast next to Gould. For starters, this is not the 1950's world of Raymond Chandler's creation. It is 1973 (Garner's Marlowe film version was also modernized) in the dreary, damp Los Angeles we see - the kind of world where Marlowe forgets to feed his cat, lives next to nude women who proudly exhibit their breasts while practicing yoga and making hash brownies, and promptly tries to buy the brand of cat food his cat so desires. But trouble comes when an old pal named Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton, former Yankee pitcher) wants Marlowe to drive him to the Mexican border by way of Tijuana. Never mind the scratches on Terry's face - he's on the run. The next day, Marlowe finds out that Terry's wife was murdered and that Terry has committed suicide in a Mexican hotel. More trouble brews when police detectives bust Marlowe on fraudalent charges.

Then there is the case of Roger Wade (Sterling Hayden), a boisterous alcoholic writer living on the beach with his distressed, composed wife, Eileen (Nina van Pallandt), who can't cope with Roger's rage any more. There is also the curious case of a doctor who wants Roger to pay his hospital bills, and a vicious crime boss, Martin Augustine (Mark Rydell), who knows how to make his point with a glass Coke bottle. And now about the cat...

"The Long Goodbye" confidently and leisurely balances all these characters and situations in ways that only Altman could master. His slow zooms into reflective surfaces and wading in and out of exterior and interior locations is done with such ease that it doesn't obstruct the story. In fact, the mystery of Terry Lennox and a missing bag of dough keeps one's interest. Altman and Elliott Gould improvise touches that keep one amused enough until the plot takes over, such as Gould applying fingerprint dust all over his face at a police station, or the way he strikes a match on any surface to light his cigarette.

The striking the match without missing a beat bit is vaguely satirical, as if Altman was mocking the genre and, at the same time, embracing it, keeping us clued into ambiguities while occasionally flickering with humor. The most notable change in the genre is Elliott Gould's Marlowe, a man whose mantra is, "It's all right with me." He is a weak loser type, always wearing the same suit and careless about everything and everyone in his sight. His detective abilities are solid but he takes his time with the Terry Lennox case since he truly believes him to be dead. No emotion is expressed, just disbelief. He doesn't exactly threaten anyone or make any ultimatums - he is more of a sarcastic observer who is lucky he is not immediately killed by Augustine.  

The novel doesn't have the two choice violent scenes in this film that weren't initially well-received at screenings. One is the coke bottle scene that is unnerving and brutal. I will not describe it in detail except to say that it is necessarily brutal, lest we forget that Warner Brothers noir and crime pictures of the past had similar moments of shocking violence. The second moment is the ending, which doesn't seem so out of left field as I had initially thought. Again, the less said, the better so as to not spoil the surprise.

"The Long Goodbye" is an atmospheric mood piece with faded colors and a 1970's L.A. look at odds with the typical treatment or standard issue Marlowe picture. I would say that is a major plus, in addition to the late writer Leigh Brackett's choice of accentuating on friendship, betrayal and how one strikes back at being used. Consider a carefully jolting moment, rarely discussed by critics, of Henry Gibson as the doctor whose patient is Roger Wade. Wade refuses to pay him and ignores the little doctor. Finally, the doctor arrives at Wade's party, demands the money, and slaps Wade in the face. It is a jolt that seemingly comes out of nowhere. Then Wade goes into his study and pays the doctor with a check. That scene is indicative of Marlowe's own betrayal and of having been used, leading to a shocking finale that is more at home with Chandler than I had previously thought. I normally don't do such a 180 with first impressions of a film but "The Long Goodbye" is a treasure.