The Long Goodbye is a 1973 film directed by
Robert Altman and starring Elliott Gould as detective
Philip Marlowe. It was adapted from the
Raymond Chandler novel of the same name by Leigh Brackett (who earlier co-wrote the most famous film version of Chandler's
The Big Sleep).
This film has examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Roger Wade
- Ambulance Cut: Marlowe runs into the street, gets hit by a car, and we cut to the ambulance.
- Angry Guard Dog: The Wade's dog is never violent, but it is always barking angrily whenever Marlowe is around.
- Appeal To Worse Problems: A variation of the "starving children in Africa" argument: when the cat doesn't want to eat, he says, "What about all the tigers in India they're killing because they don't got enough to eat?"
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Marlowe is a professional — he's always got that suit.
- Book Ends: The song Hooray For Hollywood plays at the beginning and the end of the film.
- Catch Phrase: "It's OK with me."
- Cluster F-Bomb: A few.
- Cool Car: Marlowe's 1948 Lincoln Continental convertible
- Covers Always Lie: The DVD cover shows Marlowe holding a Beretta 92SB (even though it didn't even exist when the film was made), yet he never even handles one, and a poster has him holding a snub nosed revolver with the Tag Line "Nothing says goodbye like a bullet", a line from an early script that was never incorperated into the final movie.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Marlowe notices a bruise on Eileen's cheek, and says it doesn't look like she walked into a door. She says that she didn't. She fell out of bed.
- Deadpan Snarker: Practically everything Marlowe says is a snark.
- Driven to Suicide: Roger.
- Faking the Dead: Lennox is still alive.
- First Name Basis: Mrs. Wade asks Marlowe to start calling her Eileen.
- Genre Busting: It's a neo-noir with a heavy dose of surrealism and black comedy.
- Genre Savvy: Marlowe, on the typical if-this-were-a-movie dialogue for interrogation scenes:
"That's right!"
- He actually says this in the book, too.
- Gratuitous Spanish: The cat door has "El Porto del Gato" written on it. Also, Augustine talks to his Mexican mook in Spanish, even though the guy always answers in English.
- Kick the Dog: Marty Augustine breaks a Coke bottle on his mistress's face immediately after telling her she's the most important person in his life just to prove to Marlowe that he means business. Even his hired goons think that went too far.
- Los Angeles: The film celebrates the odd locales and characters that inhabit the city.
- Never Suicide: Although Wade really does kill himself, Terry Lennox faked his death.
- The Nicknamer: Roger Wade has nicknames for almost everybody.
- Police Are Useless
- Private Detective: Perhaps the most famous one of all time...
- Recurring Riff: Every piece of music, even a doorbell ring, is the tune of the titular song.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: In the interrogation room.
Cop: Are you crazy?
- Smoking Is Cool: Marlowe smokes cigarettes incessantly and in nearly every scene.
- Title Theme Tune: Played throughout.
- Vanity License Plate: Mrs. Wade's says "Lov You."
- Vigilante Execution: Marlowe blows Terry Lennox away after discovering he murdered his wife and betrayed his best friend.
- Writer's Block: Roger Wade suffers from this.
- What Could Have Been: Altman originally wanted Dan Blocker (TV's Hoss Cartwright) whom he originally directed in early episodes of Bonanza to play Wade. Tragically Blocker died from a post-surgery complication at the age of 44. The film is dedicated to him.
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