In the movie of The Long Goodbye, Marlowe goes down to Mexico
and kills Terry Lennox at the end. This throws the book's
whole view on friendship and Marlowe's moral code into a
different perspective. For my money, though, I'm not sure
what motivates Marlowe to be such a damn nice guy to Lennox
the whole way and to resist getting paid for anything
throughout the book. Personally, coming up where my first
exposure to Elliot Gould was the first ER series, I thought
he looked pretty cool swaggering through the movie with a
five o'clock shadow and a cigarette always parked between his
lips. But that's just me. I love the book and the movie, but
they're both very different animals.
Another difference with the end of the movie is that Eileen
Wade doesn't commit suicide; in fact, as the credits roll (if
I remember right) Marlowe passes her on the street in Mexico
after he's just killed Lennox. So that adds a note of
plotting into the relationship between she and Terry.
Another great reason to like the movie is Arnold
Schwartzenegger's first film appearance! When a stand-in for
Mendy Menendez gets the great idea that the best way for
everyone to trust each other (this is close the the end) is
to take their pants off, guess who's right in the middle of
the frame, no pants, huge legs. No lines, no credited
appearance, but it's funny as hell to see ole Arny standing
there--and he's pretty hard to miss.
So, like I said, I have to admit to being a fan of the
movie.
SH
Seth Harwood
author of the Jack Palms Crime series find it at
sethharwood.com
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