RARA-AVIS: Re: THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)

From: Chris Schneider ( chrisaschneider@earthlink.net)
Date: 02 Jul 2003


> on 7/2/03 5:40 AM, JIM DOHERTY at jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Sure, and I suppose next you'll be trying to convince
> me that he was once married to Barbra Streisand and
> that he once starred in a sitcom called E/R with
> George Clooney before Michael Crichton even conceived
> of the current identically-titled NBC medical drama.
>
> And who's this Altman guy? You're telling me some guy
> named Altman actually made a Marlowe film? Oh, come
> on! Who wrote it? Leigh Brackett, the co-scripter of
> THE BIG SLEEP, I suppose!
>
> All I have to say is, if Altman and this mysthical
> Gould character ever actually did a film version of
> Chandler's most ambitious novel, I must have
> considered it beneath my notice.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
> __________________________________

   Could one hazard a guess that Altman, Brackett & Co. hit a raw nerve? Just possibly?
   Me, I'll claim that the 1973 "Long Goodbye" movie is a masterpiece: from the initial quote of the Whiting/Mercer song "Hooray for Hollywood," through the "Double Indemnity" reference of the guard imitating Stanwyck's Phyllis Diedrichson and Gould's quoting Dick Powell's "Murder, My Sweet" schtick of striking matches everywhere ... up through the "Star Is Born" quote of Sterling Hayden's ocean suicide and the final "Third Man" quote of Gould's scorning bu Nina Van Pallandt.
   It's a funny, sarcastic, chilling, first-rate film.

                                    Chris

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