The full cast of "The Long Goodbye" Climax episode as given
on IMDB:
Tom Drake ... Terry Lennox Horace McMahon ... Detective Dick
Powell ... Philip Marlowe Cesar Romero ... Mendy Mendez
Teresa Wright ... Eilene Wade
The Romero character was named Mendy Menendez in the novel
and I really like the following description. It reminds me of
how good Chandler can be and THE LONG GOODBYE is on my reread
soon list.
"He leaned across the desk and flicked me across the face
backhanded, causually and contemptuously, not meaning to hurt
me, and the small smile stayed on his face. Then when I
didn't even move for that he sat down slowly and leaned an
elbow on the desk and cupped his brown chin in his brown
hand. The bird-bright eyes stared at me without anything in
them but brightness.
"'Know who I am, cheapie?'"
"'Your name's Menendez. The boys call you Mendy. You operate
on the Strip.'"
"'Yeah? How did I get so big?'"
"'I wouldn't know. You probably started out as a pimp in a
Mexican whorehouse.'"
"He took a cold cigarette case out of his pocket and lit a
brown cigarette with a gold lighter. He blew acrid smoke and
nodded. He put the gold cigarette case on the desk and
caressed it with his fingertips."
"'I'm a big bad man, Marlowe. I make lots of dough. I got to
make lots of dough to juice the guys I got to juice in order
to make lots of dough to juice the guys I got to
juice...'"
Ah, I love this stuff!
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Dick Lochte"
<dlochte@a...> wrote:
> I've been hunting for a copy of this for a long time
with no luck. I
> actually saw the show when it was broadcast, though
I clearly don't
remember
> much of it. As I recalled, Cesar Romero played Terry
Lennox. But
Tom Drake
> is better casting. What I do remember vividly is the
movie heavy
Jack
> Lambert being shot and killed and getting up on
camera with a silly
> gee-I-goofed grin on his face. This was live TV,
not
film. "Goodbye" was the
> debut show of Climax!. At an hour minus commercials,
it would be
hard to do
> justice to Chandler's longest and most complex and,
arguably, best
novel,
> but who wouldn't want to check it out?
>
> While on the subject of Marlowe's television
appearances, I'd also
like to
> get a look at the complete series, Philip Marlowe,
Private Eye,
with Phil
> Carey as Marlowe. Twenty-something episodes on film,
half hour,
black and
> white, from the producers of a bunch of game shows,
Goodson &
Todman. As far
> as I can tell, only one episode is in circulation,
"Murder Is A
Grave
> Affair." It's pretty good TV and Carey, I think,
comes closer to
physically
> resembling Marlowe than anyone else who's played the
role, except
maybe
> James Garner. For some reason, all of the episodes
were original
stories, no
> adaptations of Chandler, though Charles Beaumont did
adapt his own
powerful
> short story, "The Hunger," to put Marlowe into it.
It's the only
one I
> remember seeing back in '59. Chandler, who,
according to Carey,
liked the
> idea of the series, didn't see any of the shows. He
died a few
months before
> it debuted.
>
> Dick Lochte
>
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
> -----------------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 14:44:39 -0800
(GMT-08:00)
> From: Terrill Lankford
<lankford2000@e...>
> Subject: Re: Dick Powell in "The Long
Goodbye"
>
> I'd love to see this, too. Hopefully someone will
dig it out of the
vault
> and put it out on DVD. Anyone know of a bootleg
source for it?
>
> TL
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Moore <moorich2@a...>
> Sent: Aug 3, 2005 2:33 PM
> To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Dick Powell in "The Long
Goodbye"
>
> Cruising around the great IMDB website I stumbled
upon what must be
> the first television production of a Philip Marlowe
novel. "The
> Long Goodbye" was the debut episode of the series
"Climax!"
> broadcast on 7 October 1954. It had a great cast
with Dick Powell,
> one of movie's best Marlowes, in the lead role. Tom
Drake was
Terry
> Lennox, and that sounds like a good fit as well.
Horace McMahon,
> Cesar Romero and Teresa Wright were also in the
cast. I've
searched
> around the Internet and apparently it is not
available on DvD.
>
> At least one episode has long been available which
lends me hope of
> one day seeing "Goodbye" but perhaps less confidence
in the
> potential merit. The third episode was an adaptation
of "Casino
> Royale" featuring Barry Nelson as Bond and Peter
Lorre, Linda
> Christian, and Kurt Katch. I have a copy of it
somewhere and it is
> worth seeing for the belly laughs. Nelson is "Jimmy
Bond" and
> listening to Lorre whisper Jimmy's name cracks me up
every time.
>
> I would still love to see "The Long Goodbye"
episode. The novel is
> my favorite Marlowe novel. I even like the Altman
version.
>
> Richard Moore
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