There is a lively account about the making of FAREWELL, MY
LOVELY in Lee Server's terrific bio on Robert Mitchum, BABY,
I DON'T CARE. One funny bit of trivia is how the director
insisted that his star wear an old suit from Western Costume
that had Victor Mature's name sewed into the jacket. Mitchum
reportedly didn't care much for the suit or the
director.
Agree 100% with TL about FAREWELL- a superior film visually
with perhaps Mitchum's last top screen turn as a middle-aged,
world-weary Marlowe. When Mitch says, "... I need a home in
the country..." he looks like he REALLY means it!
Alan
www.alanrode.com
----- Original Message ----- From: Terrill Lankford <
lankford2000@earthlink.net> Date: Wednesday, November
7, 2007 2:01 pm Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Chandler on Film
(was Chandler's The Lady in the Lake) To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From:
demack5@comcast.net
> >Sent: Nov 7, 2007 1:30 PM
> >To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> >Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Chandler on Film (was
Chandler's The Lady
> in the Lake)
> >
> >>Robert Mitchum made versions of both
Farewell My Lovely (in
> 1975) and The
> >>Big Sleep (in 1978). The latter was filmed
in England and altered
> >>accordingly to fit the setting.
> >
> >And I've never seen Mitchum in Farewell My
Lovely, but the
> version of The >Big Sleep with Mitchum was
dreadful, IMHO.
>
>
>
> Debi, try to see Mitchum's version of Farewell, My
Lovely if you
> can. I think it will redeem him as Marlowe in your
eyes. I think
> it's one of the best Marlowe films. And the style
could not be
> more different from the Michael Winner version of
The Big Sleep,
> which is one of the worst of the adaptations (along
with The
> Brasher Doubloon and The Lady in the Lake, IMHO.) As
a sidenote,
> Farewell, My Lovely was photographed by John Alonzo
back to back
> with Chinatown. Both movies are beautiful to look at
and capture
> the feel of the old film noirs in completely
different ways (and
> in color! Despite the assertion by some people
around here that it
> can't be done).
>
> It's odd that Murder, My Sweet (based on FML) is
another of the
> very best Chandler adaptations. He got lucky twice
with that one.
> And there are story elements in both films unique to
each of them.
> You have to see them both to feel you've covered the
novel (but
> that doesn't hurt either film). Unfortunately,
Farewell, My Lovely
> is not on DVD, but I think there are still VHS
copies floating
> around the land.
>
> Of course none of these films can hold a candle to
The Long
> Goodbye, a movie so powerful that it keeps a grown
man like Jim
> Doherty up late at night weeping with fear that it
might find him
> and strangle him with his own pajamas.
>
> TL
>
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