Dmytryk's and Dick Powell's FAREWELL MY LOVELY is very good.
It's more shadowy perhaps than the original novel, but
captures the mood quite well. I had a bit of hard time
accepting Powell as Marlowe, but he does great job
nevertheless.
Mitchum's FAREWELL MY LOVELY is also quite good, but there
are elements on pastiche that Altman's film doesn't have. (As
for that film, I like it quite a bit, but not the ending in
which Gould plays harmonica. It feels like Altman doesn't
take his stuff seriously.)
Another Chandler film I actually liked was FALCON TAKES OVER.
Wasn't that too FAREWELL MY LOVELY?
As for Meeker showing Hammer's skills at combat, he comes
across like a moron in the film. Okay, he can beat up a few
guys and does that quite nicely, but he's still a fool in the
end of the novel, driven only by his greed and curiosity.
Perhaps more greed than anything else. He asks: "What's in it
for me?" (And at that moment, a door of a lift opens and lets
a shining light on his face. It's a premonition of things to
come, and one of the moments in the film I really
admire.)
Juri
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