I couldn't agree more with what Terrill says about the 1975
film version of 'Farewell My Lovely' with Mitchum. It's
terrific and it's one of Mitchum's best performances from his
later years and it also has Mitchum's contemporary the great
John Ireland in it and Harry Dean Stanton and, well, you'll
just have to see it for yourself.
The very good news is you can get the DVD from Amazon.com UK
for about $12 not including shipping.
The only downside is you have to have an 'all region' dvd
player to see it. But buying an all region player is
definitely worth it (you can get one for not much money)
because the Brits have put a lot of our classic film noirs on
dvd that aren't available for sale in the US like 'The Blue
Dahlia' and 'The Glass Key'.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Terrill Lankford
<lankford2000@...> wrote:
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: demack5@...
> >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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