Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Long Goodbye
1973
****½
Director: Robert Altman
Cast: Elliott Gould, Nina Van Pallandt, Jim Bouton, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson

Philip Marlowe has come a long way since Humphrey Bogart played him as a sharp-tongued tough guy in The Big Sleep. In Robert Altman's laid-back and subversive crime film he's a scruffy and not terribly sharp private eye who is falsely implicated in the murder of his friend's wife. He's hired to help another troubled couple, but it doesn't pan out much better. Elliot Gould is wonderful as the cat-loving Marlowe. Memorable music by John Williams.