The Long Goodbye is a 1973 American satirical neo-noir film directed by Robert Altman, adapted by Leigh Brackett from Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same name. The film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe along with Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson, David Arkin, and Jim Bouton, and has an early, uncredited appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The story's setting was moved from the 1940s to 1970s Hollywood. The film has been called "a study of a moral and decent man cast adrift in a selfish, self-obsessed society where lives can be thrown away without a backward glance ... and any notions of friendship and loyalty are meaningless."
United Artists released the film on March 7, 1973. It received mixed to positive reviews upon release, but its critical assessment has grown over time. In 2021, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot Terry Lennox shows up at the Los Angeles apartment of his close friend, down-on-his-luck private eye Philip Marlowe, claiming he is in trouble and asking for a ride to Tijuana, Mexico. Returning from Tijuana, Marlowe learns that Terry's wife, Sylvia, was murdered. He is arrested on suspicion of being an accomplice, but soon released after Mexican authorities report that Terry has committed suicide in Mexico and admitted to killing his wife in a suicide note. Marlowe refuses to believe Terry was guilty.
Meanwhile, Eileen Wade hires Marlowe to find her missing husband, macho, alcoholic, and self-destructive novelist Roger Wade. Marlowe learns that the Wades were the Lennoxes' neighbors in Malibu Colony. He finds Roger at a rehab clinic and brings him home, but before they leave, the clinician, Dr. Verringer, demands payment for his services and vows to see Roger again.
Local gangster Marty Augustine and his henchmen rough Marlowe up at his apartment and demand that he help recover $355,000 that Terry was hired to deliver to Augustine's associates in Mexico City. Once they leave, Marlowe follows them to the Wades' house, where he sees Eileen and Augustine having a heated conversation. This leads him to conclude that the Wades are connected to the Lennoxes' deaths. He later learns that Roger owes Augustine a significant sum of money.
Marlowe travels to Mexico, but the Mexican police stick to their story. He returns to Malibu, where the Wades are hosting a party. Dr. Verringer crashes the party, once again demanding payment and slapping Roger. Although Roger drunkenly insults him, he pays Dr. Verringer and ends the party. Later that night, he walks into the ocean to commit suicide. Eileen and Marlowe rush into the water after him but cannot save him.
Hoping that Terry is still alive, Marlowe theorizes that Roger was having an affair with Sylvia and killed her to hide his infidelity, forcing Terry to flee the country. He badgers Eileen, who reluctantly confirms his theory. Marlowe asks the police to reopen the Lennox investigation; they dismiss his theory but confirm that Roger met with Sylvia before going to rehab.
Marlowe receives a goodbye letter from "Terry", with a rare $5,000 bill enclosed. Marlowe meets Augustine in his office, where upon discovering the bill, Augustine grows suspicious, noting that the money Terry was delivering included three such bills. Augustine threatens to cut Marlowe's genitalia off, but Terry's money arrives in the nick of time. Augustine lets Marlowe go and gives him the bill for his troubles. Outside, Marlowe glimpses Eileen driving away. He runs after her, but she does not acknowledge him, and he is hit by a car during the pursuit. Following a brief hospital stay, he finds that Eileen has sold her house and disappeared.
Marlowe returns to Mexico, where upon bribing local officials with the $5,000 bill, he learns that they were paid by a man with another $5,000 bill to fake Terry's suicide. Marlowe tracks Terry down at a Mexican villa. Terry explains that there was in fact an affair, but it was between him and Eileen. Roger discovered the affair and told Sylvia, who confronted Terry. Terry then killed Sylvia during a violent argument and fled. Terry gloats that no one cares about the case anymore since he is legally dead and Augustine got his money back. Marlowe asks Terry why he was framed as a suspect, but Terry dismissively calls him a "born loser". In response, Marlowe fatally shoots Terry.
As Marlowe walks away, he passes Eileen, who is driving to meet Terry. She is shocked to see him there, but continues on. Having obtained his revenge, Marlowe happily strolls down the road.
Cast
Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe Nina van Pallandt as Eileen Wade Sterling Hayden as Roger Wade Mark Rydell as Marty Augustine Henry Gibson as Dr. Verringer David Arkin as Harry Jim Bouton as Terry Lennox Warren Berlinger as Morgan Pancho Córdova as Doctor Enrique Lucero as Jefe Rutanya Alda as Rutanya Sweet Jack Riley as Riley Jerry Jones as Det. Green John Davies as Det. Dayton Ken Sansom as Colony Guard Uncredited David Carradine as Dave "Socrates" Danny Goldman as Bartender Carl Gottlieb as Wade's Party Guest Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hood in Augustine's Office
Development It took a number of years for a film of The Long Goodbye to be made, although a television production with Dick Powell was released in 1954. On Chandler's death in 1959, the only of his Marlowe novels that had not been made into films were The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback. Playback remains unadapted.
In October 1965 it was announced that producers Elliott Kastner and Jerry Gershwin held the rights to Goodbye and would film it the following year in Los Angeles and Mexico. In 1967, producer Gabriel Katzka had the rights. He wanted to make it as a follow-up to the adaptation of The Little Sister (which became Marlowe). Stirling Silliphant, who wrote Marlowe, wrote a script, but the film was not made and MGM let its option lapse. Kastner and producer Jerry Bick bought the rights back and made a production deal with United Artists to finance a film. Chandler's books were selling as well in the early 1970s as they had while he was alive.
Leigh Brackett The producers commissioned a screenplay from Leigh Brackett, who had been Kastner's client when he was an agent and had written the script for the Humphrey Bogart version of The Big Sleep. Brackett: set the deal with United Artists, and they had a commitment for a film with Elliott Gould, so either you take Elliott Gould or you don't make the film. Elliott Gould was not exactly my idea of Philip Marlowe, but anyway there we were. Also, as far as the story was concerned, time had gone by—it was twenty-odd years since the novel was written, and the private eye had become a cliché. It had become funny. You had to watch out what you were doing. If you had Humphrey Bogart at the same age that he was when he did The Big Sleep, he wouldn't do it the same way. Also, we were faced with a technical problem of this enormous book, which was the longest one Chandler ever wrote. It's tremendously involuted and convoluted. If you did it the way he wrote it, you would have a five-hour film. Brian G. Hutton, who had made a number of movies for Kastner, was originally attached as director and Brackett says Hutton wanted the script structured so that "the heavy had planned the whole thing from the start" but when writing it she found the idea contrived.
The script deviates markedly from Chandler's novel; Brackett took many liberties with the story, plot, and characters. In the film, Marlowe kills his best friend, Terry Lennox. Lennox did kill his own wife, because she discovered he was having an affair with Eileen, and he admits this to Marlowe. Neither Sylvia Lennox, her sister, nor her father appears in the film; Roger Wade commits suicide, rather than being murdered; and gangster Marty Augustine and his subplots are additions to the film. Bernie Ohls, Marlowe's sometime friend on the LAPD, is also absent.
The film quotes from the novel when Marlowe, under police interrogation, asks, "Is this where I'm supposed to say, 'What's all this about?' and he [the cop] says, 'Shut up! I ask the questions'?"
Throughout the film are stylistic nods to the Chandler novels and 1950s American culture. Marlowe drives a 1948 Lincoln Continental convertible Cabriolet, in contrast with the contemporary cars others drive. Marlowe also chain smokes in the film, in contrast with a health-conscious California; no one else smokes on screen.
A "making-of" featurette on the DVD is titled "Rip van Marlowe", a reference to the character Rip Van Winkle, to emphasize the contrast between Marlowe's anachronistic 1950s behavior and the film's 1970s setting.
Robert Altman The producers offered the script to both Howard Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich to direct. Both declined, but Bogdanovich recommended Robert Altman. United Artists president David Picker may have picked Gould to play Marlowe as a ploy to get Altman to direct. At the time, Gould was in professional disfavor because of his rumored troubles on the set of A Glimpse of Tiger, in which he bickered with costar Kim Darby, fought with director Anthony Harvey, and acted erratically. Consequently, he had not worked in nearly two years; nevertheless, Altman convinced Bick that Gould suited the role. United Artists had Gould undergo the usual employment medical examination, and a psychological examination attesting to his mental stability. In January 1972 it was announced that Altman and Gould would make the film. Altman called it "a satire in melancholy".
Brackett had problems with Chandler's plot, which she felt was "riddled with cliches", and faced the choice of making it a period piece or updating it. Altman received a copy of the script while shooting Images in Ireland. He liked the ending because it was so out of character for Marlowe. He agreed to direct as long as the ending was not changed. Brackett recalled meeting Altman while he was making Images: "We conferred about ten o'clock in the morning and yakked all day, and I went back to the hotel and typed all the notes and went back the next day. In a week we had it all worked out. He was a joy to work with. He had a very keen story mind." Altman and Brackett spent a lot of time discussing the plot. Altman wanted Marlowe to be a loser. He even nicknamed Gould's character Rip Van Marlowe, as if he had been asleep for 20 years, awakened, and was wandering around Los Angeles in the early 1970s but "trying to invoke the morals of a previous era".
Brackett said her first draft was too long, and she shortened it, but the ending was inconclusive. She had Marlowe shooting Terry Lennox. Altman made several changes to the script, like having Roger Wade commit suicide and having Marty Augustine smash a Coke bottle across his girlfriend's face. Altman said, "it was supposed to get the attention of the audience and remind them that, in spite of Marlowe, there is a real world out there, and it is a violent world". "Chandler fans will hate my guts", Altman said. "I don't give a damn."
Production Casting Many of the film's roles were unconventionally cast. Jim Bouton was not an actor; he was a former Major League Baseball pitcher and the author of the bestselling book Ball Four. Nina van Pallandt was best known at the time as the ex-lover of writer Clifford Irving, who had written a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes that turned into a major scandal. Mark Rydell had an acting background, but was better known as the director of films like The Cowboys and The Reivers. Henry Gibson, who was then best known for his work in the comedy ensemble of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, was cast as Dr. Verringer.