The TV adaptation of The Long Goodbye was nominated for Best Episode in a TV Series but lost to “Smoke,” an episode from the series Suspense written by Gore Vidal.

Despite Kael's effusive endorsement and its influence among younger critics, The Long Goodbye was relatively unpopular and earned poorly in the rest of the United States. The New York Times listed it in its Ten Best List for film for that year, while Zsigmond was awarded the National Society of Film Critics' prize for Best Cinematographer. [35] [47] Ebert later ranked it among his Great Movies collection and wrote, "Most of its effect comes from the way it pushes against the genre, and the way Altman undermines the premise of all private eye movies, which is that the hero can walk down mean streets, see clearly, and tell right from wrong". [48] See also [ edit ] This is very much a postwar novel, as well. We always hear that the 50s were a time of optimism and affluence in America, but Marlowe is preoccupied with the portents of a new world that's coming into being, a world of mass advertising and consumerism in which organized crime is "just the dirty side of the sharp dollar", and where the wealthy enjoy "one long suntanned hangover." Terry proposes the existence of this world to Marlowe, early on: The two strike up a sort of friendship—sharing a few early drinks at a quiet bar every now and then—until Lennox shows up at Marlowe’s house late one night asking him to drive him to Tijuana because he is in a great deal of trouble. Details can be implicating, so Marlowe agrees under the conditions that Lennox withhold all specifics of why he needs to escape. Varèse Sarabande released selections from Williams's score on a CD in 2004 paired with the album rerecording of Williams's music from Fitzwilly; in 2015 Quartet Records issued a CD entirely devoted to The Long Goodbye.And that's the case for most of the characters in the novel, as well. Terry doesn't know if he really killed Sylvia. Roger Wade doesn't know why he can't write anymore. The reader doesn't know if Eileen was really in love with a sailor who disappeared in Norway during the war (and doesn't know if Eileen really knows), and Marlowe doesn't know why he's so fond of Terry. But even these are just the most obvious questions, the plot points that a reader expects resolution to. What contributes to the unique atmosphere of this book, I think, is that Chandler is always hinting at something deeper.

In 1950, Chandler described in a letter to his English publisher, Hamish Hamilton, why he began reading pulp magazines and later wrote for them: Altman did not read all of Chandler's book and instead used Raymond Chandler Speaking, a collection of letters and essays, copies of which he gave the cast and crew, advising them to study the essays. [24] The opening scene with Marlowe and his cat came from a story a friend of Altman's told him about his cat only eating one type of cat food. Altman saw it as a comment on friendship. [22] He decided that the camera should never stop moving and put it on a dolly. [32] The camera movements counter the characters' actions so that the viewer feels like a voyeur. To compensate for Southern California's harsh light, Altman gave the film a soft pastel look reminiscent of postcards from the 1940s. [32]

Success!

Altman had Gould and Hayden ad lib most of their dialogue because, according to the director, Hayden was drunk and stoned on marijuana most of the time. [24] Altman was reportedly thrilled by Hayden's performance. Altman's home in Malibu Colony was used as Wade's house. "I hope it works", Altman said during filming. "We've got a script but we don't follow it closely." [14] Marlowe finds himself drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA's Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn't kill his wife, but how many more stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth? La storia, oltre a essere attualizzata ambientandola nella Los Angeles dei primi anni Settanta (il gangster sembra un sosia di Paul Simon! È interpretato da Mark Rydell, più famoso come regista che come attore: suoi sono “Sul lago dorato” e “Il fiume dell’ira”), è scarnificata, ridotta all’osso, sfrondando tutti i rami secondari con cui Chandler contorceva le sue trame. On the other side of town, a drunk author goes on a bender and his hot wife begs Marlow to find him. As a reference to the American iconography of Chandler's novels, Marlowe wears a tie with American flags on it (the tie looks plain red in the movie due to Zsigmond's post- flashing). [17] Music [ edit ]

CHA: And it's not clear from the book. He never really ties that up. And I think it doesn't matter. I don't know. A loser friend of Marlow's sets off on a middle-of-the-night trip to Mexico, writes a confession, and then offs himself. Or did he have help?CHANG: So awesome to have you here. So, you know, like, the idea for this whole series we're doing is to take a closer look at all the books that authors always find themselves returning to. I have never read "The Long Goodbye," but I can't wait to hear you talk about it. What is it about? The sixth in the Philip Marlowe series, The Long Goodbye is significant not only as the last book Raymond Chandler wrote but as a personal consummation of craft that brought his detective novels into the realm of distinguished fiction. "The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers" [p. 3], Marlowe explains in an extraordinary opening line that establishes wealth, trouble, and the central figure of conflict in the story. Taking pity on Lennox, Marlowe brings him home to sober up. They begin a casual friendship, meeting for gimlets at Victor’s; Marlowe learns that the scars on his face are mortar wounds and that he is married to the promiscuous daughter of multimillionaire Harlan Potter. Something in Lennox’s character interests Marlowe, enough that he doesn’t question why Lennox is asking for help getting to Mexico right after his wife has been brutally murdered. Marlowe does help, and is arrested and jailed. When Lennox turns up a suicide with a signed confession in Otatoclán, it gets Marlowe out of jail, but it does not get Lennox out of his life. CHA: Yes. When "The Big Sleep" was being adapted for film, he was asked, who killed the chauffeur? And he didn't know.

Because man, the world that Chandler paints in The Long Goodbye is certainly not the most pleasant or optimistic one you'll ever come across; a world full of spoiled, weak little hairless apes, running around flinging their own excrement at each other and succumbing to their basest vices at the slightest provocation. And indeed, this is one of the other things this particular novel is known for, much more so than any of the other novels of Chandler's career, as being one of the first truly complex and brutally honest looks at the entire subject of alcoholism, a tortured look at the subject from an active addict who bitterly blames the moral weakness of the alcoholics as much as the disease itself. In Chandler's world, the majority of bad things that happen to people happen because of those people's own actions and attitudes; because they are petty, because they are weak, because they are greedy, because they are spineless. Sure, occasionally a person might get framed for a murder they didn't actually commit, or other such unfair crime; but ultimately that person has been guilty of countless other sins in the past for which they were never caught, making it impossible to exactly feel bad for them when it comes to the one particular trumped-up charge. Deeb, Gary (29 July 1977). " 'Long Goodbye' was a short one". Chicago Tribune. p.II-12 – via Newspapers.com. That's just a word, Marlowe. We have that kind of world. Two wars gave it to us and we are going to keep it."

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Gore, Father (2016-06-07). "Altman's The Long Goodbye is Perfect Post-Modern Film Noir". Father Son Holy Gore . Retrieved 2019-07-03. Now, before you do a little PI work yourself and send some goons to help change my mind, chum, hear me out. The Long Goodbye was good. The dialogue was smart and quippy, the plot featured many excellent twists, and for all its genre trappings, it was quite literary. But because ya gotta read Chandler and Chandler is the best, I came away from it thinking it was just good, not great.