Farewell My Lovely
Never has an actor more perfectly embodied a character than in Robert Mitchum's portrayal of Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's classic "hard-bodied" detective.
Here, Marlowe's case begins when he is hired by an ex-con fresh out of prison named "Moose" (Jack O'Halloran) to locate his missing sweetheart, Velma. No sooner has Marlowe's search begun than he's beaten unconscious and wakes up next to a corpse. Marlowe's being framed for the murder and he has to clear his name. But what does this have to do with Moose's missing Velma (Charlotte Rampling)? And how could such a big, dumb lug like Moose ever have had anything to do with someone so erotically sultry and beautiful?
Marlowe soon finds himself caught between a beauty and a beast as he doggedly follows every clue looking for answers. Marlowe's quest takes him from the swankest of nightclubs to the darkest of back alleys. This is Los Angeles in all its 1940s film-noir glory. This is Raymond Chandler at his best and Robert Mitchum in the role of a lifetime.
Member Reviews
Another Marlowe movie. - telefon4
I just finished watching the 40's version of this called "Murder my Sweet", which was very good and the better of the two films, in my humble opinion. Robert Mitchum was good in this though as the weary Philip Marlowe; setting this back as a period piece is also a good idea.Neo-noir done right for once - Superdave
Everything about this movie works just as it should, and that is pretty rare in a crime thriller. The earlier version, Murder My Sweet (1945), was the first screen incarnation of Chandler's timeless hard-boiled tough guy Marlowe, but 30 years of 're-visioning' the character put him increasingly out of touch with the times and resulted in Robert Altman's unrecognizable mumbling and fumbling Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973). Sensibly, the producers here turned the calendar back to the 1940s. Long night scenes give it all a nice noir look and threw in lots of classic noir visuals, such as slightly high angle shots early in every scene, with pools of lamplight on the ground like dissecting lamps, which have the audience looking down on the characters like specimens. Lovely. Robert Mitchum, looking world-weary but dogged, is perfectly cast as Marlowe, and the frosty Charlotte Rampling is a perfect deep frozen noir femme in the tradition of Bacall and Lake. They both perfectly inhabit the period and reel off Chandler's famous crackling dialogue like it's their natural speech. It gets almost too stylized at times, but everything works so well for the most part that the audience doesn't mind the contrivance. Marlowe belongs in the 40s and this may be a somewhat artificial version of those days, but I liked it. A-
Member Reviews
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Another Marlowe movie. - telefon4
I just finished watching the 40's version of this called "Murder my Sweet", which was very good and the better of the two films, in my humble opinion. Robert Mitchum was good in this though as the weary Philip Marlowe; setting this back as a period piece is ...Neo-noir done right for once - Superdave
Everything about this movie works just as it should, and that is pretty rare in a crime thriller. The earlier version, Murder My Sweet (1945), was the first screen incarnation of Chandler's timeless hard-boiled tough guy Marlowe, but 30 years of 're-visioning' ...