Philip Marlowe is the quintessential noir character; the hardboiled private eye created by Raymond Chandler has become the mark against which all movie P.I.’s are measured. On the screen, he’s been played by such macho icons as Powers Booth, James Garner, Robert Mitchum and of course Humphrey Bogart. So it’s kind of surprising to see that Elliot Gould is playing Marlowe in this film. Gould was something of a counter-culture hero in the 70’s; he hardly seems like the kind of guy who would pull off a hardboiled character like Marlowe. In any other film, he wouldn’t have. It took Robert Altman to do that.

Altman’s film is not really an adaptation; it’s more like a cover version. It’s the same basic story (there’s one major change that I’ll explore later) but there’s a different feel to it… a different vibe going through it. It’s like a Ramones song covered by Public Enemy; it’s a different interpretation, but the original song still lays there somewhere.

Philip Marlowe (Gould) is a down-and-out private eye who lives at the very top of an apartment complex next to half-naked hippie chicks who keep him awake all night. It’s one of these nights that he’s visited by an old friend of his, Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton). Lennox needs a ride out of the country; he doesn’t want to explain, and Marlowe doesn’t want to know. The next morning, Marlowe is greeted by police officers who tell him that Lennox killed his wife and fled. Marlowe is held in jail as an accomplice. Eventually, he gets out to learn that Lennox has committed suicide in Tijuana. He eventually gets another gig, trying to find novelist Roger Wade (Sterling Hayden), a raging alcoholic who’s strayed from his wife (Nina Van Pallandt). Marlowe eventually realizes that the two cases may have something in common.

Altman strays from the conventions of noir by presenting Marlowe as a sort of anti-hero; gone is the Marlowe for who business is business and such forth. This Marlowe is a sad-sack, sleep-deprived, vengeful SOB. The shock ending that comes around here is so un-typical of Marlowe that it turned off many people who were expecting the guy to channel Bogart. Leonard Maltin called this “almost spoofy” he says it like it’s a bad thing! Altman tests the limits of the genre, has fun with the elements… this is not so much film noir as it is film gris.

The film is often mentioned in the same breath as Chinatown, and with good reason. Both were released within a year of each other; both have similar film noir atmospheres, and both star counter-culture icons. Both are, however, very different. Chinatown has a much more traditional feel, being set in the 40’s as it is. I think, however, that both films are equally strong.

Gould makes a wonderful Marlowe; his trademark sardonic delivery fits Leigh Brackett’s incredible script (Brackett, by the way, actually wrote the screenplay for The Big Sleep, the more traditional Marlowe film with Bogart). To say that Gould looks the part would be an understatement; he fits the part to a T. I’m no authority on Elliot Gould, but it would surprise me to learn that he ever topped this performance. Nina Van Pallandt makes a worthy vacuous blond leading lady but the best performance of the film comes from Sterling Hayden as the terminally drunk Wade. In a role originally intended for Hoss (Dan Blocker) of Bonanza fame (!), Hayden steals every scene he’s in. Props should also go to Mark Rydell as the diminutive gangster Marty Augustine, who gets some very funny lines in. Try to spot David Carradine (as the talkative prisoner in the jail) and Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger as one of Augustine’s henchmen.

If there’s a flaw in the film, it comes from the ending. I thought it was clever and certainly fit in with the whole tone of the Marlowe character, but as far as the plot goes it was somewhat contrived. Don’t let that stop you from seeing this film, however; it’s one of the best private eye movies I’ve seen and although not Altman’s strongest, it’s amongst the considerable list of his great works.




Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening