Mitchum is perfect as the world-weary P.I. with a heart as soft as his mattress.
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Novelist Raymond Chandler's quintessential private detective, Philip Marlowe, has probably appeared in more films, played by more actors, than any single character in fiction. Consider among others Humphery Bogart, Dick Powell, George Montgomery, Elliott Gould, James Garner, James Caan, and in "Farewell, My Lovely" the definitive portrayal by Robert Mitchum. Suggesting it is definitive may trouble some Bogart fans, but, indeed, Mitchum is more fully in line with Chandler's original concept.
The year is 1941--Germany has just invaded Russia, DiMaggio is hitting in more consecutive games than any player in baseball, and Marlowe is on a case. Big Moose Malloy, just out of prison after seven years, is looking for his old girlfriend, Velma. He hires Marlowe to find her. In the course of the investigation, Marlowe gets shot at, beaten up, thumped on the head, pumped full of dope, and booked for suspicion of murder. He visits gambling joints, night clubs, fancy mansions, cat houses, and dark alleys; and he gets mixed up with millionaires, crooked politicians, gangsters, hoodlums, all sorts of colorful characters, and a plot that twists and turns in every direction. In other words, its classic private eye territory.
Almost everything about this movie is right. Mitchum is perfect as the world-weary P.I. with a heart as soft as his mattress. His voice-over narration carries with it all the sardonic wisecracks, epigrams, and corny similes one remembers from the books: "I was having some Chinese food when a dark shadow fell over my chop suey." "This car sticks out like a pair of spats in an Iowa picnic." Or "She was giving me the kind of look I could feel in my hip pocket." All of Chandler's tough-guy banter and shifty dialogue are intact, delivered in an effortless drawl that only Mitchum could cultivate. He doesn't so much sound like Marlowe as he is Marlowe.
In addition to the star, there is Charlotte Rampling as a sexy, sultry woman on the make; John Ireland as Lt. Nulty, an honest cop; Harry Dean Stanton as Billy Rolfe, a dishonest cop; Sylvia Miles as Mrs. Florian, a washed-up ex-chorus girl; Anthony Zerbe as Laird Burnette, a big-time operator; Jack O'Halloran as the massive Moose; Joe Spinell and Burton Gilliam as a pair of goons; and Sylvester Stallone in a pre-Rocky bit part as, what else, a hood.
Finally, there are the period Los Angeles locations and the period jazz background music that play as much a part in the film as the characters themselves.
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[release]2231[/release]