Marlowe, Murder and Noir

Farewell, My Lovely (1975) – Detective Philip Marlowe is searching
for a missing girlfriend of a not overly bright but violent thug.

Directed by Dick Richards                                     Starring Robert
Mitchum, Charlotte Rampling,                                                                                                  Sylvia Miles, Anthony Zerbe, Sylvester
Stallone

Why I Liked It – The Iconic American Detective
Comes To Life.

Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe is an icon of
20th Century American culture. Chandler’s books crystallized the
hard-boiled private investigator in Marlowe. Unfortunately, the movie
adaptations don’t always handle the
character well (Bogart’s version to one side, of course). The Elliott Gould version
from a few years before never decided
whether to play him straight or to let Gould mug. The result was
a disappointing mishmash.

There’s no such problem here. While Mitchum is
at least a decade too old to be the perfect physical embodiment, he
understands the character to perfection. Marlowe isn’t tough
because he’s trying to prove anything, his life and experience have
made him who he is. There’s nothing complicated about Marlowe. It’s
that lack of complication that allows him to navigate the often
complicated adventures that walk through his office door.

Here, the job looks simple. He is to be a visible
presence to assure the safety of a man making an exchange. Easy
money. Except for those complications. They will lead him from the
lowest levels of society to the highest, into the arms of a beautiful
and dangerous woman, and finally to a killer. This is textbook noir
(as much as there is such a thing). Marlowe has no illusions
about humanity. They look after number one, first, last and always.

Mitchum is supported here by a great supporting
cast. Sylvester Stallone appears in a minor role at the bordello as
muscle. His breakthrough role in “Rocky” is the next thing he
will do. It is the female cast that caught my eye here. The sadistic
Madam played by Kate Murtaugh, the broken down beauty played to
absolute perfection by Sylvia Miles, and Charlotte Rampling as the
razor sharp femme fatale.

There’s a lot to love here, but the movie isn’t
perfect. The middle section drags before it catches again in the
final third. Best of all, it treats Marlowe and the rest of the story
with the respect it deserves. It’s not a great movie, but at times
it’s a very, very good one.

Rating – *** Worth A Look