MovieChat Forums > The Long Goodbye (1973) Discussion > I need some help to understand the plot ...

I need some help to understand the plot of this movie

posted 12 years ago by erictopp
19 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS (possibly)

My understanding of the plot is as follows:

Eileen Wade is having an affair with Terry Lennox. Terry's wife Sylvia finds out and Terry kills her (start of film).

Terry takes Marty Augustine's money to Mexico. Terry fakes his suicide and hides out there.

Eileen returns the money to Augustine saving Marlowe's life. She goes to Mexico to live with Terry not knowing that Marlowe killed him (end of film).

Questions:

1. Marlowe doesn't know Eileen. Eileen doesn't love Roger any more. Why does Eileen go to Marlowe to find Roger?

2. The money is in Mexico. Eileen isn't in love with Marlowe. Why does she save him and how does she get the money?

3. What happened to Marlowe's cat? Actually, I know the answer - the cat has gone to the girls' apartment to enjoy some catnip brownies! :)

[–] truffautgodard 12 years ago

So here's how I see it SERIOUS SERIOUS SPOILERS!! RUINS THE WHOLE SECRET OF THE MOVIE!

Crazy Roger Wade tells Sylvia Lennox, Terry Lennox's wife, that Terry Lennox is having an affair with Roger Wade's wife, Eileen Wade.

Sylvia confronts her husband Terry about this, gets hysterical, threatens to tell the cops about Terry and the $350k he has for the mob boss Marty Augustine.

Terry then beats his wife, so hard that she dies. He has $350k in mob money and a dead wife. He decides to leave to Mexico.

He gets Marlowe to drive him to Mexico and fakes his death, keeping the $350k

Marlowe goes to jail.

After jail Marlowe gets visited by Marty Augustine and has to find the $350k

Augustine later talks to Eileen Wade about something. Potentially Roger owes Augustine some money.

Roger Wade commits suicide.

Marlowe is about to be spaded - (where's the money Lebowski) when all of a sudden Eileen drops off $350k from her own money. She's rich - she has more money than Augustine and Roger combined, Terry later says.

Eileen goes to Mexico to live with Terry.

But Marlowe has killed him.

Wow its a complicated plot revealed in like 1 minute at the end.

Love that film

[–] Schmoozette 11 years ago

Eileen drops off the $350K at Marty's because it's assumed that Terry is dead--but just in case, Marty got his money, so he won't even think of trying to "dig Terry up," in case he suspects he's not really dead (which he wasn't, at that point). So Eileen was just deflecting Marty from following Terry's trail, as a type of insurance.

[–] mpeachhead 11 years ago

None of you answered the question of why Eileen contacted Marlowe initially, though. I also think that Eileen has convinced Roger that he killed Sylvia Lennox. The Doctor Veringer believes so, as well, which is why he's blackmailing Roger. It's possible that Eileen got Dr. Veringer to help convince Roger of this? If so, then why does she need Marlowe to locate him? Very confusing.

[–] thedtrain989 11 years ago

I'm curious about why Eileen contacted Marlowe to begin with too. I love all the weirdness about this movie, but this has been bothering me.

If she was having an affair with Terry and knew about the murder, money, and faked suicide, why did she get a private eye detective investigating all up in her stuff? Maybe she was luring her husband to drink himself to death and actually needed to fetch him from the rehab clinic? But she eventually caused her own downfall by contacting Terry's private detective friend to begin with.

Maybe someone who read the novel could clear up how this was handled in the source material? Then again, Chandler wrote the Big Sleep, which in movie adaptation, had an even more convoluted pulpy plot.

[–] mpeachhead 11 years ago

I have read the source material, but the plot is quite different, and it's been a while. She was a femme fatale type character, whom I think hired Marlowe to legitimately find her husband and get him out of the sanitarium. Marlowe sleeps with her at one point (which was rare for him), and Wade commits suicide with a gun if I'm not mistaken while Marlowe is in the house. I believe Marlowe deducts that she actually pulled the trigger and is able to get her arrested for his murder. I think in the novel that it was true that Roger killed Sylvia Lennox. Terry was really innocent.

Marlowe believes that Terry is really dead, but then this Mexican guy comes to visit him at the end of the novel, and PRESTO! It's Terry with extensive plastic surgery, which was always corny to me.

The ending of the film is far superior to the ending of the novel in my opinion. But I think the novel sheds a lot more light on Marlowe and Terry's friendship, and it had more intrigue and action prior to the ending.

So, I think Altman loved the ending of the film so much that he was willing to have some questionable plot points in other places.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] mpeachhead 11 years ago

In the novel, Eileen didn't hire Marlowe. Wade's publisher did. But I think Eileen liked having him around because he was another witness that possibly Wade killed Sylvia Lennox, and in the novel Eileen kills Wade and tries to pin it on Marlowe.

Perhaps that was the intention in the film as well? That Eileen was thinking of killing Wade or at the very least driving him to commit suicide (she succeeded), and she wanted someone fairly reputable to be there to support her story? It's a a stretch, admittedly, and it's not made overt in the film, but perhaps that was the intention?

I think this film would have been better if Marlowe had sex with Sylvia the night that Wade committed suicide. It was kind of building up to that. Wouldn't it have been awesome if they were in bed together and then saw Wade "wading" out into the ocean?

They came close in the novel but never actually did anything.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] krasnegar 8 years ago

In the original book, they all knew each other - Marty, Terry and Marlowe had shared a foxhole in WW One.

[–] axl-jonsson 11 years ago

Additional to why Eileen ever contacted Marlowe, is the question of how Terry knew that Marlowe knew about the Wade's. Perhaps it it's inclined that since Marlowe found Terry he must have come across the Wade's, but that doesn't have to be the case since Marlowe just could have bribed the cops in the first place. Seems strange either way that Terry starts to talk about his relations with Eileen without Marlowe mentioning something.

[–] Erniesam 10 years ago

Yes, that was indeed the question in my mind: WHY did Eileen hire Marlowe? Having read through the posts here, maybe I can sum up my thoughts on it now.

I believe that Terry and Eileen were in on it together. After Terry had killed his wife he must have contacted Eileen. Than they made up the scheme (when Terry was in Tijuana). The problem was of course to get rid of Roger. Because Terry used Marlowe to bring him to Tijuana, I believe Eileen used him too as she knew that Marlowe was the friend of Terry and he already was implicated. Notice how Eileen brings up the subject of Terry obsessively with Marlowe.

Roger is an alcoholic who sometimes is committed to rehab. I believe Eileen has told him that he could be the one who killed the wife of Terry (he went there to tell her Terry cheated on her with his wife), because she wants Roger to commit suicide. For this she must have a (reliable) witness. Furthermore, in order to get him to commit suicide she must have Roger out of rehab. Problem is: the doctor wants him right there so he can blackmail him. Has Eileen told the doctor about her suspicions? Not very likely, because why would she want another accomplice? I believe it is Roger himself who has spouted his guilt in some or other session at rehab. So does Eileen even know that the doctor knows and is blackmailing Roger? I don't know. Fact is that the doctor wants Roger alive so he can blackmail him, while Eileen wants Roger free so she can drive him to suicide. So...Marlowe is used as a witness and he is the one who can get Roger out.

When I think about it: Eileen says that she cannot get Roger out of rehab for some reason (forgot what it was). This would seem to me that she knows that the doctor knows, because how can the doctor refuse her to take Roger? He must have something on her. Therefor I do believe that both the doctor and Eileen know about each others schemes.

[–] jtf1986 10 years ago

This movie is so convoluted it makes The Big Sleep look simple and straight forward in comparison.

[–] krasnegar 8 years ago

Heh.

Same screenwriter - well, one of them - Leigh Brackett. (Along with William Falkner and Julius Furthman)

Interesting thing about "The Big Sleep":

Years later, at an SF convention (Brackett was a well-known writer in SF in the 40s and 50s and was married to SF writer Edmund Hamilton), she told the story about working on it ... and they realised they didn't know who killed the chauffeur.

They went back over the book carefully ... still no idea.

So they contacted Chandler, and he said "I never really figured that out myself. But he needed to die for plot reasons..."

[–] Struckworld7767 9 years ago

I don't know why but I felt like Terry had the 350k all along and Elieen got the other 350k from the house being sold?

Maybe not

I'm from Paris... TEXAS

[–] sandbetweenmytoes 9 years ago

After viewing the film, I had a lot of questions too. I re-watched it a week later and everything became clear to me. The more I watch it, the more I understand and enjoy it. I love the ah-ha moments.

[–] joetorrence 9 years ago

No you don't need help. This movie is not at all about the plot. That's not the point of it in any way. Forget about the plot.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] jritty 9 years ago

1. Well if she's in on it from the start she might just be seeing what he knows/thinks/figured out...just info.

2. I think they don't need it, wasn't part of their plans and it keeps them from digging around to find terry. If they killed marlowe they'd still have nothing but arnold in is underwear.

3. I think they cat is like the rest of the world, movin on without his ass lol

You Suck...now deal with it.