Ok, given hte film's ending and that Mrs Wade is involved with everything, why does she hire Marlowe in the first place? She must have known that Marlowe was involved with Terry and known that he'd been questioned by the police - was she keeping an eye on him and checking how far he'd got in his enquiries?
Loved the film by the way!
I know kung-fu!
Have you ever read The Little Sister?
This is a question that could be put to many, many detective stories. Why would a guilty person hire a crack detective to work on a case when such recruitment would most likely speed the guilty person to their fate?
First of all, they rarely know that the person is a crack detective. I sure wouldn't know in Marlowe's case. His work hasn't profited him very much, anyway.
Secondly, these villians always suffer from the same shortcoming; hubris. They want to challenge the system.
Finally, and I think this is the most relevant to The Long Goodbye, some of them also suffer from guilt. They want to be caught.
I don't think that any of these reasons are inconsistant with real life. You always hear about criminals returning to the scene of a crime.
i read it that she does still care about her husband and yes is guilty about what she's done. she wants to check that he is okay, rather than the drowned suicide which he eventually does become.
this is evidenced by her reaction to his walking into the sea and grief when he is dead.
" read it that she does still care about her husband and yes is guilty about what she's done. she wants to check that he is okay, rather than the drowned suicide which he eventually does become"
I dont know so much about that.........Think about it this way
She knows where her husband is, he is in treatment for depressiona dn alcoholism, why the hell would she want him out of treatment????? it doesnt make any sense at all. She hired Marlow to get him out of treatment so he would likely do something to himslef, or have the muder of whats-his-names wife pinned on him...so he would go to jail
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=9635205
EXACTLY. She's waiting for him to off himself and then go to terry.
You Suck...now deal with it.
I noticed that too. i thought the movie was great, but it seemed to me that Lennox's plan would have worked just as well or even better if Marlowe hadn't been involved. At the end when Lennox says that Wade's wife has more money than him or Sylvia, I assumed she inherited it from Wade after his death, but how could she be sure that Marlowe investigating would trigger Wade's suicide? I guess I might just have to watch it again. Given the talent involved, I'm positive it's not a mistake or a plot hole, but I couldnt figur eit out.
share"how could she be sure that Marlowe investigating would trigger Wade's suicide?"
She couldn't - nor was that her desire - which is why she only returned Marty Augustine's dough after her husband's death. She & Lennox no longer needed it - or the possibility of detection by Augustine & his thugs - once she stood to inherit her diseased husband's estate. In the earlier "impotence" scene there is much talk between the Wades of leaving one another. Then Roger Wade goes a-wading.
I think she was impressed that he kept quiet to protect Lennox.
And she would not have known how strongly he felt about solving the murder. She just wanted to get her husband back home and she needed someone capable to do it.
Try this. She hires him because her lover (Lennox) tells her to so she can keep an eye on him and know whether or not he has swallowed the fake suicide story. Her relationship to Dr. Veringer is also questionable. She says she doesn't know where her husband is, but she could be lying, wanting Marlowe to get him out of the Doctor's place, so he can commmit suicide as she needs him to do so she can get his money and go down to Mexico and live happily ever after with Lennox. And maybe the doctor was in on that too, feeding Roger some drugs that would interact with his alcohol and produce sufficient depression to send him into the sea, where the salt water might prevent an autopsy from discovering the drugs, or where he might wind up eaten by sharks or something else. And who better to have handy as a witness to the suicide than Marlowe?
shareThast the sharpest analysis of the film I've read. Thanks, I was very curious about why she hired him too.
shareThanks bigtrain.....that is a coherent synopsis, but in the end for me, too much is left lurking in the dark for me to come away from this film thinking I have gained something.
I knew Marlowe was pissed when he went to go see Lennox, but for someone who up to that point was rather unemotional; to kill his "long-time" friend? What the heck?
And I don't understand why she gave the money back? To save Marlowe? The suppostion that she inherits Wade's money is fine....but a criminal mind wants more...not less, and what would she care, she is going to runaway to Mexico never to be seen again, unless Lennox told her to do it, to save his friend Marlowe.
Arggg, my head hurts.
She gave the money back because she and Lennox wanted to eliminate any chance of Augustine tracking them down. He was very determined to get his hands on the money; after hitting enough deadends in his search for it, there was at least the possibility he'd figure out Lennox wasn't dead and go after him.
As for the ending, I had problems with it the first time I saw the movie, but now I've been won over. As the story progresses, Marlowe is going crazy. He comes to realize that morality and integrity -- the things he values most -- aren't worth anything in the world around him. His anger is hard to see through his laid-back, passive personality, but it finally explodes at the person who has betrayed him the most.
In a weird way I think this movie is the LA version of Taxi Driver. The differences between Marlowe and Travis Bickle are the differences between LA and New York in the '70s.
Plus, Terry Lennox was officially already dead.
As Altman himself said in the interview on the DVD, just like the cat that left when he wasn't fed properly anymore, Terry Lennox was the friend who proved to be false in the end.
Besides, Marlowe felt for the death of Roger, the disfigurment of Mark Rydell's girlfriend, and all that he went through himself... and figured, "I'll be a born loser no longer".
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posted by bigtrain45:
She... want[s] Marlowe to get him out of the Doctor's place, so he can commit suicide as she needs him to do so she can get his money and go down to Mexico and live happily ever after with Lennox. And maybe the doctor was in on that too, feeding Roger some drugs that would interact with his alcohol and produce sufficient depression to send him into the sea, where the salt water might prevent an autopsy from discovering the drugs... And who better to have handy as a witness to the suicide than Marlowe?But there are multiple problems with that scenario:
Excellent theory, bigtrain45... i must confess that even though I wound up watching the movie twice, I still had a lot of questions left unanswered at the end...
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She didn't need him. She could have tracked Roger down no problem. She also didn't need Wade framed for the murder, Terry Lennox was 'dead' and the case was closed. There were a few reasons. She wanted her husband home, she knew he was suicidal, she knew he might well kill himself. She really couldn't just take off with him still around, questions might be asked. With him gone, she could take off in 'grief' and she'd have a LOT more money from the insurance pay off. But even to get Roger out, she didn't really NEED Marlowe. No, she probably hired him at the request of Terry. Terry knew he'd screwed a friend over and put him in a bad spot. Just like sending him the money, he still wanted to help him. He'd betrayed him but he wanted to give him a shot. He probably felt that Mrs Wade could at least keep an eye out for him. Not suspecting how into the case Marlowe would get, probably figuring that Marlowe would just buy the 'suicide'.
share