MovieChat Forums > The Long Goodbye (1973) Discussion > The Cat Factor

The Cat Factor

posted 16 years ago by franzkabuki
7 replies | jump to latest

A strange thing is, whenever Philip Marlowe is mentioned - in any context - he´s very often been assumed to have a cat and it has become kinda of a cliche or a given (even in Wenders´s Der Himmel Über Berlin, when one of the angels fantasizes how it would be to be a mortal human being, among other things he wonders what would it be like to "get home after work like Marlowe and feed the cat"). The thing is, however, that I´m pretty certain that him having a cat is not mentioned in any of the novels (read them all and more than once - although it COULD be possible that it´s mentioned very briefly somewhere... but I don´t believe that´s the case), neither did he have a cat in such film adaptions as The Big Sleep or Murder My Sweet... So it seems to indicate that the whole idea of him having a cat has entered the "popular conscious" or something via this particular Altman movie. So... can anyone recall where else could Marlowe having a cat be mentioned - or is this the sole occasion?

[–] satamshadow615 16 years ago

I've only read the first three books. But I think only the movie shows Marlowe with a cat. The point was to emphasis, that Marlowe can't hold on to anything. He tries, but he can never win. Like how Terry Lennox betrays him, and Mrs. Wade ignores him.

[–] IForgotMyMantra 16 years ago

I thought the cat thing was more to do with Chandler himself than Marlowe. I'm sure Chandler was sort of well known for keeping a cat.

[–] franzkabuki 16 years ago

Was he? First time that I hear this...

[–] mowgli_07 16 years ago

"well known for keeping a cat"

[–] garyahampton 16 years ago

A cat is not mentioned in novels The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely or The Long Goodbye. The only thing that gets a mention, and a brief one at that, in the novels, apart from the boozing, is Marlowe's interest in chess, especially attempting the solve the great and classic games and set piece moves. In a movie the cat, being more visual and immediate, and with a greater empathetic feel for a sentimental side to the cinema version of Marlowe, is the working sublimate of the chess interest.

"Do you want to go to the toilet, Albert?"

[–] willerror 16 years ago

Chess plays a large part in the later Gould movie THE SILENT PARTNER; I wonder if screenwriter Curtis Hanson intended it as an homage to Chandler's Marlowe? Gould sits at home evenings playing chess by himself.

[–] kissmyart 16 years ago

The detective who studies a "classic chess problem" forms the basis for Gene Hackman's character in Alan Sharp's NIGHT MOVES, from the same period.

in DAZED AND CONFUSED, characters quiz one another about what brand of cat food Marlowe has to buy for his cat.

Socrates is dead, all cats die... therefore, Altman made a brilliant movie!