MovieChat Forums > The Long Goodbye (1973) Discussion > Terrible film

Terrible film

posted 18 years ago by rsgre
14 replies | jump to latest

What a disappointment, I purchased this film pretty cheap, mainly because it was produced by Elliot Kastner that later did "Farewell My Lovely" with Robert Mitchum...no resemblance whatsover...!! Terrible from the word go: terrible opening theme, terrible leading man (zilch charisma), terrible casting & acting, muddled & convulated plot, ridiculous camera angles & movement...just plain awful !! Right up there with Orson Wells "Touch of Evil" as one of the worst detective films ever made ! Threw it in the garbage right after I saw it !
Good example of the kind of crap Hollywood was cranking out in the early 1970's...ugh..!!

RSGRE

[–] McGonigle 18 years ago

Right up there with Orson Wells "Touch of Evil" as one of the worst detective films ever made !

Good one! LOLZ!!!!

'The Sound of Music' twice an hour, and 'Jaws' 1, 2 and 3.

[–] riogarhed 17 years ago

Why not say it's right up there with "Bambi" as one of the worst detective films ever made? You'd have equal validity.

[–] ae7641 17 years ago

This one was pretty bad. It got far far away from the detective genre and went into something silly. The worse guy to play Marlowe and with a silly, comedy effect. If this was supposed to be a comedy I didn't laugh. If a drama, I thought it was stupid.

Now "Touch of Evil" is good drama. What was bad about it? An inspector goes up against a once good, but now totally corrupt and evil cop who doesn't care how many innocent people he kills or hurts. it is a complex intelligent story

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] RyanLoweMPLS 18 years ago

Dig it back out of the garbage and send it to me! I just got done watching a ragged VHS of it and loved it the second time around.

It's not for every standard noir fan that's for sure so not everyone is going to be into it. Same thing can be said for the director, Altman. Personally, I can't get enough of 1970's genre revisionism!!! And Robert Altman!

[–] wendy-joy 18 years ago

Me too, I think it's fantastic.

Woke up this mornin',
got a boom boom in your eye

[–] faraaj-1 17 years ago

I'm a 'Standard noir fan' if there is such a thing. Double Indemnity and The Maltese Falcon are probably my two favourite films. I loved the Ladd/Veronica Lake combo but not so much the Edward G. Robinson/Joan Bennett one, and yes, any deviation from The Big Sleep's Chandler would have meant sacrilege for me. BUT, The Long Goodbye blew me away. Its even better than Chinatown which I first saw over a decade ago and many times since. The colour, the cast, the music (theme song + Hooray for Hollywood) - all brilliant! Altman was so arrogant and confident in his ability, but the man was an absolute genius and really understood cinema and the genres to which he gave revisionist interpretations. I think Gould was an amazing Marlowe in this film and wish the studios had relented and accepted Altman's first choice for McCabe instead of insisting on a bankable star like Beatty. Bogart was and remains for me the greatest movie star of all times, but I really think noir fans can appreciate The Long Goodbye even more than those unfamiliar with the genre.

Along these mean streets walks a man who is not mean himself - neither tarnished, nor afraid...

[–] EffettoKirlian 18 years ago

It's okay with me!

[–] RyanLoweMPLS 18 years ago

Ha! Good one, hoshiyomi.

[–] cengelm 17 years ago

I liked "Touch of Evil" but with this one I was pretty disappointed. Finally Marlowe is a brand name and I expected a decided private detective. The ending was also silly. Why should he commit a crime?

[–] harvester 17 years ago

obviously you're not a golfer.

[–] dcm5 17 years ago

You have the IQ of a chipmunk.

[–] salndean2003 17 years ago

The further away we get from the '70's the more I like this film. Right now I'm thinking it's pretty great. A few more reality shows and another dreadful movie remake of an old sitcom and I'm liable to call it the best film since Citizen K. or Gone With The Wind.

[–] die_cheney_die 17 years ago

I highly agree!

Watching it recently crystalized my dislike of the Altman ouevre. High-falutin', cutesy-wootsey, mumbling dialogue throughout with a storyline insufficient for a straight narrative.

Three elements stand out as outright garbage: having the Marlowe character smoking a cigarette every single second he's on screen, the endless repetiton by various performers of the theme song, and the half-naked girls-next-door.

While Altman toned down some of his self-referential affectedness a bit in his later movies, they were always there and they always drove home his utter inability to tell a compelling story (yes, even the earlier "M*A*S*H" included.)