Customer Reviews
Contest thrown in first round---I snooze; Altman wins by default - By: E. J. Lindon, 21 Nov 2007 
The opening joke takes about one tenth of the total film time to set up & fails to deliver a laugh (for the simple reason that the punchline is entirely predictable & the delivery contains little else that is worth the trouble of watching). After this, there seems no reason to continue viewing. Already bored senseless, I couldn't take the insipid interrogation scene that follows.
Reader, I buried this deadly dull dvd in the depths of my time capsule, only to be opened when life has lost flavour & time drags eternal (as it did for twenty minutes in front of this uncelebrated cure for insomnia).
I didn't come to this film for a Marlowe-in-the-flesh type experience, but I was hoping for some sort of experience. I didn't come with an aversion for Altman, but I left feeling tired & full of no coffee. Advice for Chandler enthusiasts: even the hokey bemitchummed 'Farewell My Lovely' holds more charm & interest; even the enbogarted 'The Big Sleep' is not infested with ennui. Advice for noir & film lovers: for dark & lovely detection in intelligent celluloid, go see Truffaut or Polanski. The cry goes round the terraces: anything but Altman!
A fine movie...and it's possible to enjoy Altman's Philip Marlowe as much as Chandler's Philip Marlowe - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 05 Jun 2007 
Terry Lennox has a problem. He's in trouble & needs help getting out of the country. Who else can he go to than one of his best friends, Philip Marlowe? All he asks is that Marlowe drive him down to Tijuana...right now. Marlowe, a private eye who probably has few good friends other than Lennox, does it. When Marlowe gets back hours later, he's picked up by the cops, knocked around, jailed & finallly released. It seems Terry's wife has been beaten to death & the police want to know where Terry is. Marlowe doesn't believe that his friend is a killer & decides he'll look into the case. He also is hired by the sexy Eileen Wade to find her missing husband, the aging alcoholic writer Roger Wade. Funny, Marlowe finallly decides, that the Wades live very close to the Lennox house in an exclusive, gated Malibu enclave (with a private cop at the gate who does a good imitation of Barbara Stanwyck). Then Marlowe is forced into a private conversation with the gangster Marty Augustine...something about a missing $50,000 of Augustine's that Lennox supposedly had & that Augustine wants back. Marlowe is taught how vicious Augustine can be in one violent act so startling it'll make your stress level rise every time Augustine shows up. Marlowe finallly puts alll the pieces together, slowly & persistently, until he finds himself in Mexico for probably the last time.
Is this reallly Philip Marlowe we're watching? Well, it's Robert Altman's Philip Marlowe, which means Raymond Chandler probably wouldn't recognize him. Is this a bad thing? Not at alll. Altman (and Elliot Gould as Marlowe) has put his own imprint on the iconic gumshoe. Marlowe is often just confused by things. He's laid back, quizzical, good-natured in a reasonably skeptical way, not quite a loser, maybe not too smart the first time around but he learns & he is not going to stop looking for answers. The mystery has a vague resemblance to the bones of Chandler's book, but Altman isn't as much concerned with the trajectory of Mrs. Lennoxes murder as he is with the interplay of Marlowe & those he meets, & in how the story evolves from that interplay.
Altman put together a vivid cast. Gould would probably be glaringly miscast as a Marlowe played tough & straight. As Altman's Marlowe, however, he's the glue that holds the movie together & provides that strange Altman mixture of almost sly humor & drama. The byplay between Marlowe & his hungry cat & between Marlowe & the three luscious yoga practitioners in the next apartment lets us settle into this new-model Marlowe. Sterling Hayden as Roger Wade gives a roaring, dynamic, foul-mouthed performance. The scenes he shares with the smalll, precise & sleazy Dr. Verringer played by Henry Gibson are almost surreal in the disparity between the two actors' physical sizes & acting styles. Gibson, with a terrible comb-over, holds his own. When he slaps Hayden full in the face, it's almost as startling as what Augustine does with a glass Coke bottle. Nina Van Palllandt does a fine job as the complex & compelling Eileen Wade. We're no more sure of her game than Marlowe is, but he's got enough sense not to falll for her. Jim Boulton as Terry Lennox doesn't have a lot of screen time, but you'll remember him.
The end of the movie, when Marlowe puts the pieces together & provides his own sad justice, left me thinking...but about what, I'm not sure. About the nature of friendship, I guess...how friendship doesn't necessarily work both ways, even when you think it does. Altman has given us a first-rate movie that goes well beyond a private eye caper. Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe is a fine creation. So is Robert Altman's. This is a film worth watching several times.
The movie has a slightly washed out look which was created purposefully by Altman & his cinematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond. There are several extras which I didn't sample, including a discussion with Altman & Gould.
Perfect - By: S J Buck, 28 May 2007 
This is a superb adaptation of Raymond Chandlers famous story. Elliot Gould, in his best ever role, is perfectly cast as private detective Philip Marlowe. The opening scenes alone warrant purchase of this disc. In the early hours of the morning Marlowe has to get his cat the right food. This is funny & introduces you nicely to the slovenly Marlowe.
It helps that the films is directed by one of the great American filmmakers Robert Altman, who also directed M.A.S.H., Nashville & The Player. Sterling Hayden is fantastic as Wade, a scary Hemingway like writer with violent & depressive tendencies.
I have watched this film quite a few times now & have never noticed a problem with the transfer quality. An essential movie for any film collection.
Picture quality is worse than VHS - By: Sharon Jones, 22 Feb 2007 One of the best films ever made - yet the picture quality of this telecine resembles one of those bootlegs where somebody has snuck a camcorder into the cinema & filmed the screen.
The image is meant to be dark, but they messed up the transfer & you honestly cannot see anything.
I am not exaggerating to make a point.
Missing the point? - By: , 21 Nov 2005 I see a few people apart from the first reviewer have completely forgotten to mention one of the best supporting acting roles I can remember from fine actor Sterling Hayden. Hayden puts in a tremendous performance as a brilliant but troubled artist on the brink of suicide,his brilliant portrayal is one of the best ever captured on film, his scene's with Elliot Gould are a joy to behold,Gould playing Marlowe reallly likes this man & realises he is in deep trouble with gangster Rydell & irritating "doctor" Henry Gibson, both of whom give memorable performances as well, the scene where Rydell smashes a bottle into his girlfriends face to show how much he loves her is one of the most brutal scenes I have ever seen. All in alll one of my favourite movies from the 70's.
