The Long Goodbye

Elliott Gould as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe at the Malibu Colony, summoned by Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt, her first scene) who's both covering and looking for her wayward writer husband, the camera never still, in Robert Altman's updated version of The Long Goodbye, 1973.

Director Robert Altman drops two of many versions of the original title song by John Williams and Johnny Mercer, sung by Jack Sheldon then Clydie King, as we meet Lennox (MLB pitcher and author Jim Bouton) and Marlowe (Elliott Gould) shops for cat food, in The Long Goodbye, 1973.

Director Robert Altman opens (the old song by Johnny Mercer, who also co-wrote the title song) with rumpled Elliott Gould as Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, transported at least 20 years to contemporary LA, in The Long Goodbye, 1973, with Nina Van Pallandt and Sterling Hayden.

Marlowe (Elliott Gould) on his second visit to the Burbank detox joint where Doc Verringer (Henry Gibson) is squeezing boozy author patient Wade (Sterling Hayden, his first scene), and their return to his Malibu home and wife (Nina Van Pallandt), in Robert Altmans's The Long Goodbye, 1973.