Farewell, My Lovely (1975 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Farewell, My Lovely is a 1975 American neo noir film, directed by Dick Richards and featuring Robert Mitchum as private detective Phillip Marlowe. The picture is based on Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely (1940), which had previously been adapted for film as Murder, My Sweet in 1944. The film also stars Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Jack O'Halloran, Sylvia Miles and Harry Dean Stanton, with an early screen appearance by Sylvester Stallone. Mitchum returned to the role of Marlowe three years later in the 1978 film The Big Sleep, making him the only actor to portray Philip Marlowe more than once on the big screen.
Plot
In 1941 Los Angeles, against a seamy backdrop of police corruption, cheap hotel rooms, illegal gambling and jewel trafficking, private detective Philip Marlowe is holed up in a hotel room and growing more weary by the hour. As he explains to his police lieutenant friend Nulty: "I've got a hat, a coat and a gun; that's it."
Marlowe has been hired by a huge and surly ex-convict, Moose Malloy, to find his old girlfriend Velma, whom he hasn't seen in seven years. At the same time, Marlowe is investigating the murder of a client named Marriott who was a victim of blackmail and a stolen necklace made of jade.
While encountering connections to both cases, Marlowe develops an attraction to the married and seductive Helen Grayle. As the body count mounts, Marlowe survives attempts on his life, which include being drugged and held captive by a psychotic brothel madam named Amthor and her thugs. The action comes to a head with a shootout on a gambling boat off the L.A. coast.
Cast
- Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe
- Charlotte Rampling as Helen Grayle
- John Ireland as Lt. Nulty
- Sylvia Miles as Jessie Halstead Florian
- Anthony Zerbe as Laird Brunette
- Harry Dean Stanton as Detective Billy Rolfe
- Jack O'Halloran as Moose Malloy
- Joe Spinell as Nick
- Sylvester Stallone as Jonnie
- Kate Murtagh as Frances Amthor (believed to be based on Brenda Allen)
- John O'Leary as Lindsay Marriott
- Walter McGinn as Tommy Ray
- Jim Thompson as Judge Baxter Wilson Grayle
