The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye is a 1973 American neo-noir satirical mystery crime thriller film directed by Robert Altman and based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel. The screenplay is by Leigh Brackett, who co-wrote the screenplay for Chandler's The Big Sleep in 1946. The film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe and features Sterling Hayden, Nina Van Pallandt, Jim Bouton (in a rare acting role), Mark Rydell, and an early, uncredited appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The story's period was moved from 1949–50 to 1970s Hollywood. The Long Goodbye has been called "a study of a moral and decent man cast adrift in a selfish, self-obsessed society where lives can be thrown away without a backward glance ... and any notions of friendship and loyalty are meaningless." In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot After looking for cat food at a supermarket, Philip Marlowe discovers his close friend, Terry Lennox, in his home. Lennox asks for a lift from Los Angeles to the California–Mexico border at Tijuana, which Marlowe provides. On returning home again, Marlowe is met by two police detectives, who ask questions about Lennox and then arrest Marlowe because he refuses to answer. During questioning, Marlowe learns that Lennox has been accused of killing his wife, Sylvia. After he is jailed for three days, the police release him, because they have learned that Lennox has committed suicide in Mexico. But Marlowe does not believe that Lennox killed either Sylvia or himself. Marlowe is then hired by Eileen Wade, who asks him to find her missing husband, Roger Wade, an alcoholic novelist with writer's block whose macho, Hemingway-like persona is proving self-destructive, resulting in days-long disappearances from their Malibu Colony home. While investigating his disappearance, Marlowe visits the subculture of private detoxification clinics for rich alcoholics and drug addicts. He finds Roger, brings him home, learns that the Wades knew the Lennoxes socially, and suspects there is more to be learned about that connection. Marlowe is then interrogated by gangster Marty Augustine, who wants money returned that Lennox was sent to deliver to Mexico City, and threatens Marlowe by maiming his own mistress.