Robert Mitchum played the film noir detective he was born to be as Philip Marlowe in 1975's excellent FAREWELL MY LOVELY.
Based on the Raymond Chandler novel, Marlowe is drawn into the search for the missing girlfriend of giant, paroled mob guy Moose Malloy.
Moose (played by Jack Halloran of "Superman" fame) is seeking his love Velma, a nightclub dancer of questionable repute who's disappeared during his time in prison.
The deeper Marlowe digs, the more complicated the case becomes. Mobsters swirl, with tommy guns firing at Marlowe around every corner.
Sylvia Miles won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role of a faded, alcoholic singer who seems to know a lot of the players the private detective is seeking.
Charlotte Rampling (The Night Porter) is the young, wealthy wife of a key player, drawn to Marlowe and boldly in control in the 1940's setting.
Mitchum is flawless as Marlowe. His narration is classic old school detective speak, pulling us into the setting and the players, one terrific sentence at a time.
"She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket."
"This past spring was the first that I felt tired and realized I was growing old. Maybe it was the rotten weather we'd had in L.A. Maybe the rotten cases I'd had. Mostly chasing a few missing husbands and then chasing their wives once I found them, in order to get paid."
The streets are always wet, everyone's got a cigarette smoking off their lip and there are fedoras and jazz clubs at every turn.
Which wouldn't mean much if the story wasn't well written. David Zelag Goodman (Logans Run, Straw Dogs) structures a complicated mystery that's fun to unwrap, but spices it up with some surprising bursts of violence and nudity that could never have been on screen in the 40's.
David Shire (The Hindenburg) composed a terrific, John Barry-esque music score and John A. Alonzo (Chinatown, The Magnificent Seven) shoots its all with a classic polish.
Dean Tavoularis (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather) creates perfect sets, from broken down shacks to incredible mansions.
Marlowe has been played by numerous actors, from Dick Powell to Elliot Gould, but never quite as well as Mitchum. He would reprise the role three years later in "The Big Sleep".
FAREWELL MY LOVELY gets an appreciative B. If you love gumshoes, private eyes or film noir, hire Marlowe today.
Sylvester Stallone fans, enjoy his last small role before he exploded to stardom with "Rocky" the following year.
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