The Long Goodbye

Synopsis: In the middle of the night, private eye Philip Marlowe drives his friend Terry Lennox to the Mexican border. When Marlowe returns home police are waiting for him and learns that Terry's wife Sylvia has been killed. He's arrested as an accessory but released after a few days and is told the case is closed since Terry Lennox has seemingly committed suicide in Mexico. Marlowe is visited by mobster Marty Augustine who wants to know what happened to the $350,000 Lennox was supposed to deliver for him. Meanwhile, Marlowe is hired by Eileen Wade to find her husband Roger who has a habit of disappearing when he wants to dry out but she can't find him in any any of his usual haunts. He finds him at Dr. Veringer's clinic and brings him. It soon becomes obvious to Marlowe that Terry's death, the Wades and Augustine are all somehow interconnected. Figuring out just what those connections are however will be anything but easy.
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Director(s): Robert Altman
Production: United Artists
  1 win & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
7.7
Rotten Tomatoes:
97%
R
Year:
1973
112 min
1,626 Views


Right, yeah. Hungry, huh?

OK, one dinner coming right up.

Three o'clock in the morning,

I gotta get up and get you some food.

Come on, kitty.

I don't got none.

You want some peanut butter?

Coury Brand cat food.

I see empty cans, empty cans.

Let's fix you up

one of my famous concoctions.

Wait a second. Don't get so hungry.

Here you go. Mm. That'll be delicious.

Yeah. You can't do better

than that at Chasen's.

Come on. You're hungry, right?

Think of all the tigers in India they're

killing cos they don't get enough to eat.

Don't believe that one, huh? OK, OK, OK.

Coury's Brand cat food.

You clawed me, you son of a b*tch.

Why don't you go home to India?

Wanna help me with my jacket?

Why don't you go and tell those girls

they're gonna catch a cold?

Coury's Brand cat food. Yeah.

Cat gets me up at three in the morning

to get a special kind of food.

I gotta be outta my f***ing mind.

That cockamamie cat.

Mr Marlowe? Mr Marlowe.

Crazy girls.

Mr Marlowe, are you going by the store?

Yeah, I'm gonna pick up

a couple of cans of cat food.

Could you pick me up some brownie mix?

- I'll get you some brownie mix.

- Get two boxes. The fudge kind.

- Fudge kind and regular kind.

- You're the nicest neighbour we ever had.

Gotta be the nicest neighbour.

I'm a private eye. It's OK with me.

# There's a long goodbye

# And it happens every day...

Hi, Mr Lennox. You're up kind of late.

Come on, lay it on me.

I been working on Barbara Stanwyck.

I'll show you.

I don't understand.

I don't understand it at all.

I've never understood it. I just don't

understand why I don't understand at all.

You're gonna be all right.

# There's a long goodbye

# And it happens every day

# When some passer-by

# Invites your eye

# To come his way

# Even as he smiles a quick hello

# You've let him go,

you've let the moment fly

- Mr Marlowe, the lights in your car are on.

- Oh, yeah. Thanks a lot.

# Can you recognise the theme?

# On some other street

# Two people meet

# As in a dream

# Running for a plane through the rain

Two for the price of one.

Super buy. Extra discount.

21 cents for macaroni.

# They could be lovers

# Until they die

# It's too late to try

# When a missed hello

# Becomes a long...

Never seen so many cat foods in my...

Excuse me.

I don't see any Coury Brand cat food.

- Some what?

- Coury Brand cat food.

- Can you spell it for me, please?

- Yeah. Coury Brand. C-o-u-r...

We're out of that. Why don't you get this?

All this sh*t is the same anyway.

- You don't happen to have a cat?

- What do I need a cat for? I got a girl.

Ha-ha

He's got a girl and I got a cat.

# There's a long goodbye

# And it happens every day

# When some passer-by

# Invites your eye

# To come her way

# Even as she smiles a quick hello

# You let her go, you let the moment fly

# Too late you turn your head

- Did you get the brownie mix?

- Uh-huh. Yeah, I got you two boxes.

What kind did you get?

Regular and the brownie mix

with the double fudge.

- Fantastic!

- Night, girls.

- How much do we owe you?

- Just put it on the bill.

- Thanks.

- Mr Marlowe, I'll save you a brownie.

Thanks a lot, but they hurt my teeth.

But if you wanna make me

a couple of Yankee Doodles...

Oh, the cat's hungry. Right, right.

Did I lock you out of the kitchen?

I'll fix your dinner

just as soon as I get me a smoke.

Right, here you are.

Coury Brand, the finest I could find.

Yes, yes, yes. Oh, yes.

I'll open this thing up right away.

Don't want you not to have

your favourite kind of cat food.

OK, OK.

Look at this. Mm-hm!

Well? Go on, there it is.

So it's not Coury's cat food.

It's OK with me.

Don't run out on me now,

you son of a b... cat. Come on.

- Marlowe.

- Terry, come on in. I'll be right there.

What am I doing at this hour?

Terry Lennox.

Hey, Terry. I was just feeding my cat.

You oughta be feeding your cat too.

What happened?

Beauty, isn't it?

Proud of that son of a b*tch.

- You and Sylvia going at it again?

- Yeah. Like to hear the sordid details?

No, I've heard 'em before.

You like to lose a couple of bucks?

Oh, man.

- I got an L.

- L?

D. Four sevens.

You really think I believe

you got four sevens?

- You probably think I don't have any.

- Yeah.

Then I gotta say five sevens.

- I challenge.

- Challenge. How many you got?

- None.

- None, yeah. I got three. That's good.

- Who were the three DiMaggio brothers?

- Vince, Dom and...

- Joe?

- Joltin' Joe, yeah.

Want me to fix up the couch

for you tonight?

Well, Marlowe,

that's what I'm here to talk to you about.

- I really need more than that.

- You wanna sleep in my bed?

There's gonna be a lot of people looking

for me as a result of my lovely wife.

- I really need a ride.

- Where do you want me to take you?

- Tijuana.

- Tijuana?

- Tijuana now?

- Yeah. Tijuana.

- Thanks, Marlowe.

- You take care of yourself.

Don't worry about me.

- Vaya con dios.

- Thanks a lot.

- Arizona.

- Phoenix.

- Kansas.

- City.

- How about Michigan?

- Detroit? Milwaukee?

Right on.

Your turn.

- Montana.

- Montana, Montana... Billings.

- Florida.

- Miami.

- Right.

- How about Washington?

- Washington DC?

- Girls, did you see my cat?

- I didn't even know you had a cat.

- Did you say you wanted a hat?

No, you don't look fat.

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.

- Is your name Marlowe?

- No, Sidney... Jenkins.

Let's go inside. We wanna talk to you.

- I'm looking for my cat.

- Forget the goddamn cat.

Forget the goddamn cat? I see.

OK. That cat means an awful lot to me.

You tell me to forget about it.

Must be something mighty important.

- Sit down, Marlowe.

- I'd rather stand.

- I don't mind sitting.

- I'm Sergeant Green. Detective Dayton.

I saw your badge. Where's his?

Where did you go last night, Marlowe?

Is this where I say

"What is all this about?"

And he says

"Shut up, I ask the questions"?

That's right, so just answer the questions.

Where did you go last night?

Maybe if I knew why you wanted to know,

I could remember.

- Are you gainfully employed, Marlowe?

- I don't know.

- Where do you work?

- I heard you. I understand English.

I'm a private detective. I have

my own agency. Those girls are vicious.

I take a better picture now, but business

hasn't been as good as it used to be.

You know a white guy

by the name of Terry Lennox.

Who says I do?

His address book, and that yellow bomb

downstairs in your garage.

- So?

- Marlowe, just answer the question.

You wanna know what I did last night?

My cat woke me up in the middle

of the night. He was really hungry.

I went to fix him his favourite cat food,

Coury Brand, the only kind he eats.

I was out of it, so I picked something else

up and the cat clawed the hell out of me.

So I went out to the Thriftymart - it's open

24 hours - to get Coury Brand cat food,

and they were out of Coury Brand

cat food, son of a b*tch.

So I got a couple of other cans.

I came back and I switched the labels.

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Leigh Brackett

Leigh Douglass Brackett (December 7, 1915 – March 18, 1978) was an American writer, particularly of science fiction, and has been referred to as the Queen of Space Opera. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on such films as The Big Sleep (1946), Rio Bravo (1959), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980). She was the first woman shortlisted for the Hugo Award. more…

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