Thompson's New York Times article on Robert Altman makes the
film sound terrific, but it attributes its financial failure
to a moviegoing nation's lingering devotion to the Bogart
Marlowe. That surely had something to do with it. Just as a
book-reading nation's devotion to Chandler took its toll in
critical disdain. The film's ending isn't just disrespectful
of Chandler, it grinds its heel on the concept of the
detective as white knight. The real reason the film was DOA
at the box office, however, was because it was an art house
movie that the studio mistakenly released as a general
feature. It had none of the things a mystery movie-movie
needs (except for the score which works both as satire and as
acceptable movie music). No heroic presence. No witty
dialogue. No romance. No real mystery. Not much of a plot ay
all that anyone could follow.
As an art house movie, however, I've always liked it. I just
wish Altman had used some other material as the springboard
for his satire. Then maybe somebody else - I think Bognaovich
was interested in the project at the time - might have used
Brackett to turn out a more conventional film.
Lochte
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