Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: The Long Goodbye

From: Terrill Lankford ( lankford2000@earthlink.net)
Date: 05 Feb 2007


-----Original Message-----
>From: Dick Lochte < dlochte@gmail.com>
>Sent: Feb 5, 2007 1:09 AM
>To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: The Long Goodbye
>
>As for Gould liking the character of Marlowe, he did indeed. He told me he
>tried to get a studio (I think Universal) involved in a remake of The High
>Window which either he or the studio had access to at the time. That is, of
>course, the Marlowe movie most in need of a remake.
>
>As for Gould being able to play hardboiled, the cop movie Busting and the
>underrated mystery Capricorn 9, suggest that in younger days he could handle
>that. My impression is that he considered Marlowe more a fast-talking,
>think-on-his-feet pro -- a la his MASH character -- than hardboiled. I agree
>with that. (The dreamy and passive okay-by-me quality in Long Goodbye was,
>I suspect more Altman than Gould. This is borne out by the Dove readings
>which probably are the best of the Chandler audiobooks I've heard. Joe
>Mantegna makes the character sound like a Jersey wiseguy. Daniel Massey's
>plumy British Marlowe is just plain ridiculous.
>
>I should note that my opinion of Gould may be colored by the fact that he
>was one of the better participants in a movie I wrote, Escape to Athena. And
>he read, quite well, a short Marlowe story I contributed to the Raymond
>Chandler's Philip Marlowe anthology that celebrated the author's centennial.

Dick, we must have been writing about the exact same subject at the exact same time. But you beat me to the "send" button. My post now reads like I was looking over your shoulder during the exam!

I'd like to add that THE SILENT PARTNER is another terriffic hardboiled/noir Elliot Gould movie. I'm not sure how easy it is to find, but it's worth the quest. It's an early script by Curtis Hansen who would go on to co-write the screenplay and direct L.A. CONFIDENTIAL many years later.

TL



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