-----Original Message-----
>From:
demack5@comcast.net
>Sent: Nov 7, 2007 1:30 PM
>To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Chandler on Film (was
Chandler's The Lady in the Lake)
>
>>Robert Mitchum made versions of both Farewell My
Lovely (in 1975) and The
>>Big Sleep (in 1978). The latter was filmed in
England and altered
>>accordingly to fit the setting.
>
>And I've never seen Mitchum in Farewell My Lovely,
but the version of The >Big Sleep with Mitchum was
dreadful, IMHO.
Debi, try to see Mitchum's version of Farewell, My Lovely if
you can. I think it will redeem him as Marlowe in your eyes.
I think it's one of the best Marlowe films. And the style
could not be more different from the Michael Winner version
of The Big Sleep, which is one of the worst of the
adaptations (along with The Brasher Doubloon and The Lady in
the Lake, IMHO.) As a sidenote, Farewell, My Lovely was
photographed by John Alonzo back to back with Chinatown. Both
movies are beautiful to look at and capture the feel of the
old film noirs in completely different ways (and in color!
Despite the assertion by some people around here that it
can't be done).
It's odd that Murder, My Sweet (based on FML) is another of
the very best Chandler adaptations. He got lucky twice with
that one. And there are story elements in both films unique
to each of them. You have to see them both to feel you've
covered the novel (but that doesn't hurt either film).
Unfortunately, Farewell, My Lovely is not on DVD, but I think
there are still VHS copies floating around the land.
Of course none of these films can hold a candle to The Long
Goodbye, a movie so powerful that it keeps a grown man like
Jim Doherty up late at night weeping with fear that it might
find him and strangle him with his own pajamas.
TL
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