Farewell, My Lovely (1975)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Fans of the Raymond Chandler books seem torn over who gives the definitive portrayal of the hard-boiled private eye Philip Marlowe - Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum. Personally, I enjoy both renditions just as much. Released in 1975, "Farewell My Lovely" doesn't pull its punches with regards to the somewhat sleazy and squalid world that Marlowe inhibits. The film unfolds via a flashback. Robert Mitchum recalls the events that have led to the police wanting to arrest him, just to keep him out of their way. From beginning to end, Marlowe encounters people who wouldn't think twice about double-crossing him or leaving him to take a rap. Robert Mitchum has the right kind of rugged and weary look, apart from having a good voice for the role. The story unfolds at a good pace and the setting for 1940s Los Angeles, has been recreated effectively. One of Robert Mitchum's best films.

If it weren't for the always watchable Robert Mitchum, the cool clothes, the lumbering Detroitmobiles, and the smoke and booze flowing like a river, Dick Richards' Farewell, My Lovely would collapse from the clichés, the incoherences, and the feeling that the movie is visually dark to add atmosphere while hiding the fact that the movie was made 30+ years after the book was published.I tried to get mad at this mess, but I just couldn't. It felt cheap, but paying attention to that basset hound of a man, Robert Mitchum, make Charlotte Rampling's greedy whore laugh, a nice touch indeed.I saw FML when it came out in the summer of 1975, and I lucked on it when a senior of mine said she had a couple boxes of VHS tapes that her mom wanted gone. I took 'em, and there was Mitchum on the box cover, looking tough, with a curl of smoke pooling under the brim of his fedora. Look at that! The movie--or Raymond Chandler--brings out the turn of phrase in the hacks among us.

I needed a drink and all the bars were closed - Raymond ChandlerFarewell, My Lovely is a film that can be enjoyed for the visuals alone, especially the awesome set design. Dick Richards the director treats us to a pallet of neon, blue and yellow lights. even though some of the rooms and alleyways are dinghy, you wish that you lived during the time. The lush score by David Shire (who also did the score for The Conversation) evokes the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke in a bar.Robert Mitchum is very good as Marlowe, though maybe a bit too old. Obviously a lot of the clever dialogues were written by Chandler for his novel. The plot is preposterous but the dialogues and the visuals keep you going.Jack O Halloran who played Moose Malloy didn't really cut it. Nobody can replace Mike Mazurki in Murder, My Sweet (1944). Sylvester Stallone makes an impression in a guest appearance as one of the heavies who kidnaps Mitchum. Charlotte Rampling was smoking hot though I'm not sure if she looked very American. I liked this film a lot.(8/10)

'Farewell, My Lovely' is the second adaptation of Raymond Chandler's 1940 novel of the same name--the first being the 1944 film 'Murder, My Sweet, starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor, which was criticized for leaving out some of the controversial parts of the text from the Chandler's novel.In the classic neo-noir 'Farewell, My Lovely', the great American actor Robert Mitchum plays Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in arguably his greatest screen performance of all time. Mitchum plays Chandler to a tee (even overshadowing Humphrey Bogart's remarkable portrayal of Chandler's private eye in The Big Sleep) and it can be said with great certainty that Mitchum though the virtue of this sublime performance cemented his place in history as the definitive face of hard-boiled fiction in cinema.As for Rampling, she gives us the quintessential femme fatale in Helen Grayle. Helen is a sight for the sore eyes but she is every bit as deadly as a black widow spider for her hapless victims.Farewell, My Lovely is an essential viewing for film noir enthusiasts as well as for the fans of Mitchum and Rampling.For more on cinema, please visit my film blog "A Potpourri of Vestiges".