I’m probably stepping into a minefield here, but I’m not the biggest Robert Altman fan. Who doesn’t love The Player? And as great as M*A*S*H is, I came to it by way of the television series, so it never resonated with me as much as I would have liked.

That being said, I really liked his take on Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, which was updated from the 40s to the 70s by screenwriter Leigh Brackett. Sure, it still embraced some of the things that bother me about Altman’s films, I personally feel that half the time the characters are mumbling to make their dialogue seem more naturalistic, but this one works really well.

It also helps that I only truly recognized two of the actors in the entire production, lending the whole thing a bit more of a reality. Elliott Gould plays Chandler’s iconic hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe, and Henry Gibson plays Dr. Verringer.

When Marlowe’s friend, Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) comes to him in the middle of the night asking for his help by driving him to Tijuana, Marlowe lends a hand, only to find himself caught up in murders, suicides, affairs, and a lot of money.

Gould seems perfectly cast as this 70s version of Marlowe, and his portrayal feels like a template for Gregory McDonald’s Fletch character. He’s smart, wisecracking, often finds himself in a variety of trouble, and works his way out in his own way. It may have been the way Gould played him that made me think of Fletch.

As Marlowe digs into the mystery, he’s not happy where the clues lead, and it forces him to deliver justice in his own way. And have you seen his cat? It seems Marlowe’s finicky cat has left the apartment and hasn’t been seen for a few days.

Altman has the camera constantly moving, and the score, by John Williams constantly plays variations of the title theme, which also shows up as source music a number of times as characters throughout the film are attempting to play it, sing it, or it comes over the radio.

As I’ve mentioned before I love a good noir film, and this one is actually solidly entertaining and gives us a look at Hollywood of the 70s, some great locations, and lets Gould shine as Chandler’s classic character.

And oh my god! Look it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger as a thug!!

It also makes me want to dive into all of Ramond Chandler’s books and explore more of the Marlowe character.