www.noiroftheweek.com A few weeks ago, we talked about The Long Goodbye. Brilliant -- at least in my opinion. But purists sure disagreed. "We are fedora." film noir fans said. Well here's a neon-drenched, booze smelling, modern noir that treats Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe exactly as you would have imagined him from reading the books: Hard to argue with that clip. It's just the first few seconds of the film. I'm happy to say the film holds up to the strong open. Of course it's not as brilliant as Chinatown (released a little more than a year before this one) which dealt with larger issues. In fact it seems downright old fashioned compared side by side. But it's a great film -- and not done with a wink like so many other Chanderesque films of that time. Really. You'd think Robert Mitchum was a bit too old for the part, but they hit the age question head on in that opening clip. Mitchum's world-weary voice overs and attitude makes you wonder why he didn't play Marlowe in the 40s, 50s and 60s too. Professionally Mitchum would set himself on cruise control not long after this one. But this, The Yakuza and especially the Boston neo-noir The Friends of Eddie Coyle showed Mitchum could really deliver when he wanted to. In addition to Mitchum, there's Charlotte Rampling as the femme fatale. Rampling is having quite a third act as an actress. Model beautiful in the 1970s…

Robert Mitchum quite wittily narrates as well as acts in this rather dry adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel. He's the curmudgeonly PI eking out a living off the back of familial discord and martial peccadilloes. After saving him from an hail of bullets, "Marlowe" is engaged by the monosyllabic "Moose" (Jack O'Halloran) to help him track down his missing gal "Velma". The thing is, once his investigations begin to bear fruit he discovers himself in quite a pickle. She has moved on, and up, and has no desire to be found or to have her past life paraded in front of her new husband. Moreover, en route to his solution he also finds himself embroiled in some additional machinations with "Marriott" (Anthony Zerbe) who offers him an huge $15,000 just to hold his hand at a a dodgy blackmail exchange. Of course that doesn't go to plan and as the body counts start to mount up, he realises that the two jobs are perilously connected. Not as perilous for him as for poor old "Jessie" (a scene stealing but underused Sylvia Miles) who used to hang out with the missing "Velma" and should probably just have kept her head down. Meantime, his harassed police pal "Nulty" (John Ireland) is under increasing pressure to sort this mess out, and if that means throwing "Marlowe" to the wolves, then all the better for the powers that be. As these internecine threads all start to knit together, it's not…

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