I love neo-noir as a genre, so there’s only a few I haven’t seen in the recent Criterion Channel ‘Neo-Noir’ collection. So that’s why I watched Farewell, My Lovely (1975), which is a more traditional take on the film noir style with Robert Mitchum playing Raymond Chandler’s character of private detective Phillip Marlowe. I think I’d seen some scenes on television before – it does have a midday movie vibe, which is both quite comforting but also a little bit old hat. It’s not the genre hipster deconstruction of Altman’s The Long Goodbye nor is it the slumped deglamourised performance of Mitchum in The Friends Of Eddie Coyle. This is a recreation of the old Hollywood style, just with Mitchum looking a bit older, in colour film stock, and with occasional nudity and violence. While a lot older than the character was supposed to be, I loved Mitchum in the lead, perfectly delivering Chandler’s wry and weary first person narration with his rumpled, distinctive tough guy persona. Marlowe takes on a case to find Velma, the missing girlfriend of gangster Moose Malloy (Jack O’Hallaron), and gets tangled up in complicated plot. Supporting cast includes Charlotte Rampling as the femme fatale (though a little bit cornered in the role considering her distinctive aura and presence as an actor), John Ireland as the sympathetic cop, Harry Dean Stanton as the unsympathetic cop, Anthony Zerbe as a suspicious businessman, and the great trio of hoods played by pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone, Joe Spinell, and Burton Gilliam. Director Dick Richards feels pretty functional in style, with shades of old school noir (the drugged sequence for instance). This also feels like the origin point for a lot of modern noir parody (The Naked Gun sends up a specific scene from this) or satire (The Big Lebowski twists a few moments from this as well). Cinematographer John A. Alonzo (Chinatown) provides some great visuals, particularly whenever a neon hotel sign casts red light into Marlowe’s darkened office or reflects against Mitchum’s signature face, all of which was my cup of tea and main takeaway from the film. Also available on iTunes.
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