Farewell, My Lovely | | Cast : | Robert Mitchum, Charlotte Rampling | | Director : | Dick Richards | | Studio : | Pioneer Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | August 08, 1975 | | DVD Released Date : | June 29, 1999 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 30, 2005 | | Summary | BEGGING FOR RE-RELEASE | Content
 | Fortunately, I have the VHS of this but it should definitely be released again on DVD considering all the lesser effects at modern noir that are available. Mitchum is the best Marlow since Bogart.If you loved Chinatown, this belongs in your library. Please re-re-release. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 01, 2005 | | Summary | Please re-release on DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | Content
| Please re-release this wonderful Robert Mitchum movie on DVD so that humble people such as myself can afford it minus the rip-off prices that the sellers are selling it for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 28, 2005 | | Summary | Gone Too Soon | Content
| Mitchum' classic interpretation of Philip Marlowe on the decline, FAREWELL MY LOVELY, came out in 1975, and in 1999 Pioneer Video offerd an excellent but disappointingly brief DVD re-release. After 6 years (2005 as of this writing), it's time to bring it out again.
That this movie is not still readily available on DVD is a shame, since it is undoubtedly one of Mitchum's finest performances. Set in 1941 LA, the movie captures the essence and feel of the period, and Mitchum's world-weary private investigator is dead on. It's a movie worth seeing -- Film Noir lovingly interpreted.
It's also one of the late Jerry Goldsmith's most haunting film scores, drawing on blues, jazz and the '40's honkey tonks of LA's seedier period underbelly.
Precisely how rare a release the DVD was can be summed up in one fact: if you want one, be ready to cough up three bills($300) a copy. It's also still out there on used VHS for a ten spot, but even those are starting to get rare, and this is a movie deserving of the largest market it can get.
I never considered myself a hard-boiled dettective or Film Noir fan, but this movie made me rethink that position. And, since the stylized 2005 SIN CITY has reawakened an interest in the Film Noir genre, FAREWELL MY LOVELY and its film score are already overdue for another pressing -- alone, in a Mitchum, detective, Philip Marlowe or Film Noir collection, or paired with its earlier version, Dick Powell's MURDER MY SWEET.
Filled with first rate acting, mood and attitude, this is a movie worth fighting to see. Find it, see it, and spread the word! |
| Rating | | | Date | April 18, 2005 | | Summary | Classic gumshoe film noir | Content
| The year is 1941 and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio is on a hitting streak, and that is about the only thing in life that world-weary Philip Marlowe takes any pleasure in.
This is a workman-like adaptation of the novel by Raymond Chandler. Dimple-chinned Robert Mitchum at 58, an underrated actor with charisma and star appeal, is unfortunately a bit over the hill as Chandler's hard-nosed, realist gumshoe Philip Marlowe, especially when romancing the babes. Still he does a good job and seems almost made for the part.
The main babe that needs romancing here is Charlotte Rampling who plays Helen Grayle, a scheming, trampy, psychopathic, sexy thing on the make for anything she can get. She's the lovely who goes farewell--well, one of them.
Sylvia Miles got a supporting actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mrs. Florian, one-time show girl turned lush. And Sylvester Stallone, looking almost as young as a choir boy, had a bit part as an anonymous thug. Jack O'Halloran played the very dense and obsessed Moose Malloy with a steady moronic malevolence. John Ireland is the good cop and Harry Dean Stanton the bad one. Kate Murtagh is the madam from hell who likes to throw her considerable weight around.
Comparing this to the original from 1944 entitled "Murder, My Sweet," staring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor, I have to say it is more realistic and edgier, and wonderfully atmospheric, but not as enjoyable, perhaps because Mitchum seems a little dead compared to Powell. But that is entirely the point, as Chandler's intent was to showcase a Philip Marlowe near the end of his tether, a man oppressed with the vileness of life and ready to toss it in.
In either case, the convoluted plot involving the missing "Velma," various Los Angeles dives, dead bodies aplenty, and lots of police and political corruption remains somewhat opaque but still manages to hold our interest.
See this for Robert Mitchum, one of Hollywood's greatest with over a hundred and thirty films to his credit, a man who personified nonchalance on the screen, a guy who felt equally at home in a "B" Western as in a dramatic feature, a man who mesmerized audiences with seeming indifference. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 20, 2004 | | Summary | "You'll do anything for six bits." | Content
| Set in Los Angeles in 1941, this moody film noir adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel includes a weary Phillip Marlowe played by 57-year old Robert Mitchum. Mitchum's Marlowe is perfection itself, and Mitchum's usual laconic style also includes a tired, patient acceptance of the general wickedness of human nature. Dick Powell played Marlowe in the 1944 version titled "Murder My Sweet." Watch the two back-to-back, and you will appreciate Mitchum's style. "Farewell My Lovely" is Mitchum's film.
Private Detective Marlowe is hired for a seemingly hopeless quest by an ex-con (named Moose) for his long-lost girlfriend, Velma. Marlowe seems to be humouring Moose more than anything else, but the quest for Velma leads Marlowe through some sleazy LA spots, and of course, there's a trail of dead bodies along the way. The film oozes with the idea that people somehow wash up in seedy corners of LA. There's Mrs. Florian (Sylvia Miles), for example, a woman whose alcohol-soaked memories may include some vital information, and there's a bordello madam who's big and mean enough to make all her girls behave. It's not an easy task to produce a film in the mid 70s that smacks of the 40s, but "Farewell My Lovely" carries off the ambience of the time. My favourite line ... "I was having some Chinese food when a dark shadow fell over my Chop Suey."--displacedhuman
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