Farewell, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Farewell, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson March 22, 2020

Shout Select has released a pair of remakes starring Robert Mitchum on a single BD-50. Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978) are only available as a Shout double feature.

Beginning in Hollywood's Golden Age, several prominent A-list stars have portrayed private eye Philip Marlowe, including Humphrey Bogart, George Montgomery, Robert Montgomery, James Garner, and Elliott Gould. Robert Mitchum is the last to don Marlowe's fedora in David Zelag Goodman's adaptation of Raymond Chandler's second novel, Farewell, My Lovely (1940). The same plot was used in 1942's The Falcon Takes Over with George Sanders in the title role. The book was first officially adapted into a movie in 1944 as Murder, My Sweet, starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor. The original title was going to be retained but producers feared that audiences would mistake Farewell, My Lovely as another one of Powell's musicals with Ruby Keeler. According to Pat McGilligan (then with the Boston Globe), executive producer Elliott Kastner (Harper; The Long Goodbye) offered director Dick Richards the project at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. Richards agreed on conditions that he could set the picture during the 1940s and that Mitchum would star. "I felt the role had been waiting 30 years for Robert Mitchum," Richards told Stanley Eichelbaum of The San Francisco Examiner. "Marlowe needed Mitchum's surly tough, sar­donic naturalism. You get that with Bob, who's the ultimate Marlowe. I don’t feel Chandler’s character had really been brought to the screen before. What I tried to put across was Marlowe as a big, cynical man with a pronounced ethical code. No other detective had that code."

In the novel, Marlowe is 35 years young. In the film, Marlowe is 57 and Mitchum imparts an old and tired detective in the opening voice-over narration. On the seamy streets of Southern California, Marlowe is stopped by Moose Malloy (Jack O'Halloran), a lug and giant who just got out of the slammer after seven years. Moose hasn't received a letter from his girlfriend, Velma, in six years and tasks Marlowe with finding her. Marlowe visit a black nightclub where Tommy Ray (Walter McGinn) a destitute ex-band leader, directs him to a former colleague of the missing lady. Mrs. Florian (Sylvia Miles), an ex-singer, invites Marlowe into her home and leads him on a false trail to a mental institute where he comes across a female invalid. Marlowe thinks he's found Velma but a disgruntled Moose says that's not her. Meanwhile, Marriott (John O'Leary) visits Marlowe's office and asks him to procure some jewelry that's being ransomed. Marlowe is knocked out and dead bodies are around him when he wakes up. He's disoriented and not any closer to finding Velma.

Charlotte Rampling fills the Claire Trevor role as the pretty wife of an old and corrupt judge (Jim Thompson). Rampling tries to act like Lauren Bacall but her part is underwritten (she only appears in three scenes). John Ireland has an important role as Det. Nulty, one of the few people who Marlowe can still trust. Harry Dean Stanton plays Billy Rolfe, Nulty's partner but Marlowe's nemesis. He pilfers from the dead and takes illegal payoffs. You should also look for a 30-year-old Sylvester Stallone as a driver and henchman of the big madam who runs a high-class bordello.

The film received several terrific write-ups during its release in the late summer and autumn of 1975. The Hartford (CT) Courant's Malcolm L. Johnson proclaimed Mitchum as "proba­bly the best Philip Marlowe ever in Dick Richards’ im­peccable, lurid Farewell, My Lovely — and that includes Bogey in The Big Sleep." Lou Cedrone of The Evening (MD) Sun is one of at least two critics who considers Farewell, My Lovely a better movie than Chinatown! Cedrone writes that it's "far superior to Chinatown, the Roman Po­lanski film that began well then self-destructed when it ended on a note of perverse pessimism." I share neither that sentiment nor the critical mass' exuberance. Goodman's screenplay sags in places and the plot becomes too sluggish at times. Mitchum is very good as Marlowe but there have been better screen treatments of Chandler's novels.

Farewell, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout Select has released Farewell, My Lovely on a double bill with The Big Sleep (1978) and each gets its own menu. The picture appears in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, approximating its exhibition framing of 1.85:1 on one layer of this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. The image has an old-fashioned, Forties period look to it. A fairly thick layer of grain along with brown, gray, and pukish yellow hues dominate the palette. The movie was shot on the then-new Fuji Color. A number of reviewers who saw the theatrical release prints commented on the subdued color scheme and lighting. Kathleen Carroll of the Daily (NY) News describes the aesthetic as "the seedy, shadowy atmosphere of Chandler's L.A. (to the point of photographing the whole thing in a sickly yellow that makes all the actors seem in the advanced stages of hepatitis)." Mike Petryni of the Arizona Republic remarked on the interiors: "[Mitchum] moves like an old lumber­ing lion in the high-ceilinged room which fea­tures a lumpy, rumpled, but unused bed, and walls the sickening beige color of tobacco tar." Film critic John Cashman also observed "the muted reds and yellows, fuzzy lighting and blinding sunlight through windows." Gene Siskel, the famous half of Siskel & Ebert, lauded the cinematography and sets in the Chicago Tribune: "Farewell, My Lovely features John Alonzo's beautifully faded photography of Dean Tavoularis' accurate ramshackle Los Ange­les set designs. Tavoularis designed the sets for both Godfather films, and his work again is exemplary." Noel Taylor of The Ottawa Citizen hypothesized on the filter Alonzo likely put over the camera lens: "what's left is an ele­gantly concocted murder mystery photographed murkily (and usually through an apricot filter) in seedy bars and 'dried- out houses'.'" Shout has encoded this feature at an average video bitrate of 28352 kbps.

Shout provides a dozen chapter selections for the 95-minute film.

Farewell, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1592 kbps, 24-bit). The track is undamaged but has some hiss owing to the age of the recording. Mitchum speaks in his customary baritone voice. Noel Taylor of The Ottawa Citizen characterizes Goodman's script as having a "verbal crossfire," which the Chandler devotee cherishes. "Mitchum has quite a way with these punch­lines— casual without blurring the delivery and yet crisp enough to hear the bite." Gunshots are the most audible zingers on the monaural track. David Shire's much-praised jazz score contains some lovely playing on saxophone.

Optional English SDH are available.

Farewell, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer #1 (1:10, 1080p) - an action-packed trailer with Tommy Gunfire that's been restored and presented in anamorphic widescreen. There's some nice grain and only a few film artifacts.

• Trailer #2 (2:23, 1080p) - similar to the first but an extended trailer with clips from additional scenes.

Farewell, My Lovely Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I didn't enjoy or get as much out of Farewell, My Lovely as I did Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973), which is aided by John Williams's score and the title song Williams wrote with Johnny Mercer. If you want classic noir with Mitchum, the safe bet is Tourneur's Out of the Past (1947). Shout Select does a very nice job of replicating the Fuji film on this transfer. There are no extras aside from a couple trailers. RECOMMENDED for fans of Mitchum and Rampling.