Farewell, My Lovely

Farewell, My Lovely is a neo-noir film directed by Dick Richards and featuring Robert Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling. The picture is based on the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. Set in Los Angeles in 1941, against a seamy backdrop of police corruption, cheap hotel rooms, illegal gambling and jewel trafficking, private detective Philip Marlowe is holed up in a hotel room and growing more weary by the hour. As he explains to his police lieutenant friend Nulty: "I've got a hat, a coat and a gun, that's it." Marlowe has been hired by a huge and surly ex-convict, Moose Malloy, to... find his old girlfriend Velma, whom he hasn't seen in years. At the same time, Marlowe is investigating the murder of a client who was a victim of blackmail and a stolen necklace made of jade. While encountering connections to both cases, Marlowe develops an attraction to the married but seductive Helen Grayle. As the body count mounts, Marlowe survives numerous attempts on his life which include being drugged and held captive by a psychotic madam. The action comes to a head with a shootout on a gambling boat off the L.A. coast.
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