Category: 1970s
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The Key to Marlowe’s Conundrum is In a Can of Cat Food
Elliot Gould, “The Long Goodbye” (1973) One of my favorite neo-noirs is “The Long Goodbye” (1973), Robert Altman’s adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel of the same title, published 20 years earlier. Altman’s most drastic alteration of Chandler’s opus is placing the story in the 1970s instead of eight years after the end of World…
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‘Eddie Coyle’ Introduced Us to ‘Boston Noir’
Robert Mitchum in ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ (1973). How Boston labor union muscle terrorized Hollywood film crews No one was quite ready for the grittiness of “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” when it arrived in theaters in 1973. It didn’t look like most films that Hollywood turned out — it had a certain rawness…
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‘The Silent Partner’ : A Noir Bank Job, 1970s Style
Elliot Gould in ‘The Silent Partner.’ Elliot Gould is Miles Cullen, a Toronto bank teller whose chief companions are tropical fish that flutter about in an aquarium in his cramped apartment. To his female co-workers, Miles is a teddy bear nerd with as much sex appeal as one of his guppies. One day, he realizes…