Unshaven, unheroic Los Angeles detective Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) smells a rat when his friend Terry Lennox (former pro baseball player Jim Bouton), whom he has just driven from Los Angeles to Tijuana, is accused of murdering his wife.
Convinced of Lennox’s innocence, Marlowe follows a convoluted trail that leads him to his friend’s mistress, Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt), her alcoholic husband (Sterling Hayden) and the shrill, ruthless hood Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell), to whom Lennox owed a substantial sum of money.
With his cheap suit and vintage car, Marlowe is a walking anachronism as he moves in a world of wealth and privilege inside the exclusive Malibu Colony.
Watch out for an early, unbilled appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of Augustine’s heavies, and a cameo by David Carradine.
Robert Altman directed this radical adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel.
Philip Marlowe
Elliott Gould Eileen Wade
Nina Van Pallandt Roger Wade
Sterling Hayden Marty Augustine
Mark Rydell Dr Verringer
Henry Gibson Harry
David Arkin Terry Lennox
Jim Bouton Morgan
Warren Berlinger Jo Ann Eggenweiler
Jo Ann Brody Detective Farmer
Steve Coit Mabel
Jack Knight
Director
Robert Altman
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