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Directed by Dick Richards
USA
1975
Murder. Marlowe. Mitchum. *** After Altman's intensive analysis of Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye, it's hard to imagine another straightforward adaptation. Yet Farewell, My Lovely deliberately courts nostalgia with lovingly recreated '40s settings and film techniques recalling the thrillers of the time, besides the casting of Mitchum, who made his name in just such films. As such, it lies alongside the successful 1944 adaptation rather than the current Californian detective pictures, whose troubled introspections it lacks. The film's triumph is Mitchum's definitive Marlowe, which captures perfectly the character's down-at-heel integrity and erratic emotional involvement with his cases. Purists may find the script's tinkering with Marlowe's character irritating. But there are plenty of compensations: strong supporting performances, moody renderings of the underbelly of Los Angeles nightlife, and a jigsaw plot with Marlowe's chase through seven homicides to find an ex-nightclub singer, six years disappeared. |
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Theatrical Release: August 8th, 1975
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Comparison
:Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
1) Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC LEFT 2) Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - RIGHT
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Box Cover |
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Distribution | Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC |
Shout!
Factory Region 'A' - Blu-ray |
Runtime | 1:35:09 | 1:35:19.046 / The Big Sleep: 1:39:40.432 |
Video | 1.78:1
Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.63 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s |
Disc Size: 48,695,015,424 bytes Farewell My Lovely Feature Size: 22,315,137,024 bytes Average Bitrate: 27.99 MbpsDual-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video The Big Sleep Feature Size: 21,782,667,264 bytes Average Bitrate: 25.99 Mbps |
DVD Bitrate: |
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Audio | English (Dolby Digital 2.0) |
DTS-HD Master Audio English 1592 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1592 kbps / 24-bit (DTS
Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio English 1589 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1589 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) |
Subtitles | English, None | English, None |
Features |
Release Information:
Edition Details: • Trailer
1 (2:23) |
Release Information: Studio: Shout! Factory
Disc Size: 48,695,015,424 bytes Farewell My Lovely Feature Size: 22,315,137,024 bytes Average Bitrate: 27.99 MbpsDual-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video The Big Sleep Feature Size: 21,782,667,264 bytes Average Bitrate: 25.99 Mbps
Edition Details: The Big Sleep
• NEW Interview With
Actress Sarah Miles (The Big Sleep) (6:52) • The Big Sleep featurette (5:48) • Trailer (2:10) Blu-ray Release Date: February 20th, 2018 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 8 |
Comments: |
NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray - February 18': The new Shout! Factory has an appropriate pairing of two 70's films with Robert Mitchum as hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe - 1975's Farewell My Lovely and the inferior 1978 The Big Sleep. It is on one dual-layered Blu-ray. Frankly, they don't looks great - scanner noise - both are in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio but look superior to SD. I think The Big Sleep may look a shade better of the two - despite looking waxy at times - and neither will be used as demo discs. It's possible they can't look much better and I was happy to see them in 1080P - even if it was less than stellar.
DTS-HD Master (24-bit) tracks for both films and
in Farewell My Lovely
the score is by David Shire (All
the President's Men,
Zodiac,
The Conversation) and has some minor depth but I enjoyed the
The Big Sleep score by
Jerry Fielding (Straw
Dogs,
Scorpio,
The Wild Bunch,
Straw Dogs,
The Killer Elite,
The Mechanic,
Kolchak: The Night Stalker and
The Getaway) which benefits a bit more from the
lossless transfer. Both have optional English subtitles (see samples
below) and the
Blu-ray
disc is Region 'A'-locked.
The only extra on Farewell My Lovely is a theatrical trailer but
on
The Big Sleep portion
there is a new 7-minute interview with actress Sarah Miles reflecting
briefly on the film and her role in The Big Sleep. “The Big Sleep: On
Location” shows some of where the film was shot and it includes a
brief interview with director Michael Winner. The entire video runs shy
of 1/4 hour. “Maxim Jakubowski At Murder One” is an interview at
the famous bookstore, expert on Hard Boiled Fiction, and some may
recall him in the extras of Altman's
The Long Goodbye Arrow
Blu-ray. There
is a 7-minute The Big Sleep vintage featurette that is really
like a long trailer and there is also a 2-minute trailer for the film.
While we endorse both originals - 1944's
Murder My Sweet
and 1946's Bogie/Bacall
The Big Sleep - both on
Blu-ray, these two
efforts capture some of that
Noir mystique that we can't seem to sate ourselves. Mitchum is,
as always, fabulous and the storys aren't fatally poor although the 1978
The Big Sleep could have
been far more cohesive - and probably didn't need to be made unless they
were willing to put more into the production (Mitchum can only carry so
much).
Still, after all my complaining, I loved seeing these
neo-noir throwbacks and I'll watch anything with Mitchum as
Marlowe. Enjoy! ***
ON THE DVD: Finally, so nice, to have a watchable,
new, digital representation of this classic.
This is, of course, a remake of 1944's
Murder My Sweet - now on
Blu-ray.
But it has Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe and Charlotte Rampling as
Helen Grayle embodying a slinky Lauren Bacall in any number of Noir-ish
gems. This is so great for 'Dark Cinema' fans who just can't get
enough. The Shout! Factory SD disc is single-layered
and the image is progressive in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio.
There is grain and a bit of, unfortunate, noise. The quality is
consistent and watchable. It's not dynamically sharp but the SD
does the job - imperfectly, but I'll take it.
The audio is
clean and also consistent - dialogue is completely audible. The score is
by David Shire (All
the President's Men,
Zodiac,
The Conversation) and sounds equally supportive. There are
optional English
subtitles and the media is locked to region 1.
No extras
aside from a couple of trailers. This still has value although we all
would prefer it in 1080P. I was so pleased to watch this - one of the
later-great Mitchums and an essential for Noir fans. Absolutely
recommended!
Gary Tooze |
DVD Menus
Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC
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CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
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1) Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC TOP 2) Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC TOP 2) Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC TOP 2) Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC TOP 2) Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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Directed by Michael Winner
USA
Philip Marlowe is asked by the sickly General Sternwood to investigate an attempted blackmail on one of his daughters. But Marlowe is more concerned about the disappearance of the other daughters husband, Rusty. Further complicating the matter is Rusty's wife, who seems unconcerned with her husbands disappearance. *** Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum), is caught in a deadly case of blackmail in The Big Sleep. General Sternwood (James Stewart), an aged and wealthy American, is being blackmailed over the antics of his two daughters, Charlotte (Sarah Miles) and Camilla (Candy Clark). Marlowe travels into the seedy underworld of crime beneath old London, through a dangerous web of murder and suicide and straight into the sinister world of gangster Eddie Mars (Oliver Reed). Joan Collins, Edward Fox and John Mills also star. ***
HOWARD HAWKS directed the 1946 version of "The
Big Sleep" in black and white, so it's conceivable that Mr. Hawks didn't
furnish Philip Marlowe's bedroom with color-coordinated sheets and blankets
merely because he wasn't able to. However, it's also conceivable that Mr. Hawks
chose deliberately to depict Marlowe as something other than an immaculately
appointed fellow with a decorating flair. Michael Winner's new film version of
the Raymond Chandler novel concentrates so heavily on the dapper side of Marlowe
that it makes the first version look like an unmade bed—which may be what it was
meant to look like, after all. |
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Theatrical Release: March 13th, 1978
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CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Screen Captures
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Box Cover |
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Distribution | Shout! Factory - Region 1 - NTSC |
Shout!
Factory Region 'A' - Blu-ray |
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