The biography of Dick Richards, the director of ‘Farewell, My Lovely‘ (1975) is an enigma to me. This screen adaptation (the second, the first had been made in 1944) of one of Raymond Chandler‘s novels with private detective Phil Marlowe as hero was his third film. Critics of the time placed him alongside his generational colleagues Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Scorsese. In fact, legend goes that he would have been the initial choice to direct ‘Jaws’. Four more films followed, all interesting and with impressive casts, and also a remarkable success as a producer with ‘Tootsie’. And then … nothing. After 1986, Dick Richards‘ filmography is non-existent. If anyone knows the reason for his disappearance, I would be very interested to know. Maybe Phil Marlowe should be hired to solve the mystery. In the small but select collection of Raymond Chandler adaptations, ‘Farewell, My Lovely‘ is one of the most original and successful films in many ways.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Dick Richards does not attempt to adapt the story or modernize the setting in which it takes place. We are in Los Angeles in 1941, the newspapers announce the invasion of Russia by the German army, but Marlowe is preoccupied with the muddy affairs of the city’s underworld. The detective is hired by a gangster just out of prison to find his ex-girlfriend, with whom he had lost touch during his years in prison. The mission turns out to be much more difficult and dangerous than it first seemed: false leads, secrets of the mob combined with corrupt city authorities, more and more money and more and more corpses. The femme fatale also appears, she is the wife of a judge much older than her, who falls with surprising ease into the arms of the detective who is also past the age of youth. Different cases connect as Marlowe accumulates fights and gun duels, gets beaten, drugged and laid.
Chandler‘s novels and the films based on them have convoluted plots. ‘Farewell, My Lovely‘ is no exception in this regard. The writer’s focus is on the experiences of the main character, to the deciphering of the characters of the people he meets and the description of the atmosphere – usually that of Los Angeles in the 40s. I thought Dick Richards found the right cinematic means here. Robert Mitchum is a great fit for the role of Phil Marlowe, and the feelings of his character are accentuated by the copious use of voiceover, which here bothered me less than usual, as it has a good justification. The book’s colorful and diverse gallery of characters is brought to the screen by an equally diverse cast, from a former boxer (Jack O’Halloran) then at his first film role to Sylvester Stallone a year before the first ‘Rocky’, from the exotic (for an American film) Charlotte Rampling to the excellent female supporting roles played by Sylvia Miles and Kate Murtagh. I liked David Shire‘s music and the image created by John A. Alonzo (who in the same year also signed the cinematography of Roman Polanski’s ‘Chinatown’) which bring to the screen the sounds and colors of a city in full expansion and with a effervescence that hides thousands of dangers. Dick Richards managed to create one of the best film adaptations of Raymond Chandler‘s novels. I wish his cinematic career would have continued.