Third film version of Raymond Chandler's novel (following 1942's "The Falcon Takes Over" and 1944's "Murder, My Sweet") has Robert Mitchum well-cast (if a bit slow-footed) as 1940s private detective Philip Marlowe, on the case of the missing girlfriend of a gangster who's just out of prison after six years. Director Dick Richards has a keen eye for minor details, though his pacing is a little stodgy (like Mitchum's) and he isn't helped by the flaccid editing. The picture looks and sounds terrific, due in large part to John A. Alonzo's cinematography and David Shire's Bernard Herrmann-esque music, but parts of the film are better than the whole. There's a great role here for newcomer Jack O'Halloran as the gorilla-like mobster who hires Marlowe, but Charlotte Rampling is a disappointing femme fatale and Sylvia Miles (despite netting an Oscar nomination) has a showy but shallow part as an aged ex-chorine now living in squalor. A side-trip to a seedy cathouse is confusing, and the plot is needlessly set into motion via flashback. Mitchum followed this with another Chandler/Marlowe remake, 1977's "The Big Sleep". **1/2 from ****
Review of Farewell, My Lovely
