Directed by Robert Altman • 1973 • United States
Starring Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden
Robert Altman updates Raymond Chandler for the liberated, hedonistic 1970s in this brilliantly idiosyncratic adaptation of one of the writer’s most renowned novels. Elliott Gould brings a sardonic wit to his portrayal of private eye Philip Marlowe, who helps out his old friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) late one night by driving him across the border from Los Angeles to Tijuana—only to discover once he’s back that Lennox’s wife has been murdered. As Marlowe is drawn deeper into a labyrinthine investigation involving the search for a missing novelist (Sterling Hayden), Altman exposes the darkness lurking beneath California’s sun-splashed surface.
Up Next in ’70s Thrillers
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Klute
Directed by Alan J. Pakula • 1971 • United States
Starring Jane Fonda, Donald SutherlandWith her Oscar-winning turn in KLUTE, Jane Fonda reinvented herself as a new kind of movie star. Bringing nervy audacity and counterculture style to the role of Bree Daniels—a call girl and aspiring actor wh...
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Night Moves
Directed by Arthur Penn • 1975 • United States
Starring Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Edward BinnsArthur Penn’s haunting neonoir reimagines the hard-boiled detective film for the disillusioned, paranoid 1970s. In one of his greatest performances, Gene Hackman oozes world-weary cynicism as a pr...
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The Anderson Tapes
Directed by Sidney Lumet • 1971 • United States
Starring Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin BalsamA prescient vision of the rise of the surveillance state, this paranoid heist thriller stars Sean Connery as Duke Anderson, an ex-con just out of prison who hatches a daring scheme to rob every unit...
