Hard-boiled private eye Richard Marlowe has his hands full when he gets involved in a web of sex, blackmail-- and murder.

L.A. private detective Philip Marlowe takes on a blackmail case and follows a trail peopled by murderers, pornographers, nightclub rogues, the spoiled rich - just to name a few. Marlowe is hired to protect a young woman and in the process, he falls in love with the woman's older sister.

A gripping noir crime thriller set in late 1930s Bay City centers around a brooding, down-on-his-luck detective; Philip Marlowe, played by Liam Neeson, who is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress, daughter of a well-known movie star. The disappearance is the first twist in a series of bewildering events, and soon Marlowe is embroiled in a deadly investigation and web of lies that he's determined to bring to light.

For The Long Goodbye, Robert Altman successfully transports Philip Marlowe, incarnated by Elliott Gould, to the over-privileged, full-color 70s. Marlowe is lonely and shabby, yet does not seem an anachronism in the contemporary world. Unlike Bogart's Marlowe, this is a not especially tough Marlowe. He's a bright, conscientiously solemn nut, a guy who hopes for the best but expects the worst. This particular Philip Marlowe, despite evidence to the...