"The Long Goodbye" is a 1954 American television play based on the novel of the same name by

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

. It was the first episode of the anthology series '' Climax!'' and starred

Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...

as Philip Marlowe. Powell had played the role previously in ''Murder, My Sweet''. The episode was broadcast live. Although there was a rumor that actor Tristram Coffin, playing a corpse under a blanket, had got up and walked off the set in view of the live camera, he himself debunked this in an interview; while the blanket over his body was partially removed before he was out of frame, he did not walk off set in full view of the camera.

Cast

as Philip Marlowe *

Tom Drake Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in '' Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

as Terry Lennox * Horace McMahon as Detective * Cesar Romero as Mendy Mendez *

Teresa Wright Muriel Teresa Wright (October 27, 1918 – March 6, 2005) was an American actress. She was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: in 1941 for her debut work in ''The Little Foxes'', and in 1942 for ''Mrs. Miniver'', ...

as Eilene Wade * Tris Coffin as dead body

Reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called it "fine entertainment... a piece that held suspense".Television in Review: 'Climax': Raymond Chandler Play Opens C.B.S. Series Teresa Wright and Dick Powell in Lead Roles By JACK GOULD. New York Times 8 Oct 1954: 34.

References

External links

The Long Goodbye
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

The Long Goodbye
at BFI 1954 television plays American television episodes {{US-drama-tv-prog-stub