This superb Robert Altman film takes Raymond Chandler's hardboiled novel of the Forties and transposes it to the Seventies. Elliott Gould is wonderful as the cynical, wisecracking chain-smoking Philip Marlowe who is hired to find a missing, alcoholic writer (Sterling Hayden) by his beautiful wife (Nina Van Pallandt). And along the way Marlowe uncovers a maze of deceit, money laundering and catfood! The script positively sizzles, as does the beautifully fluid photography, and John Williams' ingenious score uses one song but with an infinite amount of styles. A classic.