Ten-Year Itch is a weekly column that focuses on a film or album at least 10 years old and deserving of a second look.

Robert Altman’s most heralded films are the ones with ensemble casts. His ability to juggle a large stable of actors and keep them interesting was nearly unmatched during his directorial career.

Three years after his first legitimate smash hit, Altman switched things up by taking his shot at film-noir and focusing on one single, private-eye character in ‘The Long Goodbye.’

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Elliot Gould plays Philip Marlowe, a down-and-out private detective who gets wrapped up in trying to absolve his best friend from the murder of his wife. The plot thickens with an alcoholic novelist, a creepy psychologist and a senseless gangster who is always trailed by his meathead goons.

The plot, mostly borrowed from the Raymond Chandler novel of the same name, contains some twists and turns but this film is all about Gould’s performance.

Few actors can pull off a role of this nature. Gould’s Marlowe comes off as dimwitted but always knowing the best play. He is effortlessly cool, with his slept-in suit, lower-octave-level-than-usual voice and constant cigarette attached to lip. Seriously, Gould’s lungs must have gone on strike after this film was done shooting. There is not one scene were he does not strike a match and get to smoking.

But his constant puffing of heaters does not take away from any aspect of the film. It just further cements the fact that his character does not care about himself, only his best friends (the murder suspect and his cat).

Far too often are the main characters of crime dramas tough guys with no interior motives. They are down to throw punches and fire guns. Before going to his fists, Marlowe throws out witticisms. While full of snark and bite, his smart talk usually ends up in him being on the bruised side of a beating, but Marlowe gets the information he needs to further the resolution.

Gould is still around today, popping up in the ‘Ocean’s’ films as comic relief and guest spots on TV, but in this Altman forgotten classic he reaches McQueen/Newman levels of cool.

Gould never became a megastar, not always picking the best films, but when the man got the right role, such as Philip Marlowe, he achieved amazing things.

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Altman always seemed to bring the best out of Gould and ‘The Long Goodbye’ is the pair’s genius stroke.

Luke McCormick can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 275