The opening of "The Long Goodbye"...

...is where Marlowe tries to feed his cat. Altman always called his concept of the Raymond Chandler character "Rip Van Marlowe". In other words, a private eye from the forties who woke up in the early seventies in the same suit and drove the same car, but was dealing with morals and attitudes of the more modern time.

Or you could take the view that Marlowe is stoned. I mean listen to how Gould reads his speeches to the cat.

Okay, I guess I'm the only one who ever thought that.

Whatever.

Gould's adlib of "It's okay with me"... became a running theme for the movie.

You'll also hear several versions of the theme song, introducing the joke I referred to a post or two ago.

This is a great film and is one of those seventies movies I can only imagine being made independently now.