George Montgomery plays Marlowe like a proto-Magnum PI as he devastates women and outwits the criminally-minded in a smooth, relentless and dapper manner; sure, it's not what we are used to but I found the take refreshing. His 'Bacall' is Nancy Guild but she comes across as more juvenile - a sort of ingénue on the brink of sanity. There are snappy lines, action and intrigue but it is all just played quite pat - almost like a movie from the 30s than the 40s, with very stereotyped characters brought to 'life' by jobbing actors. The plot's convolutions soon lost my interest as I gave up caring who did what - still, there is an inventive scene near the end, of a film within a film. For a noir-very-lite, this has its entertaining parts, but in a way, it shows what the true classics of the genre had that this flick lacks. 5/10.