Murder, My Sweet (1944)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Edward Dmytryk

Writers:

John Paxton (screenplay)
Raymond Chandler (novel)

Release Date:

9 December 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

An Original Philip Marlowe Mystery

Plot:

This adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel 'Farewell, My Lovely', renamed for the American market...

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Private Eye | Cynicism | Unconsciousness | Doctor

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Dick Powell	...	Philip Marlowe
Claire Trevor	...	Mrs.Helen Grayle
Anne Shirley	...	Ann Grayle
Otto Kruger	...	Jules Amthor
Mike Mazurki	...	Moose Malloy
Miles Mander	...	Mr. Grayle
Douglas Walton	...	Lindsay Marriott
Donald Douglas	...	Police Lieutenant Randall (as Don Douglas)
Ralf Harolde	...	Dr. Sonderborg
Esther Howard	...	Jessie Florian

Also Known As:

Farewell My Lovely (UK)

Runtime:

95 min | Germany:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #10158) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Argyle Hotel - 8358 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Nat Pendleton is in studio records/casting call lists as a cast member, but did not appear in the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Powell leaves the car to look for the person for the payoff, he draws his gun from his left pocket, then replaces it in his left pocket. After he is sapped and woken up, he draws it from his right pocket.

Quotes:

Lt. Randall: Let's get it on the record... from the beginning.
Philip Marlowe: With Malloy, then. Oh, it was about seven o'clock. Anyway it was dark.
Lt. Randall: What were you doing at the office that late?
Philip Marlowe: I'm a homing pigeon. I always come back to the stinking coop, no matter how late it is. I'd been out peeking under old Sunday sections for a barber named Dominick whose wife wanted him back - I forget why. Only reason I took the job was because my bank account was trying to crawl under a duck.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Screen's Best Marlowe

"I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in; it had no bottom."- Phillip Marlowe in MURDER, MY SWEET.

There are plenty of bottomless pools in MURDER, MY SWEET, Edward Dmytryk's outstanding noir. Tapping into a direct line to the dark places of the human psyche, the film raises the curtain on one shadowy scene after another. It leads the viewer on a convoluted trip through a very gloomy and treacherous labyrinth where oily con men, pesky cops, scheming ladies, and at least one gargantuan lovesick Romeo put the down-at-heels private investigator through the wringer.

Moose Malloy's vanished girlfriend (and a tidy retainer) occupies Marlowe at first. Then, when an expensive jade necklace needs retrieving (with another fat fee offered), Marlowe bites again. But suddenly those too deep pools begin to appear.

John Paxton's screenplay has the cast of characters thinking out loud a lot, which helps occasionally. But just as in Raymond Chandler's other overly schematic crime story, THE BIG SLEEP, strict attention must be paid. Yet even if you become confused, you can still revel in Harry J. Wilde's sterling cinematography. (As mentioned in another review, Wilde, along with a slew of other people, including Orson Welles, shot additional scenes for THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS for which he and the others received no credit. As Welles himself intones rather solemnly at the film's conclusion: "Stanley Cortez was the photographer").

The really big draw in MURDER is Dick Powell, not just delivering a career-changing performance (and being the first actor to play Marlowe) but also giving the best interpretation of Marlowe on film- and that includes Bogart's fine outing in Hawks' THE BIG SLEEP(1946), Robert Mitchum's two disappointing films, and Elliot Gould's daring 1973 performance in Altman's THE LONG GOODBYE. Powell projects the detective's weary cynicism and dogged determination without any hint of showy mannerism or overplayed toughness. His presence is completely natural and convincing, far from any Hollywood ham acting.

In addition, MURDER, MY SWEET presents the polished villainy of Otto Kruger, slithering around Powell with his characteristic reptilian menace; Anne Shirley as a spunky good girl who brightens the gloom somewhat; and, on the femme fatale side, the high voltage glare of Claire Trevor, laminated in heavy make-up like a pricey, megawatt doxy. Literally towering over everything is Mike Mazurki's Moose (far more effective than Jack O'Halloran's catatonic trance in Mitchum's FAREWELL, MY LOVELY). Mazurki's silent entrance into Marlowe's office at the beginning sets the uneasy mood where huge, powerful forces stir and then emerge from the darkness.