Murder, My Sweet (1944)

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 aka Velma Valento
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) | Finland:K-15 (new rating: 2001) | Finland:K-16 (until 2001) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Audiences initially stayed away, thinking that "Farewell My Lovely", its original title, was yet another Dick Powell musical. When the studio changed the title to "Murder My Sweet", box office receipts picked up considerably.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the dream sequence where the stair rail disappears you can see that Powell is holding onto a string where the rail was.

Quotes:

Lt. Randall: [during an interrogation] How do you feel?
Philip Marlowe: Like a duck in a shooting gallery.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Big Lebowski (1998)

"I Don't Know Which Side Anybody's On!"

Private dick Phil Marlowe is hired by a "paltry, foppish man" to accompany him on a midnight assignation. What follows is a glorious piece of Chandleriana, a ganglion of a plot involving a jade necklace, a jailbird who carries a torch for a showgirl, a "big-league blonde" with a rich old husband and an eye for private eyes, and more narrative twists and turns than a Restoration comedy on acid.

Will Moose be reunited with Velma? Who's the brunette in the gulch? What is Anthor's precise relationship with Marriott? How many more times can Marlowe get slugged from behind without having his skull disintegrate?

Golden tenor Dick Powell may not be the obvious choice to play Marlowe, but in fact he turns in THE definitive performance. Chandler once defined the ideal hero in one of his essays as a special man, but at the same time a man of the people. Not amazingly bright, subject to bouts of confusion and wrong-headed wilfulness, but for all that a tough, decent, dry-humoured guy who just happens to be as sexy as hell. Powell delivers.

Watch out for a remarkable dream sequence after Marlowe is forcibly injected with heroin (yes, heroin). Expressionist cinema was never as evocative as here!

All in all, the film is an example of a genre captured at its apex - "like lighting a stick of dynamite, and telling it not to go off"!