:
Dick Powell,
Dick Powell,
Claire Trevor,
more...
:
Edward Dmytryk,
Edward Dmytryk
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: Not Rated
: Warner Home Video
: Classics, Film Noir, Vintage Noir
: 95 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
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One-time movie crooner Dick Powell literally turned his career around in the 1944 film noir Murder My Sweet. Powell stars as Phillip Marlowe, the hard-boiled private detective antihero created by novelist Raymond Chandler. Hired by hulking, psychotic Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to locate Moose's old girl friend, Marlowe is pitched headlong into a morass of intrigue and deception. The participants include duplicitous glamour-girl Claire Trevor, sodden slattern Esther Howard, suave blackmailer Otto Kruger and dyspeptic doctor Ralf Harolde. At one point, Marlowe is railroaded into a lunatic asylum, where under the influence of drugs he experiences a surrealistic nightmare the like of which would not be seen on screen again until Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). So fascinating are the "bad" characters in Murder My Sweet that the two 100% "good" characters, heroine Anne Shirley and detective Don Douglas, seem wishy-washy wimps by comparison. After years of insipid golly-gee roles, Dick Powell startled his fans with his cynical, world-weary portrayal of Philip Marlowe. The part put him back on top of the box-office tallies and enabled him to extend his acting career into the 1950s, which led to an even more lucrative "third life" as a powerful TV-studio executive. Murder My Sweet was based on Chandler's Farewell My Lovely, previously filmed in 1942 as The Falcon Takes Over; a remake, Farewell, My Lovely, was produced in 1975, with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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| Top-Notch, Light-Hearted Noir
by talltale
October 10, 2005 - 10:31 AM PDT
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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Considering all the great stuff I'd heard about MURDER, MY SWEET, the most surprising thing is how little it disappoints. From the crackling, witty dialog (this is the movie that must have inspired all those film noir take-offs!) to Powell's performance to Trevor's and Shirley's naughty and nice girls to the breathtakingly beautiful camerawork with its clever noir touches--everything comes together to make one 90-minute delight.
The whole cast could not be bettered, and under-rated director Edward Dmytryk (he blabbed during the McCarthy hearings and was never quite forgiven) does some of his best work here. The film's last few moments are among the wittiest, most charming in movie memory--a classy, clever way to close one of the top "lighthearted" noirs of all time. Compared to the other versions of "Farewell, My Lovely"--none of which make much sense--this one is gold amidst the dross. |
| Haunted by a lovely face... hunted for another's crime!
by eifert
July 14, 2004 - 7:34 PM PDT
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5 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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Murder, My Sweet is a Philip Marlowe detective thriller starring Dick Powell. Powell was a controversial choice at the time because he was known as a musical/light comic actor. I have no idea what else he was in. So seeing Powell as Raymond Chandler's most famous private dick suits me just fine. The only thing that may not jive for some noir fans is his light, confidant manner. Some may want Bogie (or one of the many square-jawed actors who played him since) doing his down-in-the-dumps loveable loser character. I admit that's what I was expecting. However, about ten minutes in, Powell makes the part his own. In fact, he fits the Chandler books more than Bogart ever did.
The story is told in flashback and is confusing as the day is long. (Hell, I'm still trying to figure out The Big Sleep!) It's a noir world of double crosses and beautiful dames. The dialog and plot is pure Chandler. The end isn't the movies payoff; it's the wild ride to get there. The drug induced dream sequence is fantastic, rivaling only Salvador Dali's dream scene in Spellbound.
There are so many good lines in this film.
here's just a sample from the witty screenplay:
MARLOWE: It was a nice little front yard. Cozy, okay for the average family. Only you'd need a compass to go to the mailbox. The house was alright, too, but it wasn't as big as Buckingham Palace.
Or:
MARLOWE: She was a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who'd take a drink, if she had to knock you down to get the bottle.
Cinematographer Harry J. Wild, who did The Magnificent Ambersons two years before, is no slouch. His work on this movie is top notch. Apparently many of the RKO crew also worked on Citizen Kane and it's no surprise the movie is a black and white visual treasure. The lights and shadows are usually coming from the side - threatening to eat up the cast. The sets are top notch too. This does not look like most noir B movies using darkness to hide poor sets and backgrounds.
The movie, unlike the other noirs released recently on DVD, is not perfect. It's clean for the most part, but there are some bad scratches and film damage. One scene is so fuzzy I was actually shocked. But isn't that the way to watch these movies? With warts and all. I remember George Harrison saying he hated listening to the Beatles on CD because they cleaned up all the hissing and pops on the records. He said listening to the old records was best.
What is clear: If you're a fan of film noir you have to check this out!
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.74)
54 Votes
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