Synopsis:
Private eye Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell, The Bad and the Beautiful) is hired by an ex-con, Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki, Some Like it Hot), to find the man’s old flame. This seemingly simple task pulls Marlowe into a world of deceit and murder.
Reaction & Thoughts:
Based on Raymond Chandler’s 1940 novel Farewell, My Lovely, Murder, My Sweet is the movie that introduced hard-boiled gumshoe Philip Marlowe to moviegoers — it’s still one of the best Marlowe movies and one of the best film noirs of the era.
Murder, My Sweet doesn’t make much sense. I haven’t read the book so I’m not sure who should be blamed for the convoluted narrative. The funny thing is that you don’t really notice anything wrong with the story until you sit down and think about it and that’s a good thing — the plot holes don’t prevent you from enjoying the movie.
Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny) directs with panache and imagination, and the script by John Paxton (Crossfire), despite some lapses in logic, is really tight and has some great lines (my favorite: “my mind felt like a plumbers handkerchief”). Harry J. Wild’s (The Big Steal) black and white cinematography is pretty snazzy — there are so many scenes that are just plain gorgeous, darkly gorgeous.
Humphrey Bogart is the actor most associated with Marlowe (he played the character in the 1946 classic The Big Sleep), but Dick Powell is excellent as the L.A. detective. Powell is 100% believable as the sardonic Marlowe. I liked the fact that he plays Marlowe as an average man. He isn’t dumb, but he ain’t Sherlock Holmes either.
Marlowe is our guide to this bizarre journey through the underbelly of American society, but he is never ahead of us — sharp viewers will be able to decode the mystery way before Marlowe does. Powell clearly doesn’t have Bogie’s magnetism, but his Malowe is grounded in reality and that makes him very relatable.
Claire Trevor (Key Largo) is sensational as the film’s femme fatale. Powell is the star of the movie, but it is Trevor who has the most difficult task here; the film works because Trevor takes an overused noir trope and makes it look new and fresh.
Character actor Mike Mazurki is perfect as the dim-witted Moose. Otto Kruger (High Noon) is deliciously evil as the he proverbial “snake oil salesman.” Anne Shirley (Stella Dallas), in her last film role, is overshadowed by her charismatic co-stars.
Conclusions & Final Thoughts:
Murder, My Sweet has a happy ending that seems a bit incongruous with what came before it, but the rest of the movie is fantastic. It isn’t my favorite Marlowe movie — I much prefer Hawks’s The Big Sleep and Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye — but it’s definitively a classic noir. B&W, 95 minutes, Not Rated.
Well I’ve got my homework set for this year!. Murder My Sweet is on my “to watch list” to view soon as I’m working my way through all of Edward Dmytryk work. He just keeps giving. Mighty impressive body of work from that guy.
Also trying to get to see all Bogart’s work too so The Big Sleep is noted. Though I have seen the Elliott Gould film before but honestly it was so long ago I can’t remember it. So I got some great PI movies to see. A month of sci-fi has got be starting to yearn for some noir. So hopefully I get to them February. Nice one movie maniac.
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You are in for many nice surprises! I’m sure you will have a lot of fun! 🙂
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Hello there. I like this one too. Saw it in 2017 at a library’s film series.
Here’s some trivia: Years ago DP had a tv series called Dick Powell Presents.
Take care —
Neil Scheinin
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I didn’t know about the TV series! I did know that Powell became a well-known producer & director in the 1950s. I’ve seen a few of his productions.
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Great job, Eric. I need to see more noir films. So many from the forties and fifties I have not seen. Like this one.
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Your movie homework is piling up! 😉
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No kidding. I want to rent a room somewhere by myself and hide.
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I like Dick Powell as Marlowe…but I have to say that I’m currently reading Chandler’s “The Long Goodbye”, and I keep picturing the novel Marlowe as Humphrey Bogart.
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I believe you! While reading Maltese Falcon I kept seeing Bogie … he’s the best Marlowe and the best Spade! BTW, Elliott Gould was brilliant as Marlowe, but I’m assuming he was nothing like the book …
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