Murder, My Sweet

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Edward Dmytryk

Starring: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki

From: RKO

Dick Powell made for a better Philip Marlowe than expected; he wasn’t the best I’ve seen, but Powell was the first to play that iconic character on screen. As I needed more variety & it’s been months since a film noir has been experienced, the DVR was used from a TCM recording made last month. People will know this story as Farewell, My Lovely (and the famed Robert Mitchum movie from the 70’s), which I haven’t seen so a compare & contrast can’t be done. The name was changed-at least in the United States-as… RKO thought people would think of this as another Dick Powell musical like the Busby Berkeley musicals from the 30’s I know him best from. No, really.

It's a hard-boiled noir tale which begins w/ Marlowe being interrogated in a room while blindfolded. After a minute of discussion, the rest of the movie is a flashback until the end. What we hear is a sordid tale which is more complex than you’d suspect from an ex-con mug named Moose hiring Marlowe to find a dame named Thelma. Is it a spoiler to suggest that you can’t trust every character you meet on this sordid journey? It’s complex but never so labyrinth it is too impenetrable to follow. The detective’s occasional narration does help in that regard.

Those that have seen other films featuring Marlowe-such as The Big Sleep-will not be surprised to hear that this is full of seedy characters, tough dialogue, insults, gunfire, people in general engaging in fisticuffs, etc. The performances are all at least fine, from Powell and Claire Trevor to Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger and Mike Mazurki in a real Mike Mazurki role, meaning “a big brute.” Edward Dmytryk directed the hell out of this; besides several stellar scene transitions, at one point Marlowe was drugged and the viewer gets to see his visions while tripping balls. That was wild.

Those who are fans of Chandler’s work, film noir and/or the other movies featuring Philip Marlowe (the recent picture starring Liam Neeson doesn’t count), Murder, My Sweet is well worth the investment and IMO, is not a film nearly talked about enough.