Murder, My Sweet

Plot synopsis:
Marlowe is in a police station, a bandage over his eyes. He explains what happened in a flashback.Moose Malloy comes in to Marlowe's office. He's just got out of prison and wants Marlowe to find his ex-girlfriend, who he's not seen in eight years. Malloy takes him to a place called Florian's, where his ex used to work. They go into the bar. The bar goes quiet as they walk in. The boss comes over and warns them that he wants no trouble. Malloy walks over to a girl in the bar but the boss warns him not to bother the customers. The man throws the boss across the room. Marlowe tries to intervene, but Moose doesn't remember him. The take a couple of bottles from the bar and leave. Malloy tells Marlowe that they were to be married. Her name was Velma Valento.Marlowe traces the wife of the previous owner of Florian's. She appears to be very drunk. She gives him a file of clippings but tries to hide a picture of Valento. Marlowe takes it. Mrs. Florian tells him she's never heard of Moose Malloy and demands that he leave. He does, but then watches her through the window as she makes a phone call, apparently not as drunk as she seemed.Marlowe returns to his office to find Lindsay Marriott waiting in his office. He hires Marlowe to accompany him to a rendezvous to make a business transaction, exchanging a jade necklace for cash. Arriving at the spot, Marlowe gets out to look around. Gun drawn, he walks some distance into the bushes. Finding nothing but a deer, he returns to the car, where he is coldcocked by a blackjack.When he awakens, a woman asks if he is all right, then, apparently recognizing him, runs. Marriott has been killed and dumped in the back seat.Cut to a police station where Marlowe is being interrogated about the murder. They argue and then Marlowe is released, but tell Marlowe they think Jules Amthor is mixed up in this.This time, returning to his office, a woman is waiting. She tells him her name is Miss Allison, but he grabs her purse and finds she is actually Ann Grayle. She tries to storm out but he's locked the door. She tells him the jade belonged to her father.They go to visit her father in a palatial mansion. His wife, a stunning blonde, is also there. He explains that the necklace had been taken from his wife at gunpoint, and retires. Mrs. Gayle tells Marlowe that Marriot had been assigned to buy it back. As they talk, Amthor is shown in. They arrange an interview.Cut to Marlowe's home. Mrs. Grayle walks in behind a laundry boy and gives him a retainer. They go to a nightclub. Miss Grayle is there and talks to Marlowe privately. She offers him more money to make him go away. Moose is there too. He asks Marlowe to come and meet someone, and Miss Grayle disappears before he can make excuses. Moose takes him to a highrise and takes his gun. The person he is meeting turns out to be Amthor. He claims to be a psychic healer that the police are after. Marlowe accuses him of blackmailing women. Amthor thinks Marlowe has the necklace, which he wants. Moose causes a ruckus, wanting Marlowe to tell him where Velma is. They fight and Marlowe is kncked out and drugged, causing hallucinations.He wakes up on a cot. After shaking off the effects of the drug, he escapes, and confronts a doctor, who tells him he's been out for three days. Moose finds him and gets him a cab. Marlowe goes to see Ann. She asks him what happened, and he remembers that she was the girl at the rendezvous.The police come in and Marlowe gives them the story.Marlowe and Ann go back to the mansion and talk to her father. The police have been there, interested in his beach house. Mr. Grayle asks Marlowe to drop the case for money. Marlowe agrees, but tells Ann he's going to the beach house anyway.At the beach house, they find Mrs. Grayle. Ann, angry, leaves to tell her father. Marlowe accuses Mrs. Grayle of having Amthor shake him down for the necklace. She tells him Amthor is blackmailing her after she went to him for treatment. She was supposed to give him the jade, but it was stolen before she could give it to him. She thinks it was Marriot. She asks him to help her kill Amthor to stop him from blackmailing her further, and Marlowe agrees. They plan to lure Amthor to the beach house where Mrs. Gayle will shoot him.Marlowe goes to Amthor's place to set up the plot, but finds Amthor dead with his neck snapped, obviously by Moose. He returns to the office, where Moose finds him. Marlowe tells him the picture was a fake, but that he can take Moose to her. They agree to meet the next day.Marlowe takes him to the beach house and tells him to wait outside for a signal. He goes in to meet Mrs. Gayle, who still thinks the original plan is in place. She gives Marlowe the jade necklace, which she has had all along. She had told Marriot it had been stolen to throw them off the trail. Marlowe accuses her of killing Marriot, and tells her that Moose is waiting outside. She is actually Velma Valento. She had been supporting Marriott, Amthor, and Mrs. Florian with her blackmail money, but Moose's return had fouled the plan, and they were attempting to get rid of Marlowe before he could discover the plot.Mrs. Gayle pulls a gun on him. Ann and her father show up. Mrs. Gayle tells Mr. Gayle to take the gun. He does, but then shoots her. Moose hears the shot and comes upstairs, to see Velma's dead body. He attacks Mr. Gayle. Marlowe dives for Grayle's gun just as he fires, is blinded by the powder, and blacks out.Cut to the police station. Marlowe is wearing a bandage over his eyes. They explain that Gayle and Moose killed each other struggling for the gun. An officer leads him to a cab and he talks about Ann the whole way, without realizing that Ann was there all along. She gets in the cab with him and he realizes it's her. The end.

Tags: cult, mystery, murder, atmospheric, flashback

Review:
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.
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.
'Murder, My Sweet' tones down some of the racial and sexual aspects of the original story (which are included in the 1970s remake), and I'm might be mistaken (it's been a while since I read it), but the Anne Shirley character appears to have been created as a potential love interest for Dick Powell.
One might think that this would mean that the movie was off to a bad start, especially since the chief reason for the title change was that the actor who was cast in the hard-boiled lead, Dick Powell, was best known as a singer.
Harry Wild's photography is brilliant, and while he and director Dmytryk often go for flashy, arty effects, they're always appropriate, and seem at all times the way detective Philip Marlow, who narrates the story, would want it to be told, as he's a rather glib fellow with an offbeat sense of humor.
The dialogue, much of it lifted from Chandler's novel, is excellent and at times quite funny, though some of the author's best lines (such as his description of Moose Malloy as at at one point being "about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food") are absent.The plot, concerning the attempt of the aforementioned, hulking giant, Moose Malloy, to find his old girl-friend, having just served a stretch in prison, is convoluted and hard to follow.
Chandler was not a great one for plots, as one reads his books primarily for the writing, not the stories, and Dmytryk and his associates wisely follow this aesthetic, emphasizing odd bits of business, visual and verbal, often taking the movie in strange directions, making what one normally thinks of secondary aspects of a film the main event.
Here was Dick Powell, no make up, a five o'clock shadow, and a voice down an octave and very cynical and jaded as Philip Marlowe.Raymond Chandler's private detective has been hired by two people, Gargantuan Mike Mazurki to find his missing girl friend and lovely Claire Trevor to locate a stolen jade necklace.
But the spirit of Chandler's novel comes through.I'm not sure Dick Powell is the best Philip Marlowe ever on the big and small screen.
Produced by the legendary RKO during the golden age of American film noir, Murder, My Sweet remains to this day one of the best adaptations of the adventures of Philip Marlowe.The mythical antihero Raymond Chandler had a slew of excellent adaptations to the big screen including The Big Sleep by Howard Hawks and The Private by Robert Altman.
The private detective Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is hired by the violent and stupid Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to seek out his former girlfriend Velma Valento.
The dialogue is tough and quotable and is delivered by a collection of actors giving good performances, headed up by Dick Powell, doing his best to make us think of him first when we think of this story and the character of Marlowe..
There were many attempts to recreate on the screen Raymond Chandler's immortal character, Philip Marlowe, and probably the first serious effort was in 1944, with Edward Dmytryk directing The film was called "Farewell My Lovely" in Britain and "Murder, My Sweet" in the United States The plot, as always with this genre, mattered far less than the characters and the action: it was sparked when Marlowe was hired to find an ex-convict's girl friend This Marlowe was played by Dick Powell He made a daring, successful effort to drop his all-singing, all-dancing image, and he was tough enough; but he was a little too charming, a shade too superficial, to suggest the depths and the strengths of the real Marlowe Humphrey Bogart was the man to do this above all others And he did it superb1y in Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" in 1946 "Murder My Sweet" is a complex thriller which seemed at the time to demonstrate all manner of strikingly new techniques in a film noir mood, and certainly marked an astonishing transformation in its star...
Offered as a paragon of the noir, Murder, My Sweet was my second of the genre, and first to introduce me to both the private eye and the femme fatale.Hired by the appropriately named Moose Malloy, private eye Philip Marlowe is tasked with finding his former lover Velma.
Based on the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler, Edward Dmytryk's film adaptation Murder, My Sweet is one of the essential works in the genre of film noir.
The film stars one of Chandler's most famous characters: private detective Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) has been arrested and explains his story to the police in a flashback.
Can anybody be trusted, when everyone from the family's daughter Ann (Anne Shirley) to a self- proclaimed psychic named Amthor (Otto Kruger) seems to be reaching for their own personal goals?Describing Murder, My Sweet is like listing the characteristics of film noir in general: shadowy and starkly contrasted black & white cinematography, morally ambiguous characters, snappy dialogue...
The arguably confusing plot is full of twists and turns that further underscore the unpredictable nature of the world the film is set in – it can be said that the mood is equally important to the plot.Dick Powell plays the lead role quite lightly and doesn't come across as tough as some other noir detectives.
Of the supporting actors the most memorable ones are the menacing Mike Mazurki as the easily angered (if slightly cartoonish) "Moose" Malloy and Ralf Harolde as the calm Dr. Sonderborg whose indifferent attitude during the drug sequence makes the scene all the more devoid of hope.Even though film noir hasn't become one of my favourite types of cinema, Murder My Sweet is a rather enjoyable crime story on its own right.
Well well, here we have a noir film that really has to be one of the most divisive in the genre, it would seem that some feel it's closer in texture to what Raymond Chandler wrote, and that the portrayal of Phillip Marlowe by Dick Powell is spot on in its execution.Many others disagree completely though...Now since I haven't read any of the novels Chandler wrote I have no frame of reference there, but having watched The Big Sleep this past week I feel the push me pull you polar opposite feelings this film creates.Phillip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is a gruff wise cracking private eye, he is hired by ex convict Moose Malloy (a splendid Mike Mazurki) to find former girlfriend Velma who has been missing for 6 years, this sends him spiralling into a web of deceit, blackmail, theft, murder, in short all the great ingredients for classic noir.
Powell does good enough, but the wisecracks to me became more of a hindrance than an enjoyment, I felt in short that I was being lifted out of the dark when I actually wanted to stay cloaked in mud.The film is still an incredible watch, the photography from Harry Wild is lush, and the core essence of the story is bang on the money, while I should mention the cracking performances of the supporting cast as Claire Trevor and Otto Kruger join in the mystery to help raise the film to a higher standard.
In actual fact I'd seen this before the likes of 42nd Street, so it was more of shock to see Marlowe singing and dancing in those bits of Warner fluff - as Marlowe, Powell is a convincing, world-weary detective, and this story (aka 'Murder, My Sweet') has particular strengths, particularly the scene with the cupid's statue, and the hallucinations..
Watchable film noir with Dick Powell slightly improbably taking on the evergreen Philip Marlowe character in a typically convoluted Raymond Chandler plot-line, directed with pace and occasional imagination by Edward Dymytryk.To be truthful I'm still trying to reassemble the jigsaw puzzle storyline and characters together in my head, but it's probably better just to absorb the dialogue and played out situations instead.
Even the fact when Marlow, and later Moose, find out just who this Valma is was so anticlimactic that if you didn't really concentrate hard enough to what was happening it would have completely eluded you."Murder my Sweet" is nowhere as good and as interesting as it's remake some thirty years later as the movie "Farewell my Lovely" with Robert Mitchum in the same role of hard boiled private eye Philip Marlow..
Have seen this film many times over the years and always enjoy watching Dick Powell playing the role as Philip Marlowe a private investigator who is a rough and tough guy who has a very warm heart for all kinds of women.
This landmark film is arguably the quintessential film noir.Los Angeles is the setting for this fantastic tale of stolen jade, marital misconduct, a search for a lost love and of course....murder!Raymond Chandler's world weary Private Eye Philip Marlowe was first brought to the screen in this adaptation of his novel "Farwell, My Lovely".
Not quite up to the level of the `The Big Sleep', another Raymond Chandler story featuring the character of detective Philip Marlowe that was released as a movie at approximately the same time, `Murder My Sweet' is, nonetheless, a very creditable example of the 1940s film noir genre.
Although Dick Powell is no substitute for Humphrey Bogart, who played the same character in `The Big Sleep', he does a good job of portraying the Chandler's gritty Los Angeles private detective.
Philip Marlowe might now always be associated with Humphrey Bogart but this first adaptation of Farewell my Lovely, directed by Edward Dmytryk and a suitably film noir lighting by Harry J Wild who created a dangerous shadowy world.Dick Powell plays the hard boiled tough talking private eye Philip Marlowe hired by a recently released ex-convict Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend Velma.
A film adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel "Farwell, My Lovely", "Murder, My Sweet" is a great example of noir, with dramatic lighting, many night scenes, and a number of tough characters.
A few years after this role, Ms. Trevor will win an Oscar for her work in "Key Largo" in a very different role.Chandler's Marlowe is quick with the wisecracks and the similes ("She had a face like a Sunday school picnic.") I leave it up to the viewer to decide if Powell fully embodies the tough guy, but I think he does surprisingly well.
The design of the drug trip/withdrawal scene in the clinic had to be believable for it to work and it is certainly a striking feature, but my most memorable single image in the film would be the perfect match cut when Marlowe holds Marriott's driving licence in his hand and then it cuts to the same card in the hands of a detective.And before I forget, Mike Mazurki was simply awesome in his role as the soft-hearted toughie Moose Malloy.
Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is a private investigator who, at the start of the film, is hired by the hulking Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to track down his old girlfriend who he has lost touch with during his stint in jail.
I could just about keep up with this one, but I'm still lost on The Big Sleep, although it doesn't ruin what I believe is one of the best of the film noirs.Dick Powell, most recognisable from musicals and comedies such as the Gold Diggers films and 42nd Street, seems an odd choice to play the deadbeat Marlowe.
The hard-boiled writings of Raymond Chandler helped to define the film-noir movement during the 1940s, particularly the novels that featured unsentimental private-eye Philip Marlowe.
In fact, in order to prevent American audiences from expecting a romantic wartime musical, the film's title was changed from "Farewell My Lovely," the name of Chandler's source novel.Dick Powell may not be Humphrey Bogart, but he brings a wonderful comic swagger to the role of Marlowe.
Good looking film version of Raymond Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely", with Dick Powell taking a great career turn as private detective Philip Marlow.
******* Murder, My Sweet (12/9/44) Edward Dmytryk ~ Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger.
Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is hired by big, violent ex-con Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to track down a woman he loved before being sent to prison.
Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet, adapted from Raymond Chandler's classic Farwell, My Lovely, is clear from the first viewing that anyone with a remote interest in the style and approach of the "film noir" should see it, particularly if one has a fondness for the couple of dozen private-eye films made from the era.
And when the film gets relatively dramatic, he finds the right pitches and reactions with the story (it's one of the more amusing aspects in all of film-noir with his chemistry not with the women, but with the actor playing Moose Malloy).Mystery stories may come and go with time, but the work of Chandler outlasts many stories without a grounded sense of humor, believable and likely characters, and twists to keep people on their seats.
It has all of the elements of the genre; dark shadows, night scenes, plenty of cigarette smoke, mist, crisp black and white photography together with murder and mystery.Private eye Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is approached one night by the aptly named Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) who has just been released from prison and wants Marlowe to find his former girlfriend Velma.
This film from 1944 was released as "Farewell, My Lovely" in the United Kingdom, but in America it is known as "Murder, My Sweet", apparently because Dick Powell had previously been better known as the star of light-hearted musicals and the studio wanted to ensure that audiences knew they would be seeing a crime drama, not a comedy.
Edward Dmytryk directed this first adaptation of author Raymond Chandler's classic private detective character Philip Marlowe(soon to be made even more famous by Humphrey Bogart in the Howard Hawks directed "The Big Sleep").
At the heart of the story is an expensive jade necklace that's missing.Based on the Raymond Chandler novel "Farewell, My Lovely", this film is like many 1940's detective stories, in that the plot is confusing, convoluted, and hard to follow.
Both actors, in their own ways, portray what a 1940's private detective might be like."Murder, My Sweet" will appeal to fans of Dick Powell and to fans of noir detective films of that era.
Starting the title with Murder emphasised that this wasn't a musical...Producer Val Lewton forever struggling with low budgets resorted to lighting and sound as cheap and effective ways to advance the plot line - used to good effect in a number of noirs...Writer Raymond Chandler saw Philip Marlowe as a Bogart type tough guy.
Adaptation of Raymond Chandler's enduring mystery novel "Farewell, My Lovely" (filmed previously, so to speak, as "The Falcon Takes Over" in 1942) is mostly a set-bound noir, with Dick Powell looking a tad fit and clean as "grubby" Los Angeles detective Philip Marlowe tying in the disappearance of some jewels to a missing lounge singer.
What did audiences think when Dick Powell was cast as Philip Marlowe in this great film?
Dick Powell is seen as the famous detective Philip Marlowe, a character created by Raymond Chandler.In this movie he's hired by the big man Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to find his old girlfriend Velma he lost track of while doing time in prison.That's not an easy task, Marlowe soon notices.Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet (1944) is a Film-Noir treat.Dick Powell does very good job in the lead.Some people may say he's no Bogie but the truth is he's not.He gives his own kind of portrayal of the character and it works.The femme fatale Mrs.Helen Grayle is played by Claire Trevor and she's wonderful.And so is Anne Shirley, in her last performance before her early retirement.She does the role of Ann Grayle.Her father is played by Miles Mander.Otto Kruger plays Jules Amthor.The movie looks good from the beginning till the end.It's great how they blacken the screen when our protagonist goes senseless.Murder, My Sweet is another great Marlowe mystery..
The screenplay by John Paxton is particularly effective because it succeeds in bringing a level of clarity to the story's rather complicated plot at the same time as accurately capturing the style of hardboiled dialogue which is such a strong feature of Chandler's work.Dick Powell who plays the part of private detective Philip Marlowe, had previously been known for his roles in comedies and musicals and so "Murder, My Sweet" represented a new departure for him.
Basically private eye Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell, famous in musicals) is hired by recently released petty crook Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to find Velma Valento, his former girlfriend not seen for six years.
Powell makes just as good presence as Bogart did playing the role of Philip Marlowe, I may not have caught up with everything going on, but it is a good black and white classic film noir.
The story is told in flashbacks and revolves around detective Philip Marlowe (played by Dick Powell), who, of course, is the iconic creation of Raymond Chandler.
But two out of three ain't bad, especially since the murderer's identity in "The Big Sleep" was entirely bypassed by the time that film ended; even Raymond Chandler didn't know who did it, and he wrote the book.Here's a thought - how great would it have been if Mike Mazurki, Claire Trevor, Otto Kruger, Anne Shirley, heck, even Dick Powell were still around to do "Sin City"?