Evening star., 1945-03-16
Murder, My Sweet a Thrill
By PATRICIA sIMMONs,

Homicide at Keith's, this week,
saccharine coated with Claire Tre-
vor and Ann Shirley, lends itself
to Murder, My Sweet" in an ex-
citing and entirely new sort of We
hicle for Dick Powell Making use
of the fash-back method, Powell
himself narrates the story in an
almost conversational tone, rarely
breaking into the continuity of
the picture excepting for occa-
sional interpretations in an almost
alarming matter-of-fact way.
1t has the desired effect 1t un-
nerves you in subtle way You
get the urge to grab the cocksure
private detective by the back of the
collar and say, Look here, fellow
this may be lark for you. The
murders been committed, and as
far as you're concerned it's all
over but the telling. It's different
with us, SO watch out for these
nasty people" BY ignoring in die
ton the sinister approach to the
business of murder, Powell makes it
all the more ominous.
Not just because he's the tie-in
for all the threads that knit the
story together, but because he does
such a convincing job Of making
blackmail and murder a comph-
Gated, exciting and realistic bust
ness does Powell walk off with the
dramas honors. The fact might
have something to do with it that
we remember Dick Powell. wearing
his hat at the same back-tilt angle
and smiling in this identical wise
guy smile and getting such different
results. The new Powell allows
getting the girl to become second
ary to a taste Of high-powered
drama and, we might add, we like it.
If any one besides Dick Powell
worked overtime on Murder, My
Sweet" it was Mr.. Powell's script
writer's. To them goes credit for
injecting the sort of humor a cool,
calm, cash-on-the-line detective
would need to tangle with two
women, a fairly unscrupulous assort-
ment of crooks and emerge in a
state that, at least, enabled him to
pocket his fee. One could hardly
employ the term "unscathed" since
Mr.. Powell during the course of the
picture gets himself blackjacked
twice, shot once and strangled
mot fatally, of course) at quite
frequent intervals. Various char
acters are responsible for the above
treatment.
AS you might expect, the story is
sufficiently complicated to keep you
guessing and piecing clues right up
to the very end, at which time all
the principals suddenly appear for
a sort Of Thin Man grand finale.
We won't spoil anything by warn
ing you ahead of time that most of
the violence is motivated by beauti-
full Claire Trevor. The lady seems
to have no scruples whatever. She
marries man for his money, breaks
his heart and gives him plenty Of
reason to murder half a dozen men
She owns priceless jade necklace
which gets her into more trouble, as
if there weren't enough already.
She'll stop at nothing, including
Dick Powell, to get what she wants
Along Photographic lines the pic
ture is particularly interesting, and
We don't mean Miss Trevor's ward
robe. It's the pictorial sensation of
being blackjacked in one case and
then subjected to drug which robs
one of consciousness. The surrealis-
tic approach becomes a kind of
Photographic expedition into the
land of Salvatore Dali. You see
and feel everything that Mr.. Powell
is supposed to, and the sensation is
upsetting to say the least. OF