Murder, My Sweet
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Movie Reviews of Murder, My Sweet
Movie Review: 'MY ATTITUDE DOESN'T SEEM TO IMPROVE'
Summary: 5 Stars
When Dick Powell made this movie his acting career astonishingly was at a very low ebb, but this movie helped revitalize the old song and dance man into a transformed 'noir' actor. He had a lot of help in this movie not only from an excellent script but also from some excellent actors. One of my favorites has always been Claire Trevor, and if she had not been identified, don't know that I would have ever recognized her as this dazzling, coniving blonde of the jade necklace.
Powell is given some very good, wise cracking lines, but underneath he is a teddy bear and that comes through at times, especially with Anne Shirley. One client says he doesn't care for Marlowe's (Powell's role) attitude, with Marlowe replying that he has had complaints about that before, but the attitude doesn't seem to improve. Along the way, and it is a confused way for much of the movie, Marlowe accuses or suspects nearly everyone in the cast, with the police always eyeing Marlowe as a possible suspect. Ring around the rosey, only death intervenes from time-to-time in this game. Everyone seems to have something to hide or some angle they are playing with Marlowe picking up easy money. As he says, some people are paying him to stay with the investigation, while others are paying him to drop the investigation. As many times as he is sapped and knocked out, one would think he would welcome grabbing the money and letting the thing solve itself. But as he says, ethics are involved, his mainly since he was originally hired to body guard a client, with that client turning up dead on Marlowe's watch. It's just another aspect of being a teddy bear underneath it all.
Rich good looking women, sleezy con men and thugs, a stolen jade necklace worth a cool hundred thousand never stolen, and plenty of guns leads to a full fledged Raymond Chandler group of writings brought to the Hollywood screen by RKO. When looking at 'noir' films it just doesn't get much better than this film.
If you haven't seen it you have missed a very good effort in both acting and writing.
Semper Fi.
Movie Review: Worthy Powell driven film noir
Summary: 5 Stars
Edward Dmytryk adoitly directed "Murder My Sweet", a smooth, slick and highly convoluted film noir yarn based on the Raymond Chandler novel Farewell My Lovely. The film starred hard boiled cynical private investigator Philip Marlowe played effortlessly by Dick Powell, who was making the transition from movie musicals which had been his forte.
Perfectly cast dim witted brute Mike Mazurki playing Moose Malloy looks up Powell to hire him to find his girlfriend Velma whom he left behind 8 years ago due to a prison stretch. Soon thereafter another client, Lindsay Marriott played by Douglas Walton, enters Powell's office to convince him to ride shotgun with him that evening while he meets someone in the canyons surrounding L.A. to retrieve some stolen jewelry
The exchange goes sour with Walton getting killed and Powell rendered unconscious due to a bludgeoning with a black jack. Powell commences his own investigation and gets another visit in his office by an Ann Grayle played by Ann Shirley, daughter of an aged wealthy socialite, Mr Grayle played by bookwormish Miles Mander. She invites him to her father's palatial estate where Powell learns that Walton had been trying to retrieve an expensive jade necklace for Mander's young attractive blonde philandering wife Helen played by Claire Trevor, his alleged lover.
Pretty soon Powell learns that charlatan psychologist Jules Amthor played by Otto Kruger, an expert extortionist, also has designs on the jade necklace. Powell begins to connect the pieces to the puzzle when he is abducted by Kruger's lackeys including Mazurki, who Kruger has duped, and kept in a drug induced state.
Powell escapes and is guided through the morass of controversy to make connections among the major players, by Ann Shirley while her lascivious mother in law Trevor tries to seduce him for her own evil reasons. With the police suspecting him and watching his every move Powell deftly navigates his way through the ruckus to finally get to the bottom of all the hijinks.
Movie Review: "Was it murder or something serious?"
Summary: 5 Stars
Murder, My Sweet is based on the book Farewell My Lovely. The title was changed so that Dick Powell fans would not expect to see him in another musical and become disappointed by his hard boiled character. This film helped to change Powell's career and steered him toward gritty film noir and away from the peppy musicals he had grown tired of and too old for.
This was a great film for Powell to transition to. His character Phillip Marlowe is like a character from a Bogart film and typical of film noir. Marlowe is a detective but one who is up for bribery and accepting of crime when it benefits him. When several people come to him for help, one man looking for his long lost dance hall love and one to recover a stolen jade necklace, he finds himself entangled in a web of lies and danger. The story is spellbinding and filled with all sorts of twists and turns complete with a great ending.
Powell is wonderful in his role. The character is raw and realistic, a major change for Powell. He speaks his lines with conviction and heart. His personality is confident bordering on arrogance, an attribute that makes him terribly sexy. Even though the character is as selfish as can be, it is difficult not to like him and care deeply about what happens to him.
In addition to this wonderful film is a commentary by Alain Silver, an author of seven film noir books. He compares the novel to the film, explains some of the ambiguous parts of the film, and discusses the actors on the screen. Also included is the unrestored theatrical trailer for the film.
Movie Review: "Hold onto your chair and don't step on no snakes."
Summary: 5 Stars
According to Wikipedia this film is considered to be one of the best Chandler adaptations to film as well as one of the "pre-eminent films noirs". Filmed in highly-contrasted black-and-white, Murder, My Sweet has the hallmark noir look with many shadows on screen as well as lots of threatening cage-like shapes surrounding the hero's path.
Murder, My Sweet gets started with a bang when Phillip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is being interrogated by the police as a suspect for several murders. When the lead detective asks him if he wants to make a statement he replies in typical wise-cracking fashion, "Boys tell me I did a couple of murders. Anything in it?" He then proceeds to tell the story of what happened to him, which is filmed as a long flashback with occasional voice-over comments from Marlowe. Marlowe, as usual, is sucked into a violent criminal plot by a glamorous woman who uses him and then leaves him to take the rap.
Chandler wrote the screenplay and has a fabulous way with words. His creation, Phillip Marlowe, is a sardonic detective who gets beat up a lot and is somewhat morally ambiguous. He doesn't always know exactly what is going on but he is able to follow his instincts until he unravels at least part of the convoluted crime he has been engaged to solve. Ann Shirley is the love interest and Claire Trevor plays the femme fatale. Highly recommended!
Movie Review: CLASSIC NOIR STARRING CLAIRE TREVOR!
Summary: 5 Stars
RKO Radio Pictures acquired the film rights to Raymond Chandlers' novel "Farewell,My Lovely",and orginally turned it into a "Falcon" film("The Falcon takes Over"),but producer Adrian Scott (latter backlisted) teamed with director Edward Dmytryk(also backlisted) and screenwiter John Paxton to turn Chandlers' Phillip Marlowe novel into the noir classic,"Murder,My Sweet".RKO changed the title because star Dick Powell,who started out as a song and dance man and the original title sounded like it might be another musical.With "Murdered" Powell,as PI Marlowe,sure did change his image!But,to me the stunningly beautiful (and noir stalwart) Claire Trevor steals the film,as the femme fatale,"Mrs.Grayle".RKO produced many great noirs,"Out of the Past","Crossfire",and "The Big Steal",during that genres' classic period(1940-1957?)But this is among the best.Anne Shirley,Otto Kruger,Don Douglas,Esther Howard(great!),and Mike Mazurki,"looking for this girl, Velma ",lend support.The DVD transfer is good and the commetary by Alain Silver is fine,but I wish he would he would have spent more time on the political/legal problems suffered by Scott and Dmytryk.Otherwise a freat movie and DVD.