Murder, My Sweet
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Movie Reviews of Murder, My Sweet
Movie Review: Its About the Jade, [...]
Summary: 4 Stars
Not all of the classic detective novelist Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowes are born equal. The definitive screen role is that of Humphrey Bogart in the Big Sleep. Dick Powell, however, here keeps pretty good company with his interpretation of Marlowe as the world-weary private detective who sees things through to the end, especially when he screws up an assignment. Its professional ethics, you know. That characteristic helped define the noir detective. Here Powell adds a little off-hand humor and self-deprecation to the role as he fight for his concept of rough `justice'. But mainly he is intrepid and that carries him a long way in the role. And surprisingly, unlike in the book, he gets the 'nice' girl in the end. Who would have thought.
Apparently not all classic Raymond Chandler novels are born equal either. The film here takes bits and pieces from various shorter stories written by Chandler earlier in his career as he was defining the Marlowe model to make the plot line run here. If you want to see a truer take on the original novel Farewell, My Lovely that this film is based on then you should see the remake from the 1980's starring Robert Mitchum.
Here the story line runs more around the question of some jade lost by a wealthy woman who actions are central to a murder that occurs along the way. She, as is the order of things in noir films, is a mantrap and classic femme fatale who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. And will succeed to a point. But do not forget that Marlowe has his own sense of honor so do not cross that line. See both films and judge for yourself.
Movie Review: "You shouldn't kiss a girl when you're wearing that gun... leaves a bruise"
Summary: 4 Stars
Filled with tart one-liners and sharp performances, MURDER, MY SWEET (aka "Farewell, My Lovely") is a good example of just how sublime film noir could be with the RKO Studios. Most people tend to regard Warner Brothers as the house of choice when it came to noir, but RKO cranked out some real doozies, too.
Dick Powell forever shed his wholesome, goody-goody image when he played hard-boiled Detective Philip Marlowe. Hired to track down the ex-wife of nutty stand-over man Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki), Marlowe's trail later leads him into an altogether more puzzling case involving a priceless jade necklace, the sultry second wife of a millionaire (Claire Trevor) and her lovely stepdaughter (Anne Shirley).
MURDER, MY SWEET is a complete ride from beginning to end. Although the plot is downright convuluted and confusing, the film is compelling largely because of Powell's performance and the snappy screenplay of John Paxton (based on the original novel by Raymond Chandler).
Audiences would have forever pegged Dick Powell for his tap-happy roles in Busby Berkeley musicals like "42nd Street" had the character of Marlowe not come along and allowed a new side of his incredible acting range to shine through. He's remarkable in this movie. Likewise this film also established radiant ingenue Anne Shirley (from "Anne of Green Gables" and "Stella Dallas") in a sophisticated new light, although her career sadly ended with this film. Claire Trevor, that perennial film noir femme fatale, doesn't disappoint.
Two thumbs up from me!
Movie Review: Classic film noir style with very good substance.
Summary: 4 Stars
This review is for the 2004 Warner Brothers DVD.
The storyline of this movie is that a private detective, Phillip Marlow (Dick Powell), gets involved in the recovery of a stolen jade necklace. The job initially seems simple, but the investigation gets more convulated and dangerous as time goes on. During the job, Marlow encounters two very attractive women (Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley) who also make the movie very watchable.
Overall, its a beautifully filmed movie. It clearly has the classic film noir style, but the substance of the plot gets so complicated that at times its too hard to follow, and finally has to end by explaining a lot of the twist and turns. It's a lot more of a murder-mystery movie than an crime-action film. I still strongly recommend this movie, but if you are like me, you will probably have to watch it twice to pickup all the subtle details of the story.
The DVD quality is excellent overall, but some small specs of film deterioration could be seen once in a while during the course of the movie. It's not a perfect picture presentation, but near perfect. The only bonus features are commentary by film noir author Alan Silver and the original theater trailer.
PLEASE NOTE: Before buying this DVD, consider buying the Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 1 which contains this movie plus four other highly recommended movies at a very reasonable price.
Movie: B+
DVD Quality: A-
Movie Review: fun, classic noir
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of those splendid capers: the PI gets hired, only to find out that he has taken on something bigger than he can chew. But the whole thing is in retrospect, trying to put it together for the cops and perhaps as a permanently blind man. It starts out that he is hired by a thug, to find Velma. He then gets hired - yep, it's all related - by a dandy kind of gigolo, who leads him to a murder scene, when a series of new characters appear. What does one have to do with the other? What is going on and what is at stake? Who if anyone can he trust? These questions remain unresolved right up to the end, when it all comes clear, in a wonderful concatenation of conflicting motives, willed ignorance, greed, and image. There is also a long surrealistic episode of drug-induced hallucination and interrogation, all while Marlow is trying to figure things out. I don't want to play the spoiler, just to show how complex the tableau is, which is the fun of film noir: you keep guessing, there are many surprises, and the climax is full of action.
Interestingly, I enticed my kids to watch this because of the holo-deck games of Picard in Star Trek NG, where he likes to play in Chandler mysteries. Once they started watching it, they enjoyed it, even if it was another weird film from dad.
Recommended. This is one of the best and you can watch it over and over to mine its subtleties and clues.
Movie Review: Confusing,But Love Those Wiscracks!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is considered one of the classic film noirs ever made and some think THE film noir. In recognizing that before I had seen it, perhaps I was disappointed because I expected more. Yet, I still own this DVD and enjoy watching it about every 4-5 years. Why? Probably the cinematography and "Phillip Marlowe's" dialog.
What I found was a very confusing film, at least in the last third of the movie as everything started to be explained. It almost got ridiculous in the last 10 minutes when Dick Powell ("Marlowe") explained the whole story. He talked too fast and it was next to impossible to follow. I guess I will have to view this more often to understand it better, or find someone who can explain it for my feeble brain.
The best part of the film was the cinematography, which really comes to life on the DVD. Someone did a very nice job restoring this print for this disc. That, and the general dialog by Powell, were fascinating. You could make a short book with all the wise-guy remarks made by "Marlowe" in this film - a lot of great stuff.
I just wish they had made a simpler story and made it easier for the viewer to digest all the facts at the end.