Murder, My Sweet
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Movie Reviews of Murder, My Sweet
Movie Review: Excellent Film Noir
Summary: 4 Stars
I don't usually like the Chandler-Hammet type detective movies. I've probably seen "The Maltese Falcon" 3 times and I still scratch my head. When viewing these type films it is probably best to subordinate the story to how well the characters and mood are developed. On this point "Murder My Sweet" succeeds. It's my understanding that Dick Powell prior to tackling the role of hardboiled detective Philip Marlowe he was typecast as a song and dance man. Having never seen any of Powell's musicals, I'll have to assume he succeeded in his change of pace. Claire Trevor is, as usual, excellent as the millionaire's trophy wife. Anne Shirley is sexy as the millionaire's daughter from a previous marriage. The plot at first seems a bit convoluted. But a patient viewer will watch the pieces of this puzzle come together in a satisfying conclusion. The setting is pre-war Los Angeles and the black and white photography is scintillating.
Movie Review: Top Flite Film Noir
Summary: 4 Stars
Great viewing. Dick Powell goes from crooner to hard boiled privare dick. He's much better as a private dick. Good supporting cast Mike Mazurki is perfect.Otto Kruger is evil itself. film noir at its best.Movie Review: Spot On
Summary: 4 Stars
A very good realisation of Raymond Chandler's novel. So good that it makes the Robert Mitchum version pale in comparison.Sometimes Black and white works best!.Movie Review: Noir with an endearing sense of nerdiness.
Summary: 3 Stars
As far as film noir goes, this is it. The contradiction of Raymond Chandler's gritty gumshoe Philip Marlowe comes across at the hands of Dick Powell far more easily than it did with either Bogart or Mitchum (who was in a remake of this film, years later). Powell's performance of the detective is lighter than others, and though he certainly doesn't evoke the feelings of menace that other actors do, I can't imagine anyone but him playing hopscotch with the tiles of a stately home.
Mike Mazurki's turn as Moose Malloy is fabulous - a real-life ex-wrestler turned meathead-for-hire-under-false-pretences. If you want a great strangulation, he's the man.
So why only three stars? As a film this is a beautiful work - the opening shots of a blindfolded Marlowe, appearing as if in front of a firing squad, are gorgeous. There's a lot of expertly-crafted noir stereotypical setups here. But the story seems particularly convoluted, and to not hang together too well. It's forgiveable in a book where your mind fills in the blanks, but on the screen it seems that something is lacking. It definitely helps if you've read Chandler's original before tackling this one.
One thing that could be a spoiler but isn't but sort of is: watch out for the drug scene. It's one of the most breathtakingly good:bad pieces of acting and camerawork I've seen. It's so close to genius and failure at once that its inclusion makes viewing of this film necessary.
Movie Review: The film certainly marked an astonishing transformation in its star...
Summary: 3 Stars
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... Thirty years later, the second half has a jaded look...