Murder, My Sweet

One of the better ventures on the darker side of film noir with Raymond Chandler's PI Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) enmeshed in a complicated search for a jade necklace. He's hired by a thick brute named Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to find former night club singer Velma Valenti. After numerous attempts to throw him off the scent, he tracks her down. She's now Mrs.Grayle (Claire Trevor), married to a much older man with a grown daughter (Anne Shirley) who despises her. The jade necklace comes into play and so does Mrs.Grayle. Marlowe enters a weird plot that eventually finds him drugged and held prisoner before he fights his way back with the help of Shirley. "Murder My Sweet" is good and salty film noir with hard bitten performances, brittle dialogue, thugs, mystery and a sexy femme fatale in Mrs. Grayle. When Marlowe first meets her, she's wearing a revealing white dress that allows her entire leg to be casually exposed when she sits down. Very sexy for the 40's. Excellent b&w photography with almost everything occuring at night drenches the film with heavy noir atmosphere. This is a classic film to be savored and the DVD print is great. A real collectors' treat.

Interesting choice of career change for Dick Powell. After establishing himself as the light hearted lothario of 1930s Busby Berkeley musicals at Warner Brothers, the crooner side stepped his squeaky clean, boy-next-door image entirely with a string of deep and powerful dramatic performances. In "Murder My Sweet" Powell carries off Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled detective, Philip Marlowe to perfection. Okay, he's no Bogart, whom film buffs will recall played Marlowe in "The Big Sleep." But Powell's performance is a close second, buffeted by his quick thinking, deeply cynical, smart-shooting dialect. In "Murder My Sweet" Marlowe is hired by an ex-con (Mike Mazurki) to hunt down his old flame. But the plot spins out of control when a murder leads to Marlowe's engagement by a manipulative woman (Claire Trevor), to recover her missing jewels. But a drug induced nightmare fraught in symbolism and expressionism turns Marlowe's world on end, devouring his soul beneath a seedy underbelly that permeates both high-society and the dangerous post war bars and flophouses of inner city Los Angeles. "Murder My Sweet" is one of the first great, though often overlooked, film noirs; an absolute must see.
Warner's transfer on "Murder My Sweet" is better than average. In fact it's remarkably clean. The gray scale is very well balanced with deep solid blacks and whites that are vibrant and sharp. There's some film grain but few age related artifacts for a visual presentation that is over all a considerable improvement over previously issued VHS tapes. The audio is mono but nicely balanced. The more intent listener will notice slight pops. Alain Silver delivers a very thorough audio commentary that will most surely enhance your appreciation for this film. A very good disc to add to your library of classic cinema.

This is the movie that hooked me on "Film Noir." I first saw this on the late show while suffereing a killer flu. Even through local TV editing and enough medicine to tranquilize a circus tent, it had me sitting at attention from start to finish. It wasn't until several years later that I got to see it uncut on cable that I got the full effect. Having grown up with Bogart's hard-boiled private eye archetype, Dick Powell was a complete revelation to me. If you double-bill this with Bogart's "Big Sleep," you see at once that Powell truly IS Phillip Marlowe (even Raymond Chandler thought so), and Bogart is much better suited to portray Hammet's colder, meaner Sam Spade. Powell gives Marlowe a vulnerable cynicism as well as a touch of the "everyman," that Bogart wouldn't be able to pull off until later in his career. Powell's background in romantic musicals gives him access to a far deeper emotional range, needed to play the complex and conflicted Marlowe; his cynicism, his humour, his loyalty to his code...it's all there. Powell manages to give extra resonance to some of Chandler's throw-away similes! No wonder he claimed this as his favorite role!

The direction by Edward Dmytryk and cinematography by Harry Wild are perfect, giving the film a tight, economical yet alluring vintage "feel". Working on a tight budget, they manage to infuse it with all the seedy, chaotic topography that would serve as the touchtones for every film of this type from "Night of the Hunter" to "Blade Runner." While this isn't the first Noir film, it may well be the best.