MissSimonetta Murder My Sweet (1944) may not be the best or hardest-hitting film noir, but it is certainly dripping with classic noir imagery and tropes. It has everything the modern public associates with the genre/style/whatever you think it is: a snarky and cynical private eye, a duplicitous femme fatale, lost loves, claustrophobic sets drenched in shadows, voice-over narration, bizarre villains, the works.Chandler's Marlowe stories are more about atmosphere and the main character than delivering a great plot. Murder My Sweet does well on both counts. The atmosphere is charged with malevolence, making Bay City and LA look like urban hellscapes populated by criminals and corruption. The chiaroscuro lighting dominates every scene, lending the movie a nightmarish quality that culminates in a bizarre drug-induced hallucination sequence. And then there's Dick Powell as Marlowe. Though Bogart, Montgomery, and Mitchum did well with the part, Dick Powell is the best Philip Marlowe. He's cynical, yet strangely chivalrous. He's hardboiled, yet occasionally vulnerable. He's fantastic and I wish he'd been able to play the role in other movies.The ending is a bit too optimistic for my tastes, as the gloom and dread which pervaded it are so strong, but for its style and Powell alone, I consider this film one of the great classics of noir.

elvircorhodzic MURDER, MY SWEET is one chaotic crime movie. Frankly, it's not so bad, but I can not resist the impression that from the start something is amiss. The film can be viewed as a drunken flashback. This is the story of a private detective who is no different from his clients. Clients are bizarre and depraved characters, each involved in the murder, or better yet .... a series of murders. The most interesting thing is to watch the characters who do not know what they want. The solution to the mystery was visible from the start, only a series of complications that act has been postponed. Romance is unreal superficial and likely fictional.Cynical sarcastic dialogues and narration are laudable.Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe, character that is just fine. Powell modeled on Bogart was cool and somewhat reserved. The narrative pretty good. The acting is solid. I think that the transition from comedy and musicals visible. Claire Trevor as Helen Grayle/Velma Valento It's a femme fatale and lost girl with dubious past. In this relation, Trevor is not good bearings. Although I think it is not particularly blame. Simply, does not correspond to her role. Charming entertainer from the image becomes evil and gorgeous blonde who is trying to silence those who know something about her. Anne Shirley as Ann Grayle is innocent, which is freely positioned between two fires. All the supporting roles are quite strange and despite that ... good.Murder, my sweet is a solid crime game.

secondtake Murder, My Sweet (1944)One of the classic film noirs. And with all the trademarks of style, story, and character. On top of that, it's really good! I can watch any low grade bad film noir and like it, but this one is for everyone. Fast, crazy, dramatic, beautiful. And with such sparkling "noir" dialog you want to see it twice. In a row.The premise here is that a jade necklace has gone missing and a man hires detective Philip Marlowe to be bodyguard when he goes to buy it back. Things go wrong, but lucky for Marlowe he is now on the inside of a duplicitous bunch of thugs, many of them part of one family. It gets confusing if you don't listen closely and don't get the noir slang, but you realize you don't totally need to follow every nuance of the plot. It's also largely about style, about how this is all told and played out for the cameras.There are a handful of formative early film noirs going back to "The Maltese Falcon" which has some echoes to this one. Most are based on detective stories like this one by Raymond Chandler. Like most mystery or detective fiction, there is a formula at work, a huge dependency on one main character and his point of view, and a slightly contrived plot without deep emotional stakes. Later noirs can get more personal and involving emotionally (like "Out of the Past" or even the 1945 "Mildred Pierce") but the point of view of the protagonist is still important because it's from a lonely position as the world swirls around. The detective was a perfect starting point for this genre--detectives work alone, after all, and see things the rest of us never dream of.So Marlowe gets taken for quite a ride. Dick Powell is terrific in the role. He's no Bogart or Mitchum, and he's no looker (no Dana Andrews). And so he becomes a really regular guy, someone you can relate to. He's tough and savvy and he has a great sense of humor in his interior monologues (another feature of noirs, used heavily here). And when he's abused you feel less like it's a Hollywood star up there but just a character. It works well.There are some really inventive visual things happening. The first happens several times, with black inky pools taking over the screen when he gets knocked out. But there are other distortions, and a fabulous (if technically simple) hallucination sequence that surely had some small influence on Hitchcock in making "Vertigo." When you finally get to the end of this whole up and down adventure you've been a lot of places quickly. It's quite a movie.Don't expect normal realism. The movie is stylized and made to be illustrative, even as it gets gritty and real. The whole situation is a bit improbable, but forget likelihood. Go for the ride yourself. Get into the dialog (which is as classic as it gets). And watch it. Or watch it twice.Oh, and if you want a treat, check out the weird and actually terrific remake, hard to find on DVD, with Robert Mitchum in rich "noir" color called "Farewell, My Lovely." With Charlotte Rampling, no less.

Dave from Ottawa Everybody lied. The first time private eye Philip Marlowe encountered somebody, good or bad, he/she was always lying. The only differences were whether the liars were protecting themselves or other people. Marlowe had the full time job of disentangling the deceptions, and finding the truth behind and within all the scheming."She was a charming middle aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink."Screenwriter John Paxton retention of Chandler's deathless first person prose in a series of voice-overs is only one of the things this movie does right to capture the authentic feel of the hard boiled crime novel. The novel itself is complex, almost too complex, but Paxton did a fine job of stripping down the story to a 99 min. running time without actually dumbing anything down. The characters remain tricky in their schemes and manipulative in their approach to each other. When everything comes revealed, the viewer is not left musing over loose plot threads.The dark shadowy world of its private eye hero is visualized nicely: visible (single) source lighting, night sequences, pools of light under street lamps, people turning switches on and off. Light becomes this awkward enemy force, as if humans are allergic to it, like cockroaches. This is the essence of film noir, and cinematographer Harry J. Wild did imaginative, professional work here. In camera effects, designed to bring out less pleasant aspects of Marlowe's world - getting sapped, beaten, drugged etc. - only serve to enhance the appeal of this.This is the sort of movie that was done well at one time, but is something of a lost art. It's a great way to spend an afternoon, kicking it old school. Enjoy.