Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Murder, My Sweet (AKA “Farewell, My Lovely”)
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
1944/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing
#173 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Lindsay Marriott: I’m afraid I don’t like your manner.

Philip Marlowe: Yeah, I’ve had complaints about it, but it keeps getting worse.[/box]

This fun early noir is based on the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.  The title was changed because studio executives worried that the film might be taken for a musical given Dick Powell’s starring role.

Marlowe (Dick Powell) is approached by thug Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to locate an ex-girlfriend named Velma.  Shortly thereafter, Lindsay Marriot hires Marlowe to accompany him to a remote spot to buy back a jade necklace that had been stolen from a lady friend. Marriot is murdered before the trade is made and Marlow is knocked out.  The next day, Ann Grayle (Anne Shirley) leads him to the owners of the necklace, her father Mr. Grayle and his wife Helen (Claire Trevor).  A series of twists and turns leads to the solution of both the missing-person and the murder case.

I think of this as “noir light” since it is short on the characteristic doom.  All the actors do well in their parts.  Claire Trevor makes a great femme fatal and Powell is particularly good at delivering Chandler’s sarcastic hard-boiled dialogue.  It’s hard to believe that he’s the same guy that played the tenor in all those Busby Berkeley musicals. This is just a very entertaining detective story.

Trailer