Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Directed by Edward Dmytryk. Starring Dick Powell, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Claire Trevor, Miles Mander, Douglas Walton, Don Douglas, Ralf Harolde, Esther Howard.

Frothy musical maven Powell is cast way against type as Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled private eye hero, Philip Marlowe, who finds himself tangled in a labyrinthine plot involving jade jewels, a missing woman, a psychic healer, a simple-minded brute, blinding by gun flash, and so on. That adventurous casting never works out, but it’s not just an issue with Powell; the ladies he shares the screen with fall short as well, with Shirley too soft and demure in her final film role, and Trevor about as threatening as a hangnail while trying to play a tough femme fatale. Director Dmytryk saves the picture, however, with his first real whack at film noir, driving home the cynical outlook and harshly-shadowed atmosphere with limber fortitude. The dream sequence boasts above-average use of camera tricks and surreal imagery for the era. Initially given a limited release under the title of Chandler’s original novel (“Farewell, My Lovely”); that’s also the title of the 1975 remake starring Robert Mitchum as Marlowe.

70/100