Wonderful character development!

Simply Perfect

Excellent but underrated film

best movie i've ever seen.

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.

Exciting, taut film noir detective story. One of the greats. Private eye Phillip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is hired by recently released convict Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to locate his old girlfriend Velma. If only it were that simple. Based on the Raymond Chandler novel "Farewell, My Lovely." Edward Dmytryk's direction is top-notch, as is John Paxton's script. He adapts Chandler's novel very well, keeping all the best scenes and lines. I've seen all of the film adaptations of this book and this is the best. Excellent cast including Mike Mazurki as the brutish Moose Malloy; Otto Kruger as the villainous Jules Amthor; Anne Shirley as the innocent pretty girl caught in the middle of things, and Claire Trevor as the femme fatale. Of course, Dick Powell in the lead. He was extraordinary in this. This is the role that helped convince audiences Powell was no longer just the comedy and musical guy they liked throughout the 1930s. All said, this is one of the great film noirs and great detective stories of the 1940s. Top entertainment from beginning to end.

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.

Adaptation of Raymond Chandler's enduring mystery novel "Farewell, My Lovely" (filmed previously, so to speak, as "The Falcon Takes Over" in 1942) is mostly a set-bound noir, with Dick Powell looking a tad fit and clean as "grubby" Los Angeles detective Philip Marlowe tying in the disappearance of some jewels to a missing lounge singer. Powell revitalized his career with this performance, and he's indeed quite good in the scenes where his Marlowe is drugged and being held hostage. The mixture of darkly sarcastic humor with gun-play was probably very fresh in 1944, but some of the joshing (as with the final tag outside the police station) is a little broad for a crime drama. Remade (and improved) in 1975 with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe. **1/2 from ****