Murder, My Sweet (1944)

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Directed by Edward Dmytryk.

Starring Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Anne Shirley, Claire Trevor, Dick Powell.

One-time movie crooner Dick Powell literally turned his career around in the 1944 film noir Murder My Sweet. Powell stars as Phillip Marlowe, the hard-boiled private detective antihero created by novelist Raymond Chandler. Hired by hulking, psychotic Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to locate Moose's old girl friend, Marlowe is pitched headlong into a morass of intrigue and deception. The participants include duplicitous glamour-girl Claire Trevor, sodden slattern Esther Howard, suave blackmailer Otto Kruger and dyspeptic doctor Ralf Harolde. At one point, Marlowe is railroaded into a lunatic asylum, where under the influence of drugs he experiences a surrealistic nightmare the like of which would not be seen on screen again until Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). So fascinating are the "bad" characters in Murder My Sweet that the two 100% "good" characters, heroine Anne Shirley and detective Don Douglas, seem wishy-washy wimps by comparison. After years of insipid golly-gee roles, Dick Powell startled his fans with his cynical, world-weary portrayal of Philip Marlowe. The part put him back on top of the box-office tallies and enabled him to extend his acting career into the 1950s, which led to an even more lucrative "third life" as a powerful TV-studio executive. Murder My Sweet was based on Chandler's Farewell My Lovely, previously filmed in 1942 as The Falcon Takes Over; a remake, also titled Murder My Sweet, was produced in 1975, with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Re:Double features
by Macabre_FilmNut in B Movies

hasn't rated it.

"[quote user="leeroy711"] [quote user="SkyPilot"] [quote user="leeroy711"] Yeah, I still had a good time. Watching bad movies with friends is often more fun than watching good movies. [/quote] I agree completely, man. I think you're hitting on what made me say B movies are perfect movies to "misbehave" to. They're wonderful social movies, and because the movie itself often misbehaves (i.e. Martin Lawrence lying next to a naked corpse in Bad Boys 2), that's like a hammer on my kneecap, and I kick back! On the other hand, regarding good movies: have you guys seen Murder, My Sweet? Every line of dialogue is so choice I wouldn't want to miss any of it! My friends might say some really funny stuff about it, but I'd still prefer it if they shut the *f* up while the movie's playing. [/quote] Tru dat, I tend to try to watch the movies that I'm most interested in seeing by myself. I can understand why most of the public wouldn't appreciate a film like Spirit of the Beehive or The Hole. Where ... " [More]

FilmCouch #68 - Paranoia
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"New developments in the case of an artist arrested for bioterrorism (from the doc Strange Culture), lead us into a web of noir (Murder, My Sweet) and an unexpected look at No Country for Old Men. All of which reveal the sinister culture of PARANOIA! (Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday) FilmCouch #68 - Paranoia Strange Culture, Murder, My Sweet, No Country for Old Men Originally posted on:SpoutBlog " [More]

FilmCouch #68 - Paranoia
by paul in paul on spout.com

loved it.

Re:Double features
by leeroy711 in B Movies

hasn't rated it.

"[quote user="SkyPilot"] [quote user="leeroy711"] Yeah, I still had a good time. Watching bad movies with friends is often more fun than watching good movies. [/quote] I agree completely, man. I think you're hitting on what made me say B movies are perfect movies to "misbehave" to. They're wonderful social movies, and because the movie itself often misbehaves (i.e. Martin Lawrence lying next to a naked corpse in Bad Boys 2), that's like a hammer on my kneecap, and I kick back! On the other hand, regarding good movies: have you guys seen Murder, My Sweet? Every line of dialogue is so choice I wouldn't want to miss any of it! My friends might say some really funny stuff about it, but I'd still prefer it if they shut the *f* up while the movie's playing. [/quote] Tru dat, I tend to try to watch the movies that I'm most interested in seeing by myself. I can understand why most of the public wouldn't appreciate a film like Spirit of the Beehive or The Hole. Where as, I couldn't imagine s ... " [More]

Re:Double features
by SkyPilot in B Movies

loved it.

"[quote user="leeroy711"] Yeah, I still had a good time. Watching bad movies with friends is often more fun than watching good movies. [/quote] I agree completely, man. I think you're hitting on what made me say B movies are perfect movies to "misbehave" to. They're wonderful social movies, and because the movie itself often misbehaves (i.e. Martin Lawrence lying next to a naked corpse in Bad Boys 2), that's like a hammer on my kneecap, and I kick back! On the other hand, regarding good movies: have you guys seen Murder, My Sweet? Every line of dialogue is so choice I wouldn't want to miss any of it! My friends might say some really funny stuff about it, but I'd still prefer it if they shut the *f* up while the movie's playing. " [More]

Re: What's your favorite noir?
by Risselada in Noir

loved it.

"Murder, My Sweet is one of my favorite movies and this quote is one of the best around! I love those scenes where he's drugged up and they use that weird spiderweb effect. Maybe another actress would have played it more effectively, but I don't know about you, but I sure am attracted to Anne Shirley! And I'm really glad she's in this movie. " [More]

Murder, My Sweet
by jklugman in jklugman Blog

lost interest.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"I have to confess that I approached this film somewhat predisposed to not liking it. First, I was introduced to the 1975 version of Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely when I was a teenager, and I loved it for the performances by Mitchum, Rampling, Harry Dean Stanton, John Ireland, and Jack O'Halloran. Second, to some extent I bear Dmytryk some antipathy for naming names at the HUAC hearings.It turned that the first bias really colored my feelings about the film. Frankly, most of the performances are pretty forgettable. Dick Powell is one of the weakest Marlowes ever. Chandler's Marlow is a 38-year old man who makes a living in corrupt Los Angeles as a virtuous and jaded private detective whose understanding of human nature allows him to penetrate the most byzantine of plots hatched by powerful men and alluring femme fatales. Rather, Powell's Marlowe is a grinning idiot and a smug asshole who couldn't survive Chandler's Los Angeles for one da ... " [More]

Murder, My Sweet
by JimBell in JimBell Blog

loved it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"Murder, My Sweet (1944) is an excellent movie and, for fans of film noir, a must see. Private investigator Phillip Marlowe (Dick Powell) takes two cases which merge into one complex of intrigue. In the first, he tries to help huge Moose Malloy find the girl friend he had when he was put away 8 years previous. In the second and more convoluted case, he starts by accompanying a new client to a rendezvous where Marlow is knocked unconscious and the client murdered. Esteemed critics, such as Borde and Chaumeton, have pointed out that the plot is too complicated to follow. In a mystery, this should be the kiss of death, but in Murder, My Sweet it doesn’t matter much. One of the most important questions to ask about the movie is Why? The film, as was Raymond Chandler’s novel, is told from the first-person perspective. Phillip Marlowe is in over his head, and, therefore, so are we. He undertakes both cases without any idea what he is getting himself in for, and we go along fo ... " [More]

Move Over, Bogie
by SkyPilot in SkyPilot Blog

loved it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"In 1944 Dick Powell was well known as a squeaky-clean crooner, appearing in movie musicals such as Happy Go Lucky, Riding High, and Star-Spangled Rhythm. By then Powell was in his early forties and wanted to try some meatier, more dramatic roles. He got his opportunity when he signed to the nearly bankrupt RKO Pictures, who promptly filmed and released Farewell, My Lovely. Powell’s waning fan base came expecting another light musical comedy; what they got was one of the greatest film noirs ever made. Once RKO figured out they’d shot themselves in the foot with the title, they changed it to Murder, My Sweet, and soon enough the studio had a very deserving hit on their hands. One of Raymond Chandler’s best novels provided the raw material for John Paxton’s smartly written screenplay. Chandler’s plots are notoriously incomprehensible; if I were asked what this film is about, I wouldn’t know what to say other than “murder, deception, ob ... " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

liked it.

Edward Dmytryk's sharp, skillfully made noir arguably captures the wit and verbal fluency of Raymond Chandler's style more faithfully than any of the other films made from his books. One of the key early noirs, it revived the career of Powell, who was by then eager to escape his choir-boy image. Through the use of voice-over narration, the film is able to retain the writer's vision of rot beneath the cheery surfaces of the City of Angels, as the sardonic detective keeps up a running commentary on the far from angelic gallery of characters. While his disdain is evenly spread, he reserves his greatest contempt for Otto Kruger's quack "psychic advisor," a precursor to New Age con artists of more modern vintage. Hired by a Frankenstein-like ex-con to find his old girl friend, Powell's Marlowe seems to either get cold-cocked or drugged in every other scene, a state of affairs he comes to regard with bemused detachment. A sequence in which Marlowe has been fed some malign psychoactive substance now seems especially funny due to the now less-than-frightening special effects. Unlike most noirs, in which the protagonist is overwhelmed by a nightmarish sense of disorientation, Chandler's detective has the wit of the only sane man in a world gone mad. Powell is perfect as the snarky, semi-tough hero, and Claire Trevor makes a slyly elusive femme fatale. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

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