Murder, My Sweet is, along with Double Indemnity (released five months prior), one of the first films noirs, and a key influence in the development of the genre.[5]
Plot
With his eyes bandaged, private detective Philip Marlowe is interrogated by police lieutenant Randall about two murders.
The film's opening scene: Marlowe, Det. Nulty, and Lt. Randall
Marlowe tells how he was hired by ex-con Moose Malloy to locate Malloy's former girlfriend Velma Valento. They go to Florian's, the nightclub where Velma last worked as a singer, but no one remembers her. Marlowe tracks down Jessie Florian, the alcoholic widow of the nightclub's former owner, who hides a photo of Velma and says Velma is dead. Marlowe steals the photo and hears Jessie making a phone call as he leaves.
The next morning, Lindsay Marriott hires Marlowe to be his bodyguard while he acts as a go-between to pay a ransom for some stolen jewels. During the job, Marlowe is knocked unconscious from behind. When he comes to, a young woman shines a flashlight on his face, then runs away. The money is gone, and Marriott has been murdered with repeated blows from a blackjack. When Marlowe reports the murder, the police ask him if he knows a Jules Amthor, and warn him not to interfere in the case.
Ann Grayle tries to pry information out of Marlowe about the murder. She mentions that the jewels were jade, and introduces him to her weak, elderly, and wealthy father, Leuwen Grayle, and his seductive second wife, Helen. Grayle collects rare jade and was attempting to recover a stolen necklace. Jules Amthor, a psychic healer who treated both Helen and Marriott, shows up just as Marlowe is leaving. Helen retains Marlowe to try to recover the jade, but Ann tries bribing him to drop the case.
Dick Powell and Claire Trevor from the trailer
In an attempt to locate the jade, Amthor has duped Moose into thinking that Marlowe knows where Velma is. Moose attacks and subdues Marlowe, then Amthor has Marlowe taken to Dr. Sonderberg's sanatorium, where he is drugged and held for three days. Marlowe escapes and convinces Moose that Amthor tricked him, then goes to Ann.
When Marlowe learns that the police had asked Ann's father about the family beach house, which Marriott rented, Marlowe and Ann go there, where they find Helen hiding from the police. Ann leaves to tell her father where his missing wife is. Marlowe deduces that Helen hired him only to set him up for Amthor's interrogations and that Ann was trying to save him from the set-up. Helen attempts to entice Marlowe into helping her murder Amthor. Marlowe seems to go along with her plan, but finds Amthor dead already. Moose is waiting for Marlowe at his office. Marlowe shows Moose the photo of "Velma" he took from Jessie, and as he suspected, it is a fake intended to throw anyone looking for Velma off the track. In fact, Helen is Velma. Marlowe tells Moose to lie low until the next night, when he will take Moose to her.
At the beach house, Marlowe has Moose wait outside while he meets with Helen to find out what happened to the necklace, but she pulls a gun on him. Jessie Florian had tipped her that he was looking for Velma, so she faked the robbery and the ransom exchange to kill Marlowe. Helen killed Marriott while Marlowe went down into the canyon, and was about to kill Marlowe when Ann came along, worried that her jealous father might be trying to kill Marriott.
As Helen is about to shoot Marlowe, a lovesick Grayle shows up with Ann. He takes Marlowe's gun and kills Helen/Velma. Moose hears the shot and comes in, finding Velma dead. Grayle admits to shooting her, and Moose lunges for Grayle, who shoots him. Marlowe attempts to intercede as the gun goes off and his eyes are burned by the flash. Three more shots are fired.
His story concluded, the temporarily blinded private eye is told that Moose and Grayle shot each other in a struggle for Marlowe's gun. Marlowe is escorted out of the building by Detective Nulty, with Ann following them and overhearing every word. Marlowe expresses his attraction for Ann to the detective. In the back seat of a taxi cab, the bandaged Marlowe recognizes her perfume, and they kiss.
The rights to Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely were bought by RKO Radio Pictures for $2,000,[2] and the novel provided the essentials of the plot for The Falcon Takes Over, released in 1942. Another of Chandler's novels had been purchased as well, but in 1944 no studio had yet used Chandler's antiheroprivate detectivePhilip Marlowe as the protagonist of a film. RKO's studio boss, Charles Koerner, recognized the value of the character and of Chandler's style, and decided to use the rights RKO already owned to make a true adaptation of the novel.[6] He was able to convince RKO's management to make a new version of the book so soon after the previous one by pointing out that the book did not need a great deal of adapting to create a screenplay.[2]
For Murder, My Sweet Koerner assembled a creative staff who were ready to make the move up from B-movies, specifically producer Adrian Scott and director Edward Dmytryk; for Scott, the film was his first as producer. Koerner also revitalized the career of Claire Trevor – who was making Westerns in which she had fourth or fifth billing– and intended the film to be a showcase for the actress, who played a femme fatale.[6][1] At one point, the studio had considered Ann Dvorak for one of the female leads.[1]
Both Shirley and Trevor tried to convince the studio that they should both play "against type", with perennial good girl Shirley cast as the femme fatale Helen, and Trevor cast as the nice girl, Ann, but their pressure did not convince the studio.[2]
Koerner was also responsible for Dick Powell's transformation from a crooner to playing hard-boiled characters. Powell had been known in the 1930s and early 1940s for light comedies and musicals, but for ten years he had been trying to break away from that typecasting, which he felt he was too old for; he had wanted to play Fred MacMurray's part in Double Indemnity. Koerner wanted Powell under contract to RKO to do musicals, but Powell would only sign if he was allowed to do other kinds of roles,[5] so he offered Powell the opportunity he wanted. However, producer Scott and director Dmytryk were strongly opposed to casting Powell (as was Chandler) – Dmytryk later wrote "The idea of the man who had sung 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips' playing a tough private eye was beyond our imaginations."[5]– Powell had to make a screen test, as a result of which Koerner offered the actor a multi-picture contract with the studio.[6][1] After the success of the film, and considering the quality of Powell's performance, Koerner dropped the idea of casting Powell in musicals, and cast him instead as other tough guy characters and in action films.[2]
Powell's performance as Philip Marlowe is much debated by fans of Chandler and film noir; some think it too light and comic; while others consider it the best interpretation of Marlowe on film.[7] Chandler himself – who at first had objected to casting Powell – said he was very fond of it, but after seeing Marlowe played by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep, changed his allegiance to Bogart.[8]
Another actor who had to audition to get the role he played was former pro-wrestler-turned-actor Mike Mazurki. Dmytryk wanted a true actor to play the part, but was convinced by Mazurki in a studio commissary discussion to give him a chance; Powell assisted him in his efforts.[8]
The film's screenwriter, John Paxton– a former reporter and publicist whose only previous full-length feature was My Pal Wolf, a girl-and-her-dog film – closely followed Chandler's novel, as well as Chandler's advice: "When your plot hits a snag, have somebody come through the door with a gun."[6] Some aspects of Chandler's plot had to be underplayed because of the Production Code, such as Marriott's homosexuality, or the fact that Amthor and Sonderborg were providing drugs to the elites of Los Angeles. Other parts of the novel, such as a plot thread involving a fleet of gambling boats off the L.A. coast, were dropped completely, but not because of the Code: in real life mobster Anthony Cornero ran such a fleet outside the three-mile limit, and hosted many of Hollywood's movers and shakers, and there was concern about drawing unwanted attention to him. Finally, Florian's, the club Moose first brings Marlowe to in his search for Velma, was originally a club with an exclusively African-American clientele located on Central Avenue in the heart of L.A.'s black district.[8][2] Making the change meant that the scenes in the club, and with Jessie Florian, would not have to be cut when the film was distributed in Southern states.[2]
Another change made in the adaptation from the book to the film was in the character of Ann Grayle. She was originally the daughter of an honest cop, but changing her to the step-daughter of Trevor's seductress helped to show the differences between the two types of women.[2]
It was producer Scott's idea to shoot the film as an extended flashback, which kept the book's first-person narrative style.[2]
Production on Murder, My Sweet took place from May 8 to July 1, 1944.[1] Shooting on the first day was so hectic that Claire Trevor was being sewn into her dress while the first scene was being set up. A makeup person was left off of the call, so Trevor did her makeup herself. During breaks between scenes, Dick Powell would entertain the other actors with imitations of himself as a singer earlier in his film career.[2]
The film was first screened on December 18, 1944 in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the title Farewell, My Lovely, and also played in previews in New England with that title. A survey by Audience Research Inc. indicated that viewers thought that the title suggested a Dick Powell musical, so the film's name was changed, delaying its release. It opened in New York City on March 8, 1945 as Murder, My Sweet.[9][7][1][5]
Response
Critical reception
Murder, My Sweet is considered one of the better adaptations of Chandler's work. Glenn Erickson wrote, "Murder, My Sweet remains the purest version of Chandler on film, even if it all seems far too familiar now."[10]
Alison Dalzell, writing for the Edinburgh University Film Society, notes:
Of all the adaptations of Chandler novels, this film comes as close as any to matching their stylish first person narrative and has the cinematic skill and bravado of direction to carry it off. Since the '40s countless mystery and neo-noir films have been made in Hollywood and around the world. Murder, My Sweet is what they all aspire to be.[11]
According to film critics Ellen Keneshea and Carl Macek, the picture takes Chandler's novel and transforms it into a "film with a dark ambiance unknown at [the] time". Dmytryk was able to transcend the tough dialogue and mystery film conventions by creating a "cynical vision of society". As such, the film enters the world of film noir.[9]
When the film was released, Bosley Crowther, the film critic for The New York Times, appreciated the adaptation of Chandler's novel and lauded the acting and writing:
Practically all of the supporting roles are exceptionally well played, particularly by Mike Mazurki, the former wrestler, as the brutish Moose Malloy; Otto Kruger as Jules Amthor, quack-psychologist and insidious blackmailer; Anne Shirley as an innocent among the wolf pack, and Don Douglas as the police lieutenant. In short, Murder, My Sweet is pulse-quickening entertainment.[4]
The staff at Variety magazine also gave the film kudos, writing:
Murder, My Sweet, a taut thriller about a private detective enmeshed with a gang of blackmailers, is as smart as it is gripping ... Performances are on a par with the production. Dick Powell is a surprise as the hard-boiled copper. The portrayal is potent and convincing. Claire Trevor is as dramatic as the predatory femme, with Anne Shirley in sharp contrast as the soft kid caught in the crossfire.[12]
The film version of Murder, My Sweet was dramatized as an hour-long radio play on June 11, 1945, broadcast of Lux Radio Theater, with Powell and Trevor in their original film roles.[14]
Another radio adaptation, with Powell and Mike Mazurki reprising their roles, was presented on Hollywood Star Time in 1948, with Mary Astor playing Helen.[2]
The success of Murder, My Sweet inspired the creation of two radio series: 1947's short-lived Philip Marlow with Van Heflin in the lead role, and The Adventures of Philip Marlowe which played from 1948 to 1951, with Gerald Mohr as Marlowe. The latter was the most popular show on radio in 1949.[2]
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime. All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Crossfire is a 1947 American film noir drama film starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan which deals with the theme of anti-Semitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentleman's Agreement. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and the screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on the 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks. The film's supporting cast features Gloria Grahame and Sam Levene. The picture received five Oscar nominations, including Ryan for Best Supporting Actor and Gloria Grahame for Best Supporting Actress. It was the first B movie to receive a Best Picture nomination.
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The genre originated in the 1920s, notably in Black Mask magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op and Sam Spade first appeared. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep, published in 1939. Chandler's early short stories, published in pulp magazines such as Black Mask and Dime Detective, featured similar characters with names like "Carmady" and "John Dalmas", starting in 1933.
Richard Ewing Powell was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man, starring in projects of a more dramatic nature. He was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.
Edward Dmytryk was a Canadian-born American film director and editor. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Crossfire (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their investigations during the McCarthy-era Red Scare. They all served time in prison for contempt of Congress. In 1951, however, Dmytryk testified to the HUAC and named individuals, including Arnold Manoff, whose careers were then destroyed for many years, to rehabilitate his own career. First hired again by independent producer Stanley Kramer in 1952, Dmytryk is likely best known for directing The Caine Mutiny (1954), a critical and commercial success. The second-highest-grossing film of the year, it was nominated for Best Picture and several other awards at the 1955 Oscars. Dmytryk was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures.
Farewell, My Lovely is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and radio.
The Long Good-bye is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1953, his sixth novel featuring the private investigator Philip Marlowe. Some critics consider it inferior to The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, but others rank it as the best of his work. Chandler, in a letter to a friend, called the novel "my best book".
Robert Adrian Scott was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses.
Born to Kill is a 1947 RKO Pictures American film noir starring Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor and Walter Slezak with Esther Howard, Elisha Cook Jr., and Audrey Long in supporting roles. The film was director Robert Wise's first film noir production, preceding his later work on The Set-Up (1949) and The Captive City (1952).
Mike Mazurki was a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in more than 142 films. Although educated as an attorney, his hulking 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) presence, craggy face, and croaking voice had him often typecast as brainless athletes, tough guys, thugs, and gangsters. Memorable roles included Moose Malloy in Murder, My Sweet (1944), Splitface in Dick Tracy (1945), Yusuf in Sinbad the Sailor (1947), and "The Strangler" in Night and the City (1950). He was the founder and first president of the Cauliflower Alley Club.
Cornered is a 1945 American mystery thriller film noir starring Dick Powell and directed by Edward Dmytryk. This is the second teaming of Powell and Dmytryk. The screenplay was written by John Paxton with uncredited help from Ben Hecht.
The Brasher Doubloon is a 1947 American crime film noir directed by John Brahm and starring George Montgomery and Nancy Guild. It is based on the 1942 novel The High Window by Raymond Chandler.
It Happened Tomorrow is a 1944 American fantasy film directed by René Clair, starring Dick Powell, Linda Darnell and Jack Oakie, and featuring Edgar Kennedy and John Philliber. It is based on the one-act play "The Jest of Haha Laba" by Lord Dunsany.
The Long Goodbye is a 1973 American satirical neo-noir film directed by Robert Altman and written by Leigh Brackett, based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel. The film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe and features Sterling Hayden, Nina Van Pallandt, Jim Bouton, Mark Rydell, and an early, uncredited appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
John Paxton was an American screenwriter.
Farewell, My Lovely is a 1975 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Dick Richards and featuring Robert Mitchum as private detective Philip Marlowe. The picture is based on Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely (1940), which had previously been adapted for film as Murder, My Sweet in 1944. The supporting cast features Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Jack O'Halloran, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton and hardcore crime novelist Jim Thompson, in his only acting role, as Charlotte Rampling's character's elderly husband Judge Grayle. Mitchum returned to the role of Marlowe three years later in the 1978 film The Big Sleep, making him the only actor to portray the character more than once in a feature film.
Time to Kill is an American mystery film directed by Herbert I. Leeds. It is the first screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel The High Window, which was remade five years later as The Brasher Doubloon. The detective was changed from Philip Marlowe to Michael Shayne for this version, with Lloyd Nolan playing the part and Heather Angel in a rare turn as leading lady. It is also the final Michael Shayne film starring Lloyd Nolan made at Fox, who closed down their popular B movie unit which included Mr. Moto, Charlie Chan, and the Cisco Kid. In 1946 the series would be reborn at Producers Releasing Corporation with Hugh Beaumont taking over the role.
The Falcon Takes Over, is a 1942 black-and-white mystery film directed by Irving Reis. The B film was the third, following The Gay Falcon and A Date with the Falcon (1941), to star George Sanders as the character Gay Lawrence, a gentleman detective known by the sobriquet the Falcon.
Charles Koerner was an American film executive, best known for being executive vice president over production at RKO Pictures from 1942 to 1946.
"The Long Goodbye" is a 1954 American television play based on the novel of the same name by Raymond Chandler. It was the first episode of the anthology series Climax! and starred Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe. Powell had played the role previously in Murder, My Sweet.
1 2 Silver, Alain and Elizabeth Ward, eds. Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, cast and crew section of Murder, My Sweet article by Ellen Keneshea and Carl Macek, page 192, 3rd edition, 1992. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN0-87951-479-5.
↑ Erickson, Glenn. DVD Savant Review, film analysis, 2007. Last accessed: December 13, 2007.
↑ Jewell, Richard B. (2016) Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN9780520289673
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