Murder, My Sweet - 1944

Murder, My Sweet - Released Dec 9, 1944. Directed by Edward Dmytryk

Girl: "You're being sidetracked"

Marlowe: "What do you mean sidetracked?"

Girl: "You'll find out"

The Maltese Falcon may have set up the standard for the tough-guy investigator out on a limb, and Murder, My Sweet takes the genre into similar waters, but without the bullet-proof Bogart attitude to shield the protagonist. Dick Powell's version of Philip Marlowe has the cagey private investigator pushed around, beaten-up, drugged (with heroin) and generally played with by everyone because no one can keep their story straight about the missing person of Velma, ex-con Moose Malloy's ex-girlfriend (she probably never was his 'girlfriend,' but he thick-headedly is convinced she was) and Marlowe is hired to find her.

Why is everyone dodging Marlowe's questions and making up soon-to-be-penetrated lies? Raymond Chandler's book hits the screen with veteran screen-crooner Powell playing Marlowe as a mostly-average guy with a special knack for untying knots, though he has to first get it wrong several times.

Guy: "I don't think you even know which side you're on."

Marlowe: "I don't know which side anybody's on."

There is a high definition Bluray relase at Amazon - Murder, My Sweet - Blu-ray

See also Dick Powell's other noir masterpiece, Cry Danger - 1951

Original page May 2016 - Updated April 2018

What's Recent

• Beauty and the Beast - 1946
• Barricade - 1950
• The Disembodied - 1957
• The Frisco Kid - 1935
• The Twonky - 1953
• Meet John Doe - 1941
• Day of Anger - 1967
• Central Park - 1932 - Joan Blondell has trouble on her hands when she gets suckered into helping a gangster to rob a charity event. Though this film stars Joan and Wallace Ford, it also features the American Great Depression which is the background for the hunger and desperation that flavors the film.

Amazon: Harlow in Hollywood: The Blonde Bombshell in the Glamour Capital, 1928-1937