Murder, My Sweet (1944)

One of the classic film noirs. And with all the trademarks of style, story, and character. On top of that, it's really good! I can watch any low grade bad film noir and like it, but this one is for everyone. Fast, crazy, dramatic, beautiful. And with such sparkling "noir" dialog you want to see it twice. In a row.

The premise here is that a jade necklace has gone missing and a man hires detective Philip Marlowe to be bodyguard when he goes to buy it back. Things go wrong, but lucky for Marlowe he is now on the inside of a duplicitous bunch of thugs, many of them part of one family. It gets confusing if you don't listen closely and don't get the noir slang, but you realize you don't totally need to follow every nuance of the plot. It's also largely about style, about how this is all told and played out for the cameras.

There are a handful of formative early film noirs going back to "The Maltese Falcon" which has some echoes to this one. Most are based on detective stories like this one by Raymond Chandler. Like most mystery or detective fiction, there is a formula at work, a huge dependency on one main character and his point of view, and a slightly contrived plot without deep emotional stakes. Later noirs can get more personal and involving emotionally (like "Out of the Past" or even the 1945 "Mildred Pierce") but the point of view of the protagonist is still important because it's from a lonely position as the world swirls around. The detective was a perfect starting point for this genre--detectives work alone, after all, and see things the rest of us never dream of.

So Marlowe gets taken for quite a ride. Dick Powell is terrific in the role. He's no Bogart or Mitchum, and he's no looker (no Dana Andrews). And so he becomes a really regular guy, someone you can relate to. He's tough and savvy and he has a great sense of humor in his interior monologues (another feature of noirs, used heavily here). And when he's abused you feel less like it's a Hollywood star up there but just a character. It works well.

There are some really inventive visual things happening. The first happens several times, with black inky pools taking over the screen when he gets knocked out. But there are other distortions, and a fabulous (if technically simple) hallucination sequence that surely had some small influence on Hitchcock in making "Vertigo." When you finally get to the end of this whole up and down adventure you've been a lot of places quickly. It's quite a movie.

Don't expect normal realism. The movie is stylized and made to be illustrative, even as it gets gritty and real. The whole situation is a bit improbable, but forget likelihood. Go for the ride yourself. Get into the dialog (which is as classic as it gets). And watch it. Or watch it twice.

Oh, and if you want a treat, check out the weird and actually terrific remake, hard to find on DVD, with Robert Mitchum in rich "noir" color called "Farewell, My Lovely." With Charlotte Rampling, no less.