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Murder,
My Sweet (1944) (aka Farewell, My Lovely)
In director Edward Dmytryk's film noir detective
classic - a tale of intrigue, murder, tough dialogue and corrupt
deception, with expressionistic, shadowy chiaroscuro lighting, strange
camera angles, frequent first-person, descriptive voice-over narration,
innovative set design, a convoluted time frame, and numerous flashbacks:
- the opening shot was of a blinding ceiling light
and sounds of accusatory voices, and then a pull-back camera to
the side of detective Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell), with bandaged
eyes as he was interrogated by police and then began to relate
part of his tale - in flashback
- there was the brooding appearance of a figure in
Marlowe's office window-pane (flashing city lights reflected onto
the face of brutish Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) standing behind
him in the darkness), the love-struck ex-con hired Marlowe to look
for a mysterious Velma Valento, his missing ex-lover (Velma had
sold him out 8 years earlier for unknown reasons, although he still
remembered her: "She
was cute as lace pants")
- Marlowe visited at the Grayle mansion in Brentwood
with elderly Mr. Grayle (Miles Mander) and his much younger trophy
wife and femme fatale vamp Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor), a
gold-digger (with a double identity) who was prominently showing
off her legs and ankle-strap high heels; she hired the detective
to locate a stolen $100,000 jade necklace (which she later revealed
was never actually stolen)
- there were two amusing instances when Marlowe struck
his match on a marble Cupid's back-end, and when he played hopskotch
(recalling Powell's days as a dancer) on the black/white checkered-tiled
floor of millionaire Mr. Grayle's (Miles Mander) mansion
- Lindsay Marriott (Douglas Walton),
an effeminate gigolo, asked Marlowe to accompany him as a bodyguard
late at night to a secluded canyon to pay off a ransom - to buy an
allegedly stolen jade necklace back (during the altercation, Marlowe
was knocked unconscious, and Marriott was bludgeoned to death) [Note:
Later, Helen confessed that she and Marriott had set up Marlowe to
be killed in the canyon, because he was a "nosy detective" and
would interfere with her schemes, but her intention was to kill both
Marriott and Marlowe, but her stepdaughter Ann Grayle (Anne Shirley)
had arrived at an inopportune moment, and she was only able to murder
Marriott]
- an example of Marlowe's memorable narrated dialogue:
("I
caught the blackjack behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my
feet. I dived in. It had no bottom")
- Marlowe experienced a nightmare ("a crazy, coked-up
dream")
when pursued through a series of identical doors
by a doctor with a giant hypodermic needle - there wre further scenes
of his drug-induced hallucinations
- during a final shoot-out in the Grayles' beach
house, mysterious, flirtatious Mrs. Helen Grayle/Velma Valento,
who had set up numerous individuals over the alleged theft of her
jade jewelry, was killed by her husband (who in turn killed and was
killed by Moose - who had already murdered blackmailing underworld
kingpin and aristocratic master-crook - psychic/quack therapist Jules
Amthor (Otto Kruger) by snapping his neck); Marlowe's eyes were scorched
and blinded in the process by a gun blast
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Philip Marlowe Blinded During Shoot-Out
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Shoot-Out in Beach House
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- as a witness to all the killings, Ann Grayle was
able to clear temporarily-blinded Marlowe of all charges - and
accompanied him home in the back seat of a taxi - where they shared
a kiss
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Marlowe Bandaged and Interrogated in Police Station
Moose Malloy in Marlowe's Office
Malloy and Marlowe
Femme Fatale Mrs. Helen Grayle
Marlowe's Nightmarish Hallucinations
Ann Grayle and Marlowe Kissing in Back Seat of Taxi
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