Product Description

A collection of classic film noir.
Genre: Suspense
Rating: NR
Release Date: 6-JUL-2004
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30278 in DVD
• Brand: TREVOR,CLAIRE
• Released on: 2004-07-06
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.com
Dick Powell will forever be known as a 1930s crooner in archetypal musical comedies, but this career-changing role shows Powell at his best and remains perhaps the most faithful cinematic representation of Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled hero, Philip Marlowe, ever put on screen. In this adaptation of Farewell, My Lovely, Powell's cynical, smart-talking private eye is hired by a dim ex-con (pug-nosed Mike Mazurki) to find his girl Velma, and by the prissy stooge of a blackmail victim to babysit him during a handoff. The meeting ends with the stooge's death, and Marlowe is immediately engaged by the owner of some jewels, the wily Mrs. Grayle (Claire Trevor), to recover them. As Marlowe navigates the dark, dangerous world of wartime L.A., splitting his search between high-society haunts and the cheap, smoky bars and flophouses of the inner city, he turns up one too many stones, winds up on the wrong end of a fist, and wakes up to a drug-induced nightmare that director Edward Dmytryk delivers with a mixture of surreal symbolism and sinister expressionism. Powell delivers screenwriter John Paxton's snappy lines and droll asides with hard-boiled cynicism, like someone not quite as tough as he talks; but it's Powell's innate vulnerability that makes this reluctant saint of the city so compelling. Dmytryk's shadowy style creates a visual equivalent to the web of intrigue Marlowe navigates, an almost perpetual world of night. One of the first great films noir and an often-overlooked detective-movie classic. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Classic Noir
This one of my favorite movies. Years ago I rented a VHS of it and made a dupe at home. The quality was lousy but I liked it and played it often, but I learned my lession about making unauthorized copies. My daughter's puppy urinated all over the tape. This movie is so good it even survived that.

This is classic noir, with Phillip Marlowe. The plot is about stolen jade, hidden identities, blackmail, love, treachery and murder. The story is complicated, the casting is great, the photography and voice-over narration carry things along. It has style. The ending is satisfying. And the dialogue is some of the best ever written.

Powell broke through into serious roles with this film. Even in all the singing roles he had up to this movie he exuded cocky confidence, and that aspect of his personality is perfect here. As an aside, if you enjoy his singing movies, and I do, watch how he can smile naturally while singing; that's hard.

Claire Trevor, it seems to me, almost always played bruised roses (Stagecoach, Key Largo) or rotting orchids. You cared about her because she was one of life's losers, or you wanted to go to bed with her even knowing you might not wake up in the morning. The scene when we (and Marlowe) first meet her is just as good as the scene when MacMurray first meets Stanwyck in Double Indemnity.

Mike Mazurki as Moose Malloy is great, probably the best role he ever had. He was no actor, but he is effective and sympathetic as a slight pyscho who genuinely is in love; he's starring in his own version of Romeo and Velma.

One of the key ingredients in making this movie work is the dialogue. Quantities of it must have been lifted verbatim from Farewell, My Lovely. When Moose talks about Velma being "cute as lace panties" the imagery is vivid. Raymond Chandler, in my view, is the best author of private eye mysteries yet. If you haven't read him, dive in. Ross Macdonald and Hammett come close, but it's no three-way tie.

See the movie. Read the book.

The DVD transfer is first rate. There's a commentary by a fellow named Alain Silver which is adequate, and not essential to enjoying the film.

"You're not a detective, you're a slot machine."
Dick Powell makes a fine Philip Marlowe in this splendid film noir. The film is based on Raymond Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely," which marks the second appearance of Marlowe in print. The book was actually adapted once before for an entry in the Falcon series ("The Falcon Takes Over"), which featured George Sanders. That film, however, simply adapted the plot of "Farewell, My Lovely" for the Falcon series; hence, the character is named Gay Lawrence, not Philip Marlowe. So in effect, "Murder, My Sweet" is the first screen appearance of Philip Marlowe. In addition, "The Falcon Takes Over" is a decent but lightweight thriller - not the noir classic of "Murder, My Sweet."

The plot is typically convoluted for a film noir written by Chandler. Marlowe, a somewhat down-on-his-luck private detective, is approached by Moose Malloy, a giant of a man who has just been released from the pokey and is searching for his ex-girlfriend. He reluctantly accepts the case. However, before he can make headway, Marlowe gets a second client, the effete Lindsay Marriott who wants Marlowe to accompany him on a late night pay-off. These two cases quickly become enmeshed and lead to numerous complications and murders.

"Murder, My Sweet" is first-rate film noir in every way. Director Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny, Crossfire) was one of the best noir film makers of all time, and he uses the conventions of the genre (shadows and unusual lighting, hard-boiled dialogue) with fine subtlety. The cast is also extraordinary - lead by Powell as Marlowe. Arguably, Humphrey Bogart was a more forceful Marlowe two years later in "The Big Sleep." However, Powell is convincing as the straight-shooting but somewhat desperate detective. Furthermore, he's joined by femme fatale Claire Trevor, who is always terrific in this type of hard-bitten role. Screenwriter John Paxton adapted Chandler's novel - managing to save some of the best bits, such as Marlowe's encounter with Mrs. Florian ("She was a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud"). All of the elements really come together for one of the finest noirs ever made, and this DVD transfer is solid.

DVD extras: The original theatrical trailer and an informational, but somewhat boring commentary by Alain Silver, who is a film producer and has written several books on film noir.

Film Noir 101
This is the movie that hooked me on "Film Noir." I first saw this on the late show while suffereing a killer flu. Even through local TV editing and enough medicine to tranquilize a circus tent, it had me sitting at attention from start to finish. It wasn't until several years later that I got to see it uncut on cable that I got the full effect. Having grown up with Bogart's hard-boiled private eye archetype, Dick Powell was a complete revelation to me. If you double-bill this with Bogart's "Big Sleep," you see at once that Powell truly IS Phillip Marlowe (even Raymond Chandler thought so), and Bogart is much better suited to portray Hammet's colder, meaner Sam Spade. Powell gives Marlowe a vulnerable cynicism as well as a touch of the "everyman," that Bogart wouldn't be able to pull off until later in his career. Powell's background in romantic musicals gives him access to a far deeper emotional range, needed to play the complex and conflicted Marlowe; his cynicism, his humour, his loyalty to his code...it's all there. Powell manages to give extra resonance to some of Chandler's throw-away similes! No wonder he claimed this as his favorite role!

The direction by Edward Dmytryk and cinematography by Harry Wild are perfect, giving the film a tight, economical yet alluring vintage "feel". Working on a tight budget, they manage to infuse it with all the seedy, chaotic topography that would serve as the touchtones for every film of this type from "Night of the Hunter" to "Blade Runner." While this isn't the first Noir film, it may well be the best.