James Hitchcock
Raymond Chandler's 1940 novel "Farewell, My Lovely" has been filmed three times. The first version (from 1942) was "The Falcon Takes Over" which adapted Chandler's plot, relocated the action from Los Angeles to New York and replaced Chandler's hero Philip Marlowe with the figure of The Falcon, a gentlemanly British detective (originally created by Michael Arlen) who became the hero of a long-running series of forties B-movies. This film from 1944 was released as "Farewell, My Lovely" in the United Kingdom, but in America it is known as "Murder, My Sweet", apparently because Dick Powell had previously been better known as the star of light-hearted musicals and the studio wanted to ensure that audiences knew they would be seeing a crime drama, not a comedy. When the remake starring Robert Mitchum was made in 1975 it was released under Chandler's original title worldwide.I will refer to this film by its British title, largely because that is the one with which I am most familiar. Like most films noirs it has a particularly complex plot. It opens with Marlowe being interrogated by police about two murders, and this interrogation serves as a framework, with the story being told in flashback. We learn how Marlowe accepted two sets of apparently routine instructions which landed him in trouble. Moose Malloy, a former wrestler recently released from jail, hired him to trace his old girlfriend Velma, and he was also hired to act as bodyguard to a man paying a ransom for some stolen jewels. Marlowe finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue involving the owner of the jewels, her husband and stepdaughter, Malloy, and a sinister psychic healer.The term "film noir", literally "black film", has a double, perhaps triple, meaning. Such films were figuratively "dark" because of the "dark deeds" which make up their plots, and perhaps also in the sense that these plots are often obscure and mysterious. They were, however, also "dark" in a literal sense, because they generally included striking chiaroscuro photography, often involving scenes shot at night. Here Edward Dmytryk goes even takes this tendency to extremes, shooting almost the whole of the movie at night with virtually no daytime scenes. Later crime dramas set in the Los Angeles area, such as Polanski's "Chinatown", have emphasised the brilliant Southern California sunshine, but here the City of Angels becomes a City of Dreadful Night, with Dmytryk using (as did other noir directors such as Hawks, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Sam Fuller and Carol Reed) physical darkness as a visual metaphor for both impenetrable mystery and moral depravity.Powell's performance as Marlowe has been the subject of some controversy, coming in for both praise and criticism. My view is that he is not at all bad, considering that he had had little previous experience of this sort of film, but even so he is not really in the same class as Humphrey Bogart who was to play Marlowe in Howard Hawks's "The Big Sleep" from two years later. The best performance here is probably from Claire Trevor, something of a noir specialist, as Helen Grayle, the owner of the jewels and the glamorous second wife of a wealthy, much older man. (The jewels are the story's "McGuffin". Did Chandler, I wonder, use the name "Grayle" as a deliberate reference to the Holy Grail, perhaps the most famous McGuffin in literary history?) Mike Mazurki is also good as Moose, a man with overdeveloped muscles and an underdeveloped intellect who nevertheless retains a certain rough integrity.This film is certainly a lot better than "The Falcon Takes Over", in which George Sanders is far too laid back and insouciant, even when serious matters like murder are at stake. (Chandler's story, in any case, was not really suitable for B-movie treatment). I am unable make comparisons with the Mitchum "Farewell, My Lovely", which I have never seen. As for "The Big Sleep", Dmytryk is able to maintain the tension as well as does Hawks, and the writing is better here than in the later film, one which we tend to watch more for its atmosphere than for its plot, which is impenetrable even by noir standards. The plot of "Farewell, My Lovely" may be complex, but it never becomes incomprehensible. Although I prefer Bogart to Powell, I nevertheless think that this version of "Farewell, My Lovely" can stand comparison with "The Big Sleep". 8/10
Leofwine_draca
FAREWELL, MY LOVELY is a dyed-in-the-wool film noir production featuring everyone's favourite hardboiled private detective Philip Marlowe on the trail of a missing girl. With Dick Powell's dogged detective as the lead, the rest of the character list is populated by a mix of backstabbers, villains, henchmen, conmen, and femme fatales, and just keeping track of the complexities of the storyline is a job in itself.Still, the film benefits from Edward Dmytryk's solid direction which enlivens the film with atmosphere and some fun suspense scenes, a lot of them involving characters skulking around or getting beaten up by a seven foot tall bad guy. There are some good performances here from the likes of Otto Kruger and Mike Mazurki, and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY proves a solid example of the detective genre as a whole.
utgard14
Exciting, taut film noir detective story. One of the greats. Private eye Phillip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is hired by recently released convict Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to locate his old girlfriend Velma. If only it were that simple. Based on the Raymond Chandler novel "Farewell, My Lovely." Edward Dmytryk's direction is top-notch, as is John Paxton's script. He adapts Chandler's novel very well, keeping all the best scenes and lines. I've seen all of the film adaptations of this book and this is the best. Excellent cast including Mike Mazurki as the brutish Moose Malloy; Otto Kruger as the villainous Jules Amthor; Anne Shirley as the innocent pretty girl caught in the middle of things, and Claire Trevor as the femme fatale. Of course, Dick Powell in the lead. He was extraordinary in this. This is the role that helped convince audiences Powell was no longer just the comedy and musical guy they liked throughout the 1930s. All said, this is one of the great film noirs and great detective stories of the 1940s. Top entertainment from beginning to end.
PimpinAinttEasy
I don't know whether to call this one a crime thriller or a laugh out loud comedy. There are some truly hilarious moments, maybe more than the usual in a pretty over the top thriller.The film has an interesting structure and the director sort of makes an intervention towards the end of the film. The movie is narrated by PHILLIP MARLOWE until the end but the director sort of steps in to give the film a happy ending.MURDER MY SWEET is pretty wild for a film that came out in 1944. There are some seriously psychedelic interludes and highly stylized imagery. JOHN PAXTON really packs it in with the one liners.DICK POWELL sort of made this film for me. He is tough, funny and vulnerable especially in the scenes where he is drugged. He really nailed the MARLOWE character. ANNE SHIRLEY looked gorgeous. I don't understand what was so erotic about CLAIRE TREVOR - i guess she did a fair job, despite her physical limitations. MIKE MAZURKI was pretty sinister and exuded danger as a thug who lived purely on instinct.As a viewer, you better pay attention to the goings on in the movie because its full of twists. I think this is the best crime thriller I have ever watched.
