Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

JohnHowardReid Late in 1944, when Raymond Chandler's popularity and critical esteem were at their height, RKO seized the opportunity to dust off their song-bought "Farewell, My Lovely" and film it straight. They couldn't resist changing the title to "Murder, My Sweet", but otherwise this is pretty well as authentic as Chandler ever got on the screen. Marlowe, for instance, was sensationally played by Dick Powell who, sick to death of his namby-pamby screen image as a lightweight crooner, talked the studio into re-inventing him as the tough, resilient, cynical private eye - a role that he was to play with minor variations and only one or two exceptions for the rest of his acting career. Powerfully directed by Edward Dmytryk, the movie not only won the Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year, but took millions at the box-office. Twelve years later, Chandler himself declared that Dick Powell deserved recognition as the nearest cinematic equivalent of Marlowe and that "Murder, My Sweet" was the best screen adaptation of any of his novels. (Available on a 10/10 Warner DVD).

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

Claudio Carvalho The private detective Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is hired by the violent and stupid Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to seek out his former girlfriend Velma Valento. Moose spent eight years in prison and lost contact with her. Marlowe goes to the night-club where Velma worked but the owner died years ago; then he visits the widow that tells that she does not know Velma. However Marlowe finds a photo of Velma and the woman says that she is dead. On the next morning, Marlowe is visited in his office by a man called Lindsay Marriott (Douglas Walton) and he offers US$ 100 to Marlowe work as his bodyguard in an isolated area where he will pay an amount to retrieve stolen jewels. However things go wrong and Marriott is killed and Marlowe is hit on the head and faints. Marlowe goes to the police station to report the murder; the detectives ask if he knows a man called Jules Amthor (Otto Kruger) and to stay away from the man. Marlow meets Ann Grayle (Anne Shirley) in his office asking about the murder posing as a reporter. She brings him home and introduces his wealthy old father Leuwen Grayle (Miles Mander) and his young wife Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor) to him. Marlowe learns that a rare and expensive jade necklace was stolen from Helen when she was dancing with Marriott and Leuwen hires him to retrieve the jewel. When Marlowe is leaving the house, he stumbles upon Amthor. Then Moose forces Marlowe to go to Amthor's house and he drugs Marlowe trying to find where the necklace is. When Marlowe succeeds to escape, he starts to think to solve the puzzle. Who might have stolen the jade necklace? What happened with Verna Valento?"Murder, My Sweet" is a complex film-noir with a mysterious detective story. The plot has many details and the viewer must pay attention to them. The plot begins with the private detective Philip Marlowe seeking out a vanished girl; switches to the investigation of a stolen jade necklace; and ends entwining the investigations. The romantic conclusion is entertaining. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Até a Vista, Querida" ("See You Later, Darling")

Dave from Ottawa Everybody lied. The first time private eye Philip Marlowe encountered somebody, good or bad, he/she was always lying. The only differences were whether the liars were protecting themselves or other people. Marlowe had the full time job of disentangling the deceptions, and finding the truth behind and within all the scheming."She was a charming middle aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink."Screenwriter John Paxton retention of Chandler's deathless first person prose in a series of voice-overs is only one of the things this movie does right to capture the authentic feel of the hard boiled crime novel. The novel itself is complex, almost too complex, but Paxton did a fine job of stripping down the story to a 99 min. running time without actually dumbing anything down. The characters remain tricky in their schemes and manipulative in their approach to each other. When everything comes revealed, the viewer is not left musing over loose plot threads.The dark shadowy world of its private eye hero is visualized nicely: visible (single) source lighting, night sequences, pools of light under street lamps, people turning switches on and off. Light becomes this awkward enemy force, as if humans are allergic to it, like cockroaches. This is the essence of film noir, and cinematographer Harry J. Wild did imaginative, professional work here. In camera effects, designed to bring out less pleasant aspects of Marlowe's world - getting sapped, beaten, drugged etc. - only serve to enhance the appeal of this.This is the sort of movie that was done well at one time, but is something of a lost art. It's a great way to spend an afternoon, kicking it old school. Enjoy.