Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Director:

Edward Dmytryk

Writers:

John Paxton (screenplay)
Raymond Chandler (novel)

Release Date:

9 December 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

An Original Philip Marlowe Mystery

Plot:

This adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel 'Farewell, My Lovely', renamed for the American market...

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Private Eye | Cynicism | Unconsciousness | Doctor

Awards:

1 win

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Dick Powell	...	Philip Marlowe
Claire Trevor	...	Mrs.Helen Grayle aka Velma Valento
Anne Shirley	...	Ann Grayle
Otto Kruger	...	Jules Amthor
Mike Mazurki	...	Moose Malloy
Miles Mander	...	Mr. Grayle
Douglas Walton	...	Lindsay Marriott
Donald Douglas	...	Police Lieutenant Randall (as Don Douglas)
Ralf Harolde	...	Dr. Sonderborg
Esther Howard	...	Jessie Florian

Also Known As:

Farewell My Lovely (UK)

Runtime:

95 min | Germany:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #10158) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Finland:K-15 (new rating: 2001) | Finland:K-16 (until 2001) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (tv rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (video rating) (1998)

Filming Locations:

Argyle Hotel - 8358 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Audiences initially stayed away, thinking that "Farewell My Lovely", its original title, was yet another Dick Powell musical. When the studio changed the title to "Murder My Sweet", box office receipts picked up considerably.

Goofs:

Continuity: Lindsay Marriott's driver's license was issued 7/10/1942. According to the license, Marriott was born 5/5/1912. This would make him 30 at the time the license was issued, not 32 as is stated on the license.

Quotes:

Lt. Randall: You're not a detective, you're a slot machine. You'd slit your own throat for 6 bits plus tax.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Pulp Fiction (1994)

The film certainly marked an astonishing transformation in its star...

There were many attempts to recreate on the screen Raymond Chandler's immortal character, Philip Marlowe, and probably the first serious effort was in 1944, with Edward Dmytryk directing… The film was called "Farewell My Lovely" in Britain and "Murder, My Sweet" in the United States…

The plot, as always with this genre, mattered far less than the characters and the action: it was sparked when Marlowe was hired to find an ex-convict's girl friend… This Marlowe was played by Dick Powell… He made a daring, successful effort to drop his all-singing, all-dancing image, and he was tough enough; but he was a little too charming, a shade too superficial, to suggest the depths and the strengths of the real Marlowe…

Humphrey Bogart was the man to do this above all others… And he did it superb1y in Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" in 1946…

"Murder My Sweet" is a complex thriller which seemed at the time to demonstrate all manner of strikingly new techniques in a film noir mood, and certainly marked an astonishing transformation in its star... Thirty years later, the second half has a jaded look...