RKO turned out some of the best film noir drama of the forties and fifties and did it with sound economy, capitalizing on multiple talent working in a coordinated fashion.

"Murder, My Sweet" directed by Edward Dmytryk falls into the above category. John Payton's script adaptation from Raymond Chandler's novel "Farewell, My Lovely" moves at a spellbinding pace as we see the world of detective Philip Marlowe, played by Dick Powell in a dramatic debut after a career as a song and dance man, unfold in Los Angeles. When he meets up with ex-con Moose Malloy, played by veteran pro wrestler and character actor Mike Mazurki, he becomes a marked man.

Powell's nemises are beautiful bad girl Claire Trevor and gang head Otto Kruger while Anne Shirley, as Trevor's stepdaughter, helps the detective find romance while providing him with the lowdown on the wayward blonde, who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

When Dick Powell made this movie his acting career astonishingly was at a very low ebb, but this movie helped revitalize the old song and dance man into a transformed 'noir' actor. He had a lot of help in this movie not only from an excellent script but also from some excellent actors. One of my favorites has always been Claire Trevor, and if she had not been identified, don't know that I would have ever recognized her as this dazzling, coniving blonde of the jade necklace.

Powell is given some very good, wise cracking lines, but underneath he is a teddy bear and that comes through at times, especially with Anne Shirley. One client says he doesn't care for Marlowe's (Powell's role) attitude, with Marlowe replying that he has had complaints about that before, but the attitude doesn't seem to improve. Along the way, and it is a confused way for much of the movie, Marlowe accuses or suspects nearly everyone in the cast, with the police always eyeing Marlowe as a possible suspect. Ring around the rosey, only death intervenes from time-to-time in this game. Everyone seems to have something to hide or some angle they are playing with Marlowe picking up easy money. As he says, some people are paying him to stay with the investigation, while others are paying him to drop the investigation. As many times as he is sapped and knocked out, one would think he would welcome grabbing the money and letting the thing solve itself. But as he says, ethics are involved, his mainly since he was originally hired to body guard a client, with that client turning up dead on Marlowe's watch. It's just another aspect of being a teddy bear underneath it all.

Rich good looking women, sleezy con men and thugs, a stolen jade necklace worth a cool hundred thousand never stolen, and plenty of guns leads to a full fledged Raymond Chandler group of writings brought to the Hollywood screen by RKO. When looking at 'noir' films it just doesn't get much better than this film.

If you haven't seen it you have missed a very good effort in both acting and writing.

Semper Fi.

Not all of the classic detective novelist Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowes are born equal. The definitive screen role is that of Humphrey Bogart in the Big Sleep. Dick Powell, however, here keeps pretty good company with his interpretation of Marlowe as the world-weary private detective who sees things through to the end, especially when he screws up an assignment. Its professional ethics, you know. That characteristic helped define the noir detective. Here Powell adds a little off-hand humor and self-deprecation to the role as he fight for his concept of rough `justice'. But mainly he is intrepid and that carries him a long way in the role. And surprisingly, unlike in the book, he gets the 'nice' girl in the end. Who would have thought.

Apparently not all classic Raymond Chandler novels are born equal either. The film here takes bits and pieces from various shorter stories written by Chandler earlier in his career as he was defining the Marlowe model to make the plot line run here. If you want to see a truer take on the original novel Farewell, My Lovely that this film is based on then you should see the remake from the 1980's starring Robert Mitchum.

Here the story line runs more around the question of some jade lost by a wealthy woman who actions are central to a murder that occurs along the way. She, as is the order of things in noir films, is a mantrap and classic femme fatale who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. And will succeed to a point. But do not forget that Marlowe has his own sense of honor so do not cross that line. See both films and judge for yourself.

Edward Dmytryk's trim, crackling noir has enough twists and turns to befuddle most any snoop, but that's the whole fun of it. Powell's bravura tough guy turn as the original Marlowe (Bogie would follow him two years later in "The Big Sleep") opened up gritty new avenues for the actor, and the sultry Claire Trevor scorches the screen as femme fatale Helen Grayle. Packed with the patter of gunsels and molls in dimly lit, smoke-filled rooms, noir doesn't get much "noirer" than this. Hard-boiled mystery fans should pounce.

This is the film version of Raymond Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely". It opens with Philip Marlowe being questioned by police detectives. It started when Marlowe was hired by Mike Malloy to look for an old girlfriend. Malloy had been away for years. Marlowe finds a dead end. Then a stranger hires Marlowe to ransom stolen jewelry. Marlowe is sapped, his client Marriott cannot speak. The police question him but Marlowe knows little. Then a reporter visits him to ask questions but Marlowe figures out the answers. Next Marlowe is hired by Mrs. Helen Grayle, the woman whose necklace was stolen. Malloy takes Marlowe to meet a guy; Jules Amthor is very interested in that necklace. They try to get information from Marlowe. [There are some novel special effects here.]

Marlowe continues in his quest for the truth. Ann Grayle hates her stepmother. Mr. Grayle was the owner of Marriott's apartment, so the police questioned him. Helen Grayle explains how Amthor worked: he talked to people, gained their confidence and their secrets, and used this information for blackmail. But Helen reveals her own character to Marlowe. When Marlowe returns to Amthor's office he finds Amthor won't speak to anyone. So now Marlowe begins to put the pieces together and figure out what the solution is, and returns to the beach house. There is a confrontation between the main characters that brings and ending to this story.

You will note how the film varies from the novel, but not extensively. The actions of Mr. and Mrs. Grayle seem more correct than the story in the novel. Chandler was a former oil company executive and knew about the lives and scandals of the super rich. The story of a rich old man marrying a young "show girl" could have been ripped from the headlines, then or now. [This story of a search for a missing person seems to echo "The Big Sleep".]