Review of Murder, My Sweet (1944) by Veronique K — 24 Jan 2008

Another tale of the legendary private eye philip marlowe under the whirling pen of raymond chandler, and this time our noir hero is not humprey bogart from "maltese falcon" but the comical dick powell. certainly the endearing noir queen claire trevor seems to be intertwined as the master manipulator behind the several mysterious crimes circling around the desoiled china jade necklace.

Around this turn, dick powell's marlowe doesn't appear so bright and he keeps being pushed around very often by the crooks. without the participation of bogart's grittiness, powell's marlowe lacks a certain macho grittiness but the witty tongue-in-cheek humor that truns out to be one of the merits in this flick. besides it demonstrates the human side of marlowe who is no longer bogart's tough guy who ditches mary astor to prison for the sake of his occupational enthicity. dick powell is more warmed up with liveliness but without the wild unpredicatibility of bogart's un-negotiated manhood. marlowe now is not aloof anymore, and he embraces beauties around his arms joyfully without the gender tension of possessiveness between bogart and astor. marlowe has been incarnated into flesh and blood, capable of bathing in romance, eventually powell's marlowe fondles the kind-hearted red-head over his yearning bossom, tossing his pistol aside just for a decently thorough smack of kiss.

The nightmare sequence of marlowe being narcotically toxicated is visually engrossing as well as marlowe's self-encouraging voice-over: prove you're a tough guy, put on your pants. this apparently purposed "tough" lecture could even be mellowed into a farcial joke by dick powell, if it's said by bogart, it would be roughed with edginess. claire trevor is the blonde femme fatale this time to toy everyman into her sidekicks only with some confidently contrived smirks. maybe she should have grappled some cameos instead of just few scenes, but even limited with empheral time, she makes quite an impression as "the woman with snakes and pits lurked beneath her devilish smile".