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Murder, My Sweet



Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk 1944)

The classic period of Film Noir is often considered to be: 1941 to 1958. But even in that 17 year time period, noir changed a lot. Murder, My Sweet hearkens back to the earliest days of noir when it was about character tropes, colorful slang dialogue, twisting-turning mysteries and moody lighting reminiscent of German expressionism of the 1930s.

I loved the vernacular of Murder, My Sweet, so many great lines with such imaginative phrasing, I really got a kick out of it...

"I only took the job because my bank account was trying to crawl under a duck."

What the hell does that mean? You know what, I don't even care because it sounds like something a hard boiled detective would say...and it's authentic and that's something you can't get from a modern movie set in the past. I mean this is 1944, captured on film with all it's mannerisms and styles.

I've never read a Raymond Chandler novel but I feel this movie must have captured the feeling of those novels. And in a way this reminded me of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Captain Picard uses the holodeck to recreate the literary fictional world of Dixon Hill.

Now if I was on a Bogie kick, I might say to myself, Dick Powell? The singer? He's no Bogie. Well Bogie is no Dick Powell, and Bogie can't sing either, ha. I liked Powell because he wasn't always the smartest guy in the room, he wasn't the toughest and he screwed up a lot. And in that way he reminded me of another great film detective, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford-Blade Runner). Powell's Philip Marlowe is no superman and in that way the average person can relate to him. And I liked how he played the jaded detective with just a touch of ironic comedy and always looked like he needed a drink and a shave.

Clarie Trevor is always good. She looked the best at the start of the film in the white dress with the mid drift belly pick-a-boo. She did look a bit to old for that get up, but then again that was the point wasn't it?

Anne Shirley was as cute as a button! Too bad this was her last film. She retired from acting at the ripe old age of 26.

Gosh, I didn't even mention all the cool noir lighting, effects and shadows. Yeah, there's a lot to like here alright. Murder, My Sweet is like stepping into another world where everything is just a bit cooler than real life. Good stuff.