The second movie that my lady and I watched at Noir City was Murder, My Sweet. This was a good ass movie and inspired so many films and things I have seen in cartoons and comedies. They did some camera tricks that are very common and can be done on your phone or computer but back when this was made was brand new technology that had to be created. It starts at the end with you wondering how he got here. He being private detective Philip Marlowe. Marlowe is being interviewed with bandages over his eyes by the police about what we're about to watch.
Marlowe gets hired to find a woman named Velma by this big ass dude named Moose Malloy. He has something...wrong with him. He seems nice when he likes you but one wrong word and you will wake up (if you're lucky!) wondering how you got across the room and laying on the floor. Moose is fresh out of prison and wants his girl back. Marlowe talks to old employees of the club and no one knows who Velma is. He gets this lady drunk and she tries to hide an old photo of Velma that Marlowe takes. The next day this dude Marriot hires Marlowe to guard him while he pays for some stolen jewels. By the way, everything Marlowe is involved with so far sounds shady as hell. Marlowe heads out with him and ends up knocked out by someone. A lady wakes him before running away and he discovers that Marriot is dead after being clubbed to death. This case is getting stranger.
This lady shows up at Marlowe's office pretending to be someone else. Her name is Ann and she takes him to meet her father who is old and rich and the jewels belong to him. He has a young new wife named Helen who tries to get all saucy with Marlowe. This psychic healer dude shows up when Marlowe is leaving (he will come back later) and Helen tries to hire Marlowe to find the lost jewelry and Ann tries to get him to drop the case. The fact that she wants him to stop makes him even more intrigued and made me wonder what's going on with her and this jewelry. That psychic healer dude, Amthor, tricks Moose into thinking that Marlowe knows where Velma is. Moose knocks him out and he is taken to a room and drugged for days trying to figure out where this jewelry (a jade necklace) is. Marlowe eventually escapes and lets Moose know that he was tricked and he has no idea where this Velma is.
Marlowe and Ann head to a beach house and Helen is there. Ann leaves because her old father has been wondering where his young wife is. Marlowe realizes that Helen hired himso he could be interrogated by the doctor with drugs and find out where the necklace was while Ann realized something was wrong and tried to stop him. Nobody can be trusted! I know this movie is old as hell but I am not gonna spoil how this all ends because this was a fun movie and I could not figure out how it was gonna end and who was tricking who. I do know that folks were getting killed for close to no damn reason! Great acting and cinematography. I totally understand why so many people copied this style and still do till this day.
Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe
Claire Trevor as Helen Grayle
Anne Shirley as Ann Grayle
Otto Kruger as Jules Amthor
Mike Mazurki as Moose Malloy
Miles Mander as Mr. Grayle
Douglas Walton as Lindsay Marriott
Don Douglas as Police Lt. Randall
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