Murder, My Sweet

Dick Powell is most famous for being a 1930s crooner and boy-next-door romantic lead in dozens of musical comedies, but his career trajectory changed when he starred as Raymond Chandler's hardboiled hero Philip Marlowe in this 1945 Edward Dmytryk-directed adaptation of 1940's Farewell, My Lovely. Powell's cynical, smart-talking private eye is hired first by a dim ex-con (pug nosed Mike Mazurki) to find his girl Velma, and then by a prissy stooge to babysit him during a ransom handoff for stolen jewels. The meeting ends with the stooge's death, after which Marlowe is immediately engaged by the wily Mrs. Grayle (Claire Trevor) to recover her jewels. As Marlowe navigates the dark, dangerous world of wartime L.A.—splitting his search between high society haunts and the cheap smoky bars and flophouses of the inner city—he turns up one too many stones, winds up on the wrong end of a fist, and wakes up to a drug-induced nightmare that Dmytryk presents with a mixture of surreal symbolism and sinister expressionism. Powell delivers screenwriter John Paxton's snappy lines and droll asides with tough cynicism, but it's his innate vulnerability that makes this reluctant saint of the city so compelling. One of the first great examples of film noir, this often-overlooked classic has been beautifully remastered for its Blu-ray debut, and features an audio commentary by author Alain Silver. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)