MURDER, MY SWEET [1945 / 2015] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] Near Perfect, My Sweet! Considered One of the Quintessential Film-Noir Films!
They say crime doesn’t pay. Private detective Philip Marlowe [Dick Powell] knows better. The fat wad of folding money warming his breast pocket is the kind of thing that keeps him going through thick and thicker as he wades chin-deep into a mystery involving a missing necklace and a missing hoodlum’s moll named Velma.
Sharply directed by Edward Dmytryk, ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ is at most noir, creating a moody sense of a world that never plays on the level. Cast against type, Dick Powell puts sunny crooner roles behind him, dishing hardboiled patter and wearing five-going-on six-o’clock stubble so well that source author Raymond Chandler called Dick Powell his favourite screen Philip Marlowe. “I’m just a small businessman in a very messy business.” The Philip Marlowe observes. With wit and trendsetting style to burn, it’s never business as usual.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1946 Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Win: Best Motion Picture for Dick Powell (actor), John Paxton (screenplay) and Raymond Chandler (author). A special scroll was presented to RKO Pictures.
FILM FACT No.2: ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ is, along with ‘Double Indemnity,’ one of the first “film noir,” and a key influence in the development of the genre. The rights to Raymond Chandler's novel “Farewell, My Lovely” and was purchased by RKO Radio Pictures for $2,000, and the novel provided the essentials of the plot for ‘The Falcon Takes Over’ released in 1942. Another of Raymond Chandler's novels had been purchased as well, but in 1944 no studio had yet to use Raymond Chandler's antihero private detective Philip Marlowe, as the protagonist of a film. RKO's studio boss, Charles Koerner, recognized the value of the character and of Raymond Chandler's style, and decided to use the rights RKO already owned to make a true adaptation of the novel. Raymond Chandler was able to convince RKO's studio management to make a new version of the book so soon after the previous one by pointing out that the book did not need a great deal of adapting to create a screenplay. Both Anne Shirley and Claire Trevor tried to convince the RKO studio that they should both play "against type," with perennial good girl Anne Shirley cast as the femme fatale Helen Grayle, and Claire Trevor cast as the nice girl, Ann Grayle, but their pressure did not convince the RKO studio. Another actor who had to audition to get the role he played was former pro-wrestler-turned-actor Mike Mazurki. Director Edward Dmytryk wanted a true actor to play the part, but was convinced by Mike Mazurki in a studio commissary discussion to give him a chance; Powell assisted him in his efforts. Another change made in the adaptation from the book to the film was in the character of Ann Grayle. Ann Grayle was originally the daughter of an honest cop, but changing her to the step-daughter of Claire Trevor's seductress helped to show the differences between the two types of women. It was producer Adrian Scott's idea to shoot the film as an extended flashback, which kept the book's first-person narrative style. Production on Murder, My Sweet took place from May 8 to July 1, 1944. Shooting on the first day was so hectic that Claire Trevor was being sewn into her dress while the first scene was being set up. A makeup person was left off of the call, so Claire Trevor did her makeup herself. During breaks between scenes, Dick Powell would entertain the other actors with imitations of himself as a singer earlier in his film career. Night location shooting took place in the Hollywood Hills.
Cast: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Miles Mander, Douglas Walton, Donald Douglas, Ralf Harolde, Esther Howard, Ernie Adams (uncredited), Bernice Ahi (uncredited), George Anderson (uncredited), Edward Biby (uncredited), Jack Carr (uncredited), Tom Coleman (uncredited), Ralph Dunn (uncredited), Sam Finn (uncredited), Rudy Germane (uncredited), Fred Graham (uncredited), Bill Hamilton (uncredited), Paul Hilton (uncredited), John Indrisano (uncredited), Daun Kennedy (uncredited), Donald Kerr (uncredited), Paul Phillips (uncredited), Dewey Robinson (uncredited), Shimen Ruskin (uncredited) and Larry Wheat (uncredited)
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Producers: Adrian Scott and Sid Rogell
Screenplay: John Paxton (screenplay) and Raymond Chandler (novel)
Composer: Roy Webb
Cinematography: Harry J. Wild, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 95 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Warner Archive Collection / RKO Radio Pictures
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: In typical “film noir” fashion, ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ [1945] opens with a flashback as detective Philip Marlowe [Dick Powell] sits beneath a police station's hot lamp and recounts the convoluted story of two women, a jade necklace and multiple murders. Based on Raymond Chandler's quintessential pulp novel “Farewell, My Lovely.” ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ features an unlikely Philip Marlowe, and the 1930s Warner Bros. musical star Dick Powell, is surprisingly effective as the jaded gumshoe. At the opening of the film, Philip Marlowe is hired by ex-con and thick-headed numskull Moose Malloy [Mike Mazurki] to find his vanished showgirl and lady friend Velma [Claire Trevor], who seems to have taken a permanent powder.
‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ is considered one of the first film noirs and a key influence on shaping the genre in its use of low-key black and white photography, its convoluted mystery plot and its depiction of a tough, cynical detective thrown into a world of corruption. Its box-office success helped establish the genre in Hollywood, inspiring generations of tough-talking gumshoes. It was also the first film to feature Raymond Chandler's legendary private eye Philip Marlow. Most critics consider ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ to be the most faithful in both plot and spirit to Raymond Chandler's original novel.
‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ is a taut film noir thriller about a private detective enmeshed with a gang of blackmailers, is as smart as it is gripping. With ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ it helped Dick Powell acting career, but of course was better known as a song and dance man in film up to this point, and with this film decided to change his screen persona to a tough-talking film noir hero in many films and television shows afterward. The ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ film also features Claire Trevor as a very convincing “black widow” and Mike Mazurki in his most memorable role as Moose Malloy.
Dick Powell plays Raymond Chandler's private eye Philip Marlowe in this second big-screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled novel "Farewell, My Lovely." And of course Dick Powell was best known as a song and-dance man in classic films like ‘42nd Street,’ which RKO Radio Pictures decided to change the title to ‘MURDER, MY SWEET,’ because audiences thought the original film Title was a musical, because it starred Dick Powell.
The plot revolves around Philip Marlowe looking for the former girlfriend of a big bruiser named Moose Malloy. At the same time, Philip Marlowe is hired to help find a missing jade necklace worth $100,000. Of course, both cases are connected. But director Edward Dmytryk seemed to want to make the plot the main feature of the film, but instead was more interested in creating lots of spooky shadows and dark rooms for his shady characters. Edward Dmytryk has the most fun when Philip Marlowe wakes up pumped full of some kind of drug, spreading a kind of foggy spider web across the screen to illustrate Philip Marlowe's total confusion of where he was.
The plot of the book is almost impossible to explain and it must have been nearly impossible to create into a screenplay. Actually the novel was a combination of three early Raymond Chandler short stories weaved together by the writer into full-length book. This is one of those films where the trip is much more satisfying than the destination because the story is very muddled and at least in my head- even after multiple viewings. Credit goes to the screenplay by John Paxton and the brilliant film director Edward Dmytryk for cleverly translating the cynical book and for rebooting the ending at the beach house to make it more satisfying than the novel. Most of the time Raymond Chandler never liked when his stories were rewritten for film, but despite this, the fact is that he also did just this to James M. Cain's book “Double Indemnity” a few years earlier. But in the case of the shootout at the beach house in ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ concludes much of the mystery, while in the novel “Farewell, My Lovely” the villain slips away from Philip Marlowe and makes the classic Hollywood ending that follows the beach house scene is a much more satisfying ending.
Dick Powell was not the only actor to resist typecasting in ‘MURDER, MY SWEET.’ Anne Shirley and Claire Trevor both conspired to do a little acting-against-type of their own, and petitioned for the proverbial good girl Anne Shirley to play the scheming fatale and for Claire, used to playing molls and floozies, to play the "good and dull," that Anne put it, a nice girl. But to no avail: conventional typecasting was followed and the actresses delivered expected versions of their usual screen personas. ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ was originally shown in cinemas as ‘Farewell, My Lovely,’ which was the original title of Raymond Chandler's 1940 ‘Farewell, My Lovely’ novel. But audiences in the areas of its original release were put off by the title, mistook ‘Farewell, My Lovely’ for another Dick Powell musical and stayed away, leading RKO Radio Pictures executives to rechristen the film ‘MURDER, MY SWEET.’
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Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ comes with the ultimate compliments from Warner Archive Collection and RKO Radio Pictures, with a brilliant scanned 2k original nitrate negative and gives us a brilliant 1080p encoded image that gives us some stunning Black-and-White images, that really brings this classic 1945 film noir to modern audiences to make you think the film was made today. The black levels and densities details are outstanding, as is the differentiation between shades of grey that gives a black-and-white image depth and dimensionality and when we visit the Grayle mansion, the lavish decor is made to look totally sumptuous and spectacular at the same time, but when Dick Powell is waiting in the hall, to me in that part of the house it felt more like a mausoleum, but apart from this slightly negative comment, the Black-and-White photography and especially the optical presentation is totally perfect.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – With the audio presentation of ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ which is from the original RKO Radio Pictures mono soundtrack, but for us modern audiences the soundtrack is presented in 1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio and delivers the all-important dialogue and voiceover with clarity and tight focus. Dynamic range is very acceptable for the 1945 era, and the thriller composed score by Roy Webb hits all the right notes. But when you get to hear the audio commentary by Alan Silver, the audio is presented in 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo, and it really brings out the sound in a really nice ambient warm sound.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary by Author/Film Noir Specialist Alan Silver: Here we are presented with the really smooth silky voice of Alain Silver, where Alain talks about how the film starts off differently from the normal start of the RKO Radio Pictures beginning, whereas normally when you start with the RKO Radio Pictures beginning, you usually get the telegraph sounds, instead this time we get the underscore composition by Roy Webb, which Alain compares to composer Victor Young. He also informs us that Executive producer Sid Rogell started at Paramount Pictures, who also worked with his brother, who also was a Director. But all the main people related to the film on the Credits were all under contract with RKO Radio Pictures. For producer Adrian Scott, this was his second film for RKO Radio Pictures. Because RKO Radio Pictures are well known for their depth of field cinematography, which they put to good use with Orson Welles’s film ‘CITIZEN KANE’ [1941] and ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ [1942]. At this point in the audio commentary, Alain Silver introduces himself and informs us that he is a Producer, Screenwriter, Director of Independent Films and has also edited just under 20 books on the motion picture industry and 7 of them are of the “Film Noir” genre and one of them was entitled “Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles.” One interesting fact comes to light, is that contrary to popular beliefs, that there is not many “Film Noir” that features a Private Eye [Private Detective], which only a dozen films were release, and half of those were adaptions of Raymond Chandler novels with the character Philip Marlow. Alain talks about Dick Powell and how he started out in the Warner Bros. Musicals and then went onto be a director of 5 feature films, but also starred and produced several television projects, which had the theme of detectives and nightclub venues, and eventually worked in television much more, but when he did this film ‘MURDER, MY SWEET,’ he had turned 40 years of age. Dick Powell did several more “film noir” themes which included ‘Cry Danger’ [1951], ‘Johnny O’Clock’ [1947] and ‘Pit Fall’ [1948]. In the film MURDER, MY SWEET’ when Dick Powell has to drive out to the secluded spot and gets hit over the head and talks about the experience of the “Black Pool,” well Alain explains that Raymond Chandler in the novel describes this concept effect of what the Private Detective is experiencing and Alain feels that the film effects that the filmmakers rendering is pretty impressive and made a great impact on film critics. Alain also tells us that the way the police are in the Raymond Chandler novels and films, is because Raymond Chandler had no respect for the Los Angeles Police, because at the time of writing the novels, the police were tainted and could not be trusted, until the Mayor of Los Angeles had a massive clear-out of all corrupt police, plus Raymond Chandler felt the film ‘MURDER, MY SWEET,’ was the best adaption of the novel “Farewell, My Lovely,” and the executives of RKO Radio Pictures decided to up the budget and of course it is reflected in what we view with this brilliant “film noir.” Another interesting fact we hear from Alain is that Raymond Chandler loved Court Apartments, such as the Barcelona Court Apartment in the film and interesting enough is that we find out that Raymond Chandler lived in lots of Court Apartments with his wife Cissy and we are also informed the couple moved 40 to 50 times over the course of 15 years in the Los Angeles area between the 1940s and 1950s. Another fascinating fact we hear from Alain is that Adrian Scott found out that the property on the film rights was ready for a remake and they actually made it as a “Falcon Mystery” and they turned Philip Marlow into Gay Lawrence in the film ‘The Gay Falcon’ [1941] starring George Sanders and was the third in the series and after that George Sanders brother Tom Conway, who was a British film, television and radio actor renowned for playing private detectives and psychiatrists, took over, and when they used Raymond Chandler’s novel for another ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ film Raymond Chandler got no additional revenue compensation, and of course he was very unhappy about that situation, and because of this especially hated Hollywood and didn’t really like what other film studios did to his novels, even after ‘The Big Sleep’ film, his attitude did not change and one of his last screenplay that Raymond Chandler worked on was ‘Strangers On The Train’ and he is the only writer in history of Hollywood to compel Alfred Hitchcock to come and visit Raymond Chandler, because Raymond Chandler moved to La Jolla in 1964 and refused to ever set foot in the Warner Bros. film lot especially to have meetings with Alfred Hitchcock. With the release of Raymond Chandler films, his original hardback novels started to earn royalties and amazingly Raymond Chandler only wrote eight novels and all of them have been in constant print from their original release and have been translated into 40 languages and is known to be best known mystery writer in the world. And so ends a totally fascinating audio commentary by the equally brilliant and smooth silky voice of Alain Silver, but what has made me very angry is that I have read other Blu-ray Reviewers say Alain Silver is totally boring, well how dare they say such malicious nasty comments and I would like to see these idiot reviewers try and perform an interesting audio commentary and no way would they be able to perform a very professional audio commentary like Alain Silver and to my mind he gets a very professional 5 star rating from me.
Theatrical Trailer [1945] [480i] [1.37:1] [2:09] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for ‘MURDER, MY SWEET,’ and I have never seen such a bad quality film trailer, if Warner Archive Collection can make a pristine copy of the actual film, why couldn’t they have made an effort to make the film trailer with exactly the same high quality as the 1080p encoded image of ‘MURDER, MY SWEET.’ By way of interested the Theatrical Trailer had a specially written voiceover separately recorded by Dick Powell.
Finally, ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ is one of film noir's most influential standout presentations of its genre and still remains entertaining and accessible for over 70 years later. Dick Powell's rugged, charismatic lead performance provides more than enough panache for everything to revolve around him, especially with the ever-twisting plot from start to finish to keep you guessing the outcome to the very end of the film, resulting in a more fluid viewing experience that highlight's the film's smoky atmosphere and visual flourishes. ‘MURDER, MY SWEET’ comes with a great film noir pedigree, especially for all die-hard fans of this 1945 film, and newcomers will be well provided with something totally unique and a very satisfying experience, that will leave you with a lasting image, especially when the credits have finished. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
