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Murder,
My Sweet (1944) (aka Farewell, My Lovely)
In director Edward Dmytryk's film noir detective
classic:
- the opening shot of a blinding ceiling light and
sounds of accusatory voices, and then a pull-back camera to the
side of detective Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell), with bandaged eyes
as he was interrogated by police and then began to relate part
of his tale - in flashback
- the brooding appearance of a figure in Marlowe's office
windowpane (flashing city lights reflected onto the face of brutish
Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) standing behind him in the darkness),
the love-struck ex-con hired Marlowe to look for a mysterious Velma
Valento, his missing ex-lover (Velma had sold him out 8 years earlier
for unknown reasons, although he still remembered her: "She
was cute as lace pants")
- Marlowe's visit at the Grayle mansion in Brentwood
with elderly Mr. Grayle (Miles Mander) and his much younger trophy
wife and femme fatale vamp Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor), a
gold-digger (with a double identity) who was prominently showing
off her legs and ankle-strap high heels; she hired the detective
to locate a stolen $100,000 jade necklace (which she later revealed
was never actually stolen)
- the two amusing instances when Marlowe struck his
match on a marble Cupid's back-end, and when he played hopskotch
(recalling Powell's days as a dancer) on the black/white checkered-tiled
floor of millionaire Mr. Grayle's (Miles Mander) mansion
- the scene when Lindsay Marriott (Douglas Walton),
an effeminate gigolo, had asked Marlowe to accompany him as a bodyguard
late at night to a secluded canyon to pay off a ransom - to buy an
allegedly stolen jade necklace back (during the altercation, Marlowe
was knocked unconscious, and Marriott was bludgeoned to death) [Note:
Later, Helen confessed that she and Marriott had set up Marlowe to
be killed in the canyon, because he was a "nosy detective" and
would interfere with her schemes, but her intention was to kill both
Marriott and Marlowe, but her stepdaughter Ann Grayle (Anne Shirley)
had arrived at an inopportune moment, and she was only able to murder
Marriott]
- the memorable narrated dialogue: ("I caught
the blackjack behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I
dived in. It had no bottom")
- and the nightmare ("a crazy, coked-up dream")
Marlowe experienced when pursued through a series of identical doors
by a doctor with a giant hypodermic needle - and further scenes of
his drug-induced hallucinations
- also the final shoot-out in the Grayles' beach house,
where mysterious, flirtatious Mrs. Helen Grayle/Velma Valento, who
had set up numerous individuals over the alleged theft of her jade
jewelry, was killed by her husband (who in turn killed and was killed
by Moose - who had already murdered blackmailing underworld kingpin
and aristocratic master-crook - psychic/quack therapist Jules Amthor
(Otto Kruger) by snapping his neck); Marlowe's eyes were scorched
and blinded in the process
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Shoot-Out in Beach House
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Philip Marlowe Blinded During Shoot-Out
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- as a witness to all the killings, Ann Grayle was
able to clear temporarily-blinded Marlowe of all charges - and
accompanied him home in the back seat of a taxi - where they shared
a kiss
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Marlowe Bandaged and Interrogated in Police Station
Moose Malloy in Marlowe's Office
Malloy and Marlowe
Femme Fatale Mrs. Helen Grayle
Marlowe's Nightmarish Hallucinations
Ann Grayle and Marlowe Kissing in Back Seat of Taxi
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