Synopsis
Murder, My Sweet (1944) is a landmark Hollywood noir you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Edward Dmytryk from Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely. Private eye Philip Marlowe takes what looks like a straightforward missing-persons job from an ex-con named Moose Malloy — find a woman named Velma who vanished years ago. The case immediately spills into robbery, blackmail, and a body count that keeps rising.
Dick Powell had spent his career in musical comedies, and RKO wasn't sure he could carry a hard-boiled detective. He could. His Marlowe is tired, dry, and sharp — and the film's voiceover narration set the template every crime thriller since has borrowed from. Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley round out the cast in roles that are sharper than the genre usually gave women in 1944.
The adaptation stripped Chandler's novel down to its sharpest bones and came out tighter for it. It's the film that put Marlowe on the map and convinced Hollywood that Chandler was worth the trouble. Stream Murder, My Sweet (1944) online on iFILM.
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