Rating: 
Summary: Film Noir 101
Review: This is the movie that hooked me on "Film Noir." I first saw this on the late show while suffereing a killer flu. Even through local TV editing and enough medicine to tranquilize a circus tent, it had me sitting at attention from start to finish. It wasn't until several years later that I got to see it uncut on cable that I got the full effect. Having grown up with Bogart's hard-boiled private eye archetype, Dick Powell was a complete revelation to me. If you double-bill this with Bogart's "Big Sleep," you see at once that Powell truly IS Phillip Marlowe (even Raymond Chandler thought so), and Bogart is much better suited to portray Hammet's colder, meaner Sam Spade. Powell gives Marlowe a vulnerable cynicism as well as a touch of the "everyman," that Bogart wouldn't be able to pull off until later in his career. Powell's background in romantic musicals gives him access to a far deeper emotional range, needed to play the complex and conflicted Marlowe; his cynicism, his humour, his loyalty to his code...it's all there. Powell manages to give extra resonance to some of Chandler's throw-away similes! No wonder he claimed this as his favorite role! The direction by Edward Dmytryk and cinematography by Harry Wild are perfect, giving the film a tight, economical yet alluring vintage "feel". Working on a tight budget, they manage to infuse it with all the seedy, chaotic topography that would serve as the touchtones for every film of this type from "Night of the Hunter" to "Blade Runner." While this isn't the first Noir film, it may well be the best.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Noir
Review: This one of my favorite movies. Years ago I rented a VHS of it and made a dupe at home. The quality was lousy but I liked it and played it often, but I learned my lession about making unauthorized copies. My daughter's puppy urinated all over the tape. This movie is so good it even survived that.
This is classic noir, with Phillip Marlowe. The plot is about stolen jade, hidden identities, blackmail, love, treachery and murder. The story is complicated, the casting is great, the photography and voice-over narration carry things along. It has style. The ending is satisfying. And the dialogue is some of the best ever written.
Powell broke through into serious roles with this film. Even in all the singing roles he had up to this movie he exuded cocky confidence, and that aspect of his personality is perfect here. As an aside, if you enjoy his singing movies, and I do, watch how he can smile naturally while singing; that's hard.
Claire Trevor, it seems to me, almost always played bruised roses (Stagecoach, Key Largo) or rotting orchids. You cared about her because she was one of life's losers, or you wanted to go to bed with her even knowing you might not wake up in the morning. The scene when we (and Marlowe) first meet her is just as good as the scene when MacMurray first meets Stanwyck in Double Indemnity.
Mike Mazurki as Moose Malloy is great, probably the best role he ever had. He was no actor, but he is effective and sympathetic as a slight pyscho who genuinely is in love; he's starring in his own version of Romeo and Velma.
One of the key ingredients in making this movie work is the dialogue. Quantities of it must have been lifted verbatim from Farewell, My Lovely. When Moose talks about Velma being "cute as lace panties" the imagery is vivid. Raymond Chandler, in my view, is the best author of private eye mysteries yet. If you haven't read him, dive in. Ross Macdonald and Hammett come close, but it's no three-way tie.
See the movie. Read the book.
The DVD transfer is first rate. There's a commentary by a fellow named Alain Silver which is adequate, and not essential to enjoying the film.
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