It really is a great film - excellent dialogue, for one thing. This bit from General Sternwood is among my favorites:
"If I seem a bit sinister as a parent, Mr. Marlowe, it's because my hold on life is too slight to include any Victorian hypocrisy. I need hardly add that any man who has lived as I have and indulges for the first time in parenthood at my age deserves all he gets."
Ouch.
"Murder, My Sweet" was a better Chandler / Marlowe adaptation and "The Big Leboswki" borrowed from it a lot too. The Stranger's narration parodies some of it.
shareJust watched for the first time. Reminded me a lot of The Big Lebowski.
I love 1940s private eye film noir, and I also love Humphrey Bogart films with his often partner Peter Lorr. The big sleep, Maltese falcon, and of course Casablanca are all great and I own each one of them on dvd. Humphrey plays sort of a similar type of hardboiled, witty, yet also romantic character in much of his stuff which suits him great, it's his specialty. He's often a tough "every man for himself " type. Like in Casablanca when Lorr suddenly gets in a heap of trouble and Bogart says "I don't stick my neck out for nobody." Bogart is the same here with numerous similar examples. And Bogart and Lauren Becall's romantic chemistry is fabulous.
shareMurder, My Sweet is probably a bit more faithful to Chandler in tone, especially because the somewhat younger, taller, beefier Dick Powell is much closer physically to Marlowe than is Bogart. While The Big Sleep is surprisingly faithful to the novel in plot (major differences: Bacall's part is greatly enlarged and the motives and details of the murders are omitted or changed for Production Code reasons), and much of the dialogue is reproduced, it is as much a star vehicle for Bogart (who is a better actor than Powell) as a film noir. Both are great movies, I prefer The Big Sleep by a small amount.
shareI've never seen Murder, my sweet yet but it's on my list. I also want to see The African queen with Bogart. I've seen Dick Powell in several of those Busby Berkeley films with Ruby Keeler (who is beautiful) in Gold diggers 33, and 35, Dames, Footlight parade, and 42nd st. I love those types of old films too. I also love The great Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld girl, Broadway melody 29, 36, 38, and 40. And I love Judy Garland films and Esther Williams films. There's no time like the 1930s and 1940s in film. And I love the different film noirs too I stated in my other comment. And James Cagney films such as Public Enemy, Angels with dirty faces, and Footlight parade (which I already mentioned). I also love Orson Wells' Citizen Kane and The third man. Those years were called the Golden age for a reason.
shareDick Powell fought hard to change his musical image (and I love those Busby Berkeley movies also) with Murder, My Sweet. The film is based on Chandler's second Marlowe novel Farewell, My Lovely and that was the original title of the film (and it was released under that title in England). However, early previews showed that viewers assumed that a movie entitled Farewell, My Lovely starring Dick Powell was a musical comedy. Thus, the title change. Powell was fine in this and successfully changed his image. But he wasn't Bogie.
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