Murder, My Sweet (1944)

 “How do you feel?”

“Like a duck in a shooting gallery.”

            When I think of films that are considered Film Noir I think of gritty places and gritty people, night time sleaziness, detectives with bad attitudes, and women with ulterior motives. Not all Noirs have every single one of those elements they either have one or two with a touch of high class glamour. There is just one Noir that I have seen so far in my Classic Hollywood/Film Noir viewings that has all of the characteristics I think of and that film is Murder, My Sweet from 1944.

            Detective Philip Marlow (Dick Powell) is being interrogated with bandages covering his eyes. He was involved in some heavy stuff and the police believe he played a major role in the crimes that were committed. Philip recalls the story that lead to him needing the bandages.

            Some time ago Philip was in his office looking out the window at nighttime LA. He turns around to see a large man standing in there who snuck in quiet as a church mouse. The big guy’s name is Moose and he wants to find a girl named Velma who he has not seen in eight years. Philip does not think anything will come of finding the girl since she disappeared so long ago but he tags along with Moose to the last place he saw her. Eight years ago Moose left Velma at the night club where she was a dancer. They had been engaged but he was being sent to prison. The night club was turned into a bar. Moose starts asking if anyone has seen Velma and it seems he had been going there quite a lot since everyone is sick of his question and tells him to get out. Philip gets the idea to look up the wife of the former night club owner Mrs. Florian. He finds her in the phonebook and pays her a visit. Mrs. Florian is a raging alcoholic she can barely keep herself up in a chair but she manages to answer some of Philip’s questions about Velma. She goes to a chest and takes out some pictures. Philip notices that she left one photograph in there and it was one of Velma. Mrs. Florian yells out that Velma is dead she died years before. Philip leaves and as he walks past the house he sees in the window Mrs. Florian in a panic calling someone.

            From the elevator boy in the building his office is located in, Philip has a man waiting for him in his office when he comes in the following day. The man is Lindsay Marriot and he needs Philip’s help with recovering some jewels that were stolen from his friend. The only reason Philip takes the job is because Marriot is paying him a lot of money. That nigh Philip drives Marriot to deserted place off the roads where the meeting is to take place. Philip gets out of the car and is immediately hit over the head unconscious. When he comes to Marriot has been killed and he sees a girl standing over him asking him if she is alright and then she runs away.

            And this begins Philip Marlowe’s adventure into finding some apparently missing very expensive jade jewelry, getting kidnapped and drugged for three days, and being blinded by the flash of a gun going off.

            The story gets a little long and complicated so I will spare any confusion and me just getting things wrong. And plus, why would I want to give away how Velma is found? You need something to make you want to watch this film!

            Murder, My Sweet was not bad. There were some parts that dragged and made me bored (ADHD is a killer!) but for the most part it was very good Dick Powell was amazing. Before this he had been known as a singer and good boy in musicals in the 1930s. When he went over to RKO they wanted him to do musicals. Powell told the studio he would make musicals but only if he got to do a drama first. Well, Murder, Sweet became a success and Powell was cast in grittier more dramatic roles. This is the Dick Powell I like seeing I am not a fan of his love sick sing dancing little boy roles. From start to finish Murder, My Sweet is gritty and raw and dark. Philip Marlowe is put through the ringer between getting knocked out twice and drugged for three days. None of the characters are really likable including Philip. There is not glitz and glamour to Murder, My Sweet like some other Film Noirs and that to me is what makes it one of the greats of the genre. 

Hard to Get (1938)

“Ah, your little games beginning to backfire on you?”

            Maggie Richards (Olivia de Havilland) is a rich spoiled young woman. Her mother and younger sister are leaving for vacation in Connecticut. Maggie does not want to go she wants to stay in the city. Her mother and sister are a terrible annoyance. The mother calls for the father. The father puts in foot down a few minutes that neither he nor Maggie will be joining them on vacation. But it is not long before the father lets the mother walk all over him and makes him tell Maggie she must go. In a fit Maggie races out of the out of the house and jumps in her chauffer’s car and leaves.

            Maggie comes to a gas station to fill up the car. She does not have any money on her so she asks the attendant to put the payment on credit and send the bill to her father. The owner of the station Bill Davis (Dick Powell) comes out. He does not believe a word Maggie says because she does not have any ID on her. She tries to get away but winds up backing up into a truck. Maggie gets out of the car to argue some more but Bill picks her up and carries her into one of the stop’s motel rooms to make her clean to repay her debt. Again Maggie tries to run away this time by jumping out one of the windows but  Bill catches her trying to go out. Eventually Maggie cleans all the rooms and goes home. As soon as she gets home she tells her father what happened to her and wants Bill fired since the station uses oil from the company the father owns. Much to Maggie’s displeasure her father sides with Bill on his course of action to make Maggie pay. He feels his daughter has been too sheltered and has had everything taken care of for her. She has to work this problem out for herself.

            The next day Maggie goes back to the station. She flirts with Bill and lets go of trying to tell him she is rich. He asks her to go out with him sometime maybe later that night thinking she works at night. She lets him think that and agrees to go out with him. On their date Maggie keeps giving Bill her Fifth Avenue address but quickly comes up with the story that she works as a maid in the house. At dinner Bill tells her that he wants to open up a chain of gas stations with motels across the country. Maggie comes up with the idea to ask her “employer” Mr. Richards. She gives Bill a nickname she said she has overheard people calling him as a way of getting in to see him without an appointment.

            Bill goes to see Mr. Richards with his plans the following day. He gets into the office pretty smoothly but the meeting does not go as Bill had hoped it would. As Bill is trying to tell Mr. Richards of his plans the rich man does not listen and goes on trying to wrestle his butler (throughout the film Mr. Richards and the butler play sports and other games and bet for money. He usually winds up losing). Mr. Richards sends Bill over to someone else named Atwater jut to get rid of him. Atwater and some of his employees give Bill a hard time. But Bill is determined and keeps going back to Atwater until he is heard.

            Bill goes back to Mr. Richards to say that he could not get in to see Mr. Atwater. He asks Bill where he heard his nickname from in the first place. Bill replies that his (Mr. Richard’s) maid Maggie told him. He knows his daughter set up the whole meeting and has Bill come over for dinner that night. Maggie dresses up as the maid and the actual maid, Hattie, to be the daughter. After dinner Maggie and Bill go out to Central Park for a boat ride and of, course, she really falls in love with him. When Maggie gets home she tells her father that she loves Bill and what she should do. He advises his daughter to tell Bill the truth.

            At Atwater’s office, Bill overhears there will be a party at Atwater’s apartment that night and sees that as his way in to show his plans. He finds Atwater, along with Mr. Richards and a few other men, in a room and they are all talking about him. Maggie walks in the room. He is upset about everything and walks out leaving his plans behind. Mr. Richards and Atwater see something in Bill’s plans. Now both rich business men are interested in Bill’s plans.

            The days and weeks go on. Bill lost his job at the gas station since he was always in the city and now has a new job as a riveter. Since their tactics are not working on an individual level, Mr. Richards and Atwater partner up and come to terms with Bill over his chain of gas stations. He agrees to their terms just as long as he never has to see Maggie again. Bill begins working on his new plans on the station he previously worked for. Maggie comes by to try to apologize. She brings her father along as well as a judge to marry them. At first Bill does not want to marry Maggie until her mother and sister come and create a giant fuss. They get married to make her mother furious. Maggie and Bill really do love each other and get married inside a motel room to keep the mother out.

            Hard to Get was alright. I always love seeing Olivia de Havilland in comedy movies since I am so used to seeing her in dramas. The woman really could play any kind of part and be fantastic. Dick Powell is underrated he was also very good at comedy and in the films I have seen him in he never went over the top with his comedy he played it just right. Hard to Get is not the best from either actor. I only suggest watching Hard to Get if you are a fan of either Olivia de Havilland or Dick Powell.  

Dames (1934)

“I'm free, white, and 21. I love to dance AND I'm going to dance.”

            I love how in classic musicals there is always an obstacle for the leads to get through. Most of the ones I have seen are about a girl wanting to be on the stage and a guy who writes a show and falls in love with the ambitious girl. Well, that seems to be the Warner Bros. musical formula anyway. The studio made quite a few like this and they mainly starred Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell. And so did their 1934 film Dames.

            Horace P. Hemingway (Guy Kibbee) goes to see his wife’s rich cousin Ezra Ounce at his office. Just to get to Ezra Horace had to go through multiple levels of security and announcements. When he finally gets to Ezra the eccentric millionaire tells him that he wants to divide his money while he is still living. He wants to give Barbara (Keeler), Horace’s daughter, ten million dollars and does not want to give a penny to the “bad fruit” Jimmy (Powell) because he is an actor. Ezra believes actors and theaters and plays are immoral and corrupt. Horace goes along with whatever Ezra says because he wants the ten million dollars. Ezra tells Horace he plans on coming back to NYC with him to visit his cousin.

            On the train ride back Horace goes to his room for the night. When he turns on the lights he sees a young woman named Mabel (Blondell) in his bed. At first he thinks he has the wrong room but Mabel tells him she needed a place to stay she got stuck somewhere and could not get a ride back so she snuck on and took the room. Horace does not want Ezra finding out about Mabel being in his room and he does not want to stay in there with her but he has no choice. He sleeps on his bags. In the morning Horace leaves Mabel twenty dollars and a note on his business card not to mention anything to anyone.

            Barbara is out with Jimmy in a park. They love each other. Barbara questions if it is alright for them to be in love and he tells her they are thirteenth cousins. That night when Ezra is over Jimmy comes by the house and announces he is someone from Ezra’s company so he can come in. He wants Ezra to back his new show since everyone else has turned him down. He gets Ezra so worked up he comes down with a bad case of the hiccups. The only way to get rid of them is if he has this elixir that is not widely sold or made anymore. Barbara manages to find a bottle at the drugstore. Jimmy is there waiting for her and they go out on a ferry ride to Staten Island.

            Jimmy thinks he gets his play backed by someone. The whole thing was too easy. Mabel storms into the office and tells them all the man who has agreed to back their show is a crook he is the one who left her stranded to find her own way back. He owes her fifty-seven dollars in back pay on top of everything else. When the guy runs away Mabel tells everyone to leave she wants to talk to Jimmy about his play. He sings his song he wrote about Barbara to her. Barbara is not too happy about Jimmy singing their song to someone else. He tells Mabel he will give her a part if he can help get the show backed. Mabel plans to blackmail Horace for the money. She kisses Jimmy just as Barbara walks in.

            Jimmy and Mabel disguise themselves and sneak into Ezra’s moral meeting. When Horace goes to his room, Mabel in sitting in his bed. Threatening to call for Ezra she tells him she wants twenty thousand dollars and she will not say a word of their meeting to anyone. He gives her the money.

            Ezra, Horace, and Mathilda (Zasu Pitts, Horace’s wife) go to the theater to see Jimmy’s play Hot and Sweet. Ezra brings along a group of thugs so when he gives a signal they will stop the show. Ezra is so nervous about the show he comes down with the hiccups and sips some of his elixir that has more alcohol in it and he keeps drinking it as the show goes on. Eventually Horace and Mathilda have some and by the end of the play they are sauced. The play goes well the crowd likes it. During one of the last numbers Mabel waves up to Horace. Thinking Mabel is waving at him Ezra waves with his handkerchief which is the signal for the men to attack. He and his men cause a riot in the theater. Ezra, Horace, and some of the girls from the show are brought to jail. Ezra and Horace do not want to be let out they are enjoying being with the ladies.

            The cast was very good and very enjoyable. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler always played the same characters in their films. I like Powell and Keeler just gets on my nerves. She was not a very good actress, singer, or dancer. This film really belongs to Joan Blondell she was hysterical. She plays the same kind of character over and over but she was hilarious in her few scenes. I just love her sass and attitude. She has a number called “The Girl at the Ironing Board” that was great. Blondell had so much energy and she was just so good singing and dancing in it.

            The musical numbers besides “The Girl at the Ironing Board” were boring. I really do not like Busby Berkeley’s dance numbers they are long and unbelievable. I always find myself fast forwarding through them. I do, however, like their Art Deco look.

            Dames was a cute musical but it is definitely not one of the best ever made. The story is typical except for Joan Blondell blackmailing Guy Kibbee. This film, as I said, really belongs to Joan Blondell she just steals it. I can only suggest watching Dames if you really like musicals, like Warner Bros. or anyone in the cast.