Director: Edward Dmytryk
Producer: Adrian Scott
Screenwriter: John Paxton from a novel by Raymond Chandler
Cinematographer: Harry J. Wild
Music: Roy Webb
Studio: RKO Pictures 1944
Main Acting: Dick Powell and Claire Trevor
“The only reason I took the job was because my bank account was trying to crawl under a duck.”
“The office bottle hadn’t sparked me up so I’d taken up my little black book and decided to go grouse hunting. Nothing like soft shoulders to improve my morale.”
“Nothing bothered me, the two twenties felt nice and snug against my appendix.”
“Mike Florian had ran the joint until 1939. He died in 1940 in the middle of a glass of beer, his wife Jesse finished it for him.”
“She was a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who’d take a drink if she had to knock you down to get the bottle.”
Murder My Sweet holds a special place in my heart when it comes to film noir. It was the first time I had watched a noir movie, consciously knowing what the genre was about. I had seen other examples in the past, but not with the acute awareness that I was viewing a specific type of movie. If I were overly sentimental I might even have placed this picture at number one. It is a personal favorite that even without the nostalgic attachment still shines bright as a cinematic masterpiece in my eyes. (more…)