Murder, My Sweet (1944)

MURDER, MY SWEET  (1944)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Edward Dmytryk
    Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley,
    Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Miles Mander
Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe spends a lot of time getting knocked unconscious, while trying to solve a case that involves some stolen jade, a couple of murders and a missing dame. This is pretty good, once you get used to Dick Powell playing Marlowe. He hasn't got the back-alley aura that Bogart and Mitchum brought to the role, but the film was pivotal in his career, a transition from lightweight leads in musicals to more mature, tough-guy parts. The drug-induced dream sequence is a highlight. Former child star Anne shirley married producer Adrian Scott the year after she made this, and never appeared on screen again.