Film review: Murder, My Sweet (1944)

It's Philip Marlowe, but not as you know him.  I've seen him played by Bogart, Elliot Gould and I know there's a Robert Mitchum version, but here he's played by Dick Powell, and... eh.  He just doesn't convince me.  For one thing, he's kind of squirty (it's particularly comical when the femme fatale comes in on him shaving in his undershirt and comments approvingly about his "build", when he has shrimpy shoulders and a sunken chest).  For another, he just doesn't have the tough guy aura (which can make up for the shrimpiness, as Bogey was a skinny 5'8" but you never question his Marlowe).  Also, he bears rather a striking resemblance to Dana Carvey.  Other than that, it's a serviceable Chandler adaptation, replete with dialog sharp enough to cut you with and with people called things like Moose Malloy wandering around.  Marlowe is hired by said lunk to try to find a woman he loved eight years ago before he was put away.  She was "cute as lace pants," he says.  Meanwhile, a man named Lindsay Marriott also hires him to go along with him as he goes to a deserted canyon road to buy back some stolen jewels.  But Marlowe gets knocked out and Marriott gets bludgeoned to death.  Apparently the jewels belonged to the rich young wife

of the father of a young woman who comes to see him (poorly disguised as a reporter) the next day.  It's a tangled web that involves Marlowe getting knocked out two more times, having his eyes scorched by a gun going off right next to them (he's got them bandaged when we first see him, in the bookending device common to noirs) and having a hallucinogenic dream sequence when his kidnappers pump him full of narcotics to get him to talk (they think he's got the stolen jade necklace).  His love interest (the daughter) is pretty striking, but she walked away from acting after this film:

The actor who played Moose Malloy also had a fascinating backstory.  No spoilers for the film (which, like a lot of Chandlers, is pretty hard to follow), but I will say this: a major plot twist is given away by the cast listing on IMdB...