Murder, My Sweet

Director Edward Dmytryk put himself on the map with this impressionistic adaptation of Raymond Chandler's detective novel FAREWELL, MY LOVELY. It was also a big turning point in the career of Dick Powell, who before this film was known only as a young male lead in countless musicals opposite Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell. Here he shows grittiness and snap as the hard-boiled detective Phillip Marlowe, who finds himself ensnared in an elaborate net of murder and deceit. At the center of the mystery is a missing jade necklace and a dim-witted but dangerous thug named Moose (Mike Mazurki) who's hired Marlowe to find his lost girlfriend, Velma. In one memorable sequence, Marlowe finds himself vividly hallucinating after waking from a drug-induced stupor. He also gets beaten up and later seduced by a mysterious hard-as-nails blonde (Claire Trevor). Otto Kruger, Miles Mander, Anne Shirley, and Ralf Harolde are but a few of the interesting faces in the cast. Film noir doesn't get much blacker or more enjoyable than this moody classic.