Dark are the Noirvember Days Vol 2: “Murder, My Sweet” (1944)
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Who is Dick Powell and why is his involvement in this movie considered (by the studio, at least) to be 1944’s biggest movie surprise? Dick Powell was an actor and singer most known for his roles in…
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Murder, My Sweet opens with a blinded and blindfolded Phillip Marlowe sitting under the hot lights of a police interrogation. We’re not sure what has transpired recently, but we do find out that it ended in a couple of murders. To make sense of this whole affair and prove his innocence, Marlowe’s narration takes the cops (and us) back to the very beginning.

Marlowe’s detective agency is in desperate need of paying clients, which encourages him to accept a job from one “Moose” Malloy when he shows up at Marlowe’s office late one night. Malloy is a hulking, slow-witted goon played expertly by Mike Mazurki. Moose just finished serving 8 years behind bars and has hit the streets in search of his old girlfriend, a nightclub singer named Velma. Things have changed since Moose has been away. Velma’s old club has a new owner and no one there seems to even remember a redheaded singer named Velma. Marlowe’s got his work cut out for him this time but, as long as Moose is paying, what’s the harm in poking around a bit?

Relying on his finely honed detective skills (by which I mean, he goes to a different bar and pays for information), Marlowe tracks down Jessie Florian, the widow of the former nightclub owner. Mrs. Florian is “a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud.” Some guys get all the luck. Marlowe attempts to get Florian to spill her guts but she’s only interested in one thing and it comes in a bottle. In between drinks, Marlowe catches the widow concealing information about Velma: one of her old publicity photos. Florian claims that Velma is dead, but why would she go to the trouble of hiding the photo? Something’s not adding up, but Marlowe has run out of leads for the moment.

Because the first storyline isn’t confusing enough, Murder, My Sweet takes this opportunity to toss in another one. The next morning, Marlowe returns to his office and finds a man, Lindsay Marriott, waiting for him. The prim and proper Marriott wants to hire Marlowe as a bodyguard for the evening. It seems he is meeting a group of men in a remote location to drop off some money, but he initially refuses to divulge any other information. Marlowe is about to give him the brushoff until Marriott finally comes clean a bit and admits the money is to buy back a friend’s stolen jewels. That information, and $100 just to accompany Marriott on the ride, is enough to convince Marlowe.

Unfortunately, the evening doesn’t go as planned. Marlowe is knocked out and Marriott is killed, his head (and stylish pencil-thin mustache) bashed to oblivion with a sap. To make matters worse, the ransom money is gone and the jewelry is still missing. Later that evening, after Marlowe returns to civilization and gets his head wound examined, the cops don’t exactly buy his story. They even go so far as to wonder if Marlowe was involved with the jewel thieves from the start and has been left behind to take the fall. Marlowe is also warned to stay away from Jules Amthor. We don’t know who this is yet, but it appears he is somehow connected to the police investigation.

You would think Marlowe was giving away free samples or something, because there is ANOTHER person waiting in his office upon his return from the police station. This time it’s not a giant goon or a perfumed playboy but instead a pretty lady (Anne Shirley). Ooooh. She claims to be “Miss Allison” from The Post and begins to pump Marlowe for information about his involvement in the Marriott debacle and the stolen….jade?! Aha, so it was jade! The only problem is, no one ever mentioned jade. Acting on a hunch, Marlowe turns the tables on his guest and learns “Miss Allison” isn’t a reporter at all and is named Ann Grayle. Ann claims the jade belonged to her father, which strikes Marlowe as odd because he believed Lindsay Marriott was buying it back for a woman. It turns out that the woman in question is Mr. Grayle’s wife and Ann’s stepmother. But how is she connected to Marriott?! Are you confused yet? Next up is a visit to the Grayle estate to hopefully get some answers. But don’t hold your breath.

At stately Grayle manor, Marlowe gets a crash course in jade from the elderly Mr. Leuwen Grayle, and learns more about the missing jewelry: an expensive jade necklace. When the old timer gets tired of discussing priceless accessories and heads off for a nap, Marlowe has a drink & flirt session with the lovely Mrs. Helen Grayle (played by Claire Trevor). Helen explains that she and Lindsay Marriott had been out dancing the night of the hold-up, and were stopped by the thieves on their way home. However, we still aren’t sure how the thieves knew Helen or why she’d be wearing the jade necklace out on the town. The name of Jules Amthor pops up again, and Helen informs Marlowe that Amthor is some kind of psychic consultant Marriott had been visiting to work on his various issues. And who should appear as Marlowe prepares to depart? Why, none other than Jules Amthor himself! We don’t know the reason for his visit to the Grayles, but I’m sure we’ll find out together.

That evening, Helen drops by Marlowe’s apartment to officially hire him to find the missing jade. They head to The Coconut Beach Club for a drink but, after Helen excuses herself to visit the restroom, Ann appears with a warning. She claims that Helen has already left the club and that Marlowe is being deliberately sidetracked. Then Ann offers to hire Marlowe and pay him MORE than Helen just to forget the entire thing. Your head may be spinning as it is, but then Marlowe spots MOOSE MALLOY (that lumbering lummox whose quest for Velma started this whole ball rolling) trying to catch his eye from across the room. What in God’s name is going on?!

Moose has a guy he wants Marlowe to meet, so he “gently persuades” him to ditch Ann and leave with him instead. Ann’s already gone by this point, so no harm done. Off we go with the mountainous Moose to meet his guy. If you guessed his guy is Jules Amthor, drinks are on me because his guy is Jules Amthor. How did Moose get mixed up with Amthor? There isn’t time to worry about that at the moment because Amthor wants Marlowe to spill his guts about what evidence the police have against him. By this point, Marlowe is operating off the theory that Marriott and Amthor were working together, with Amthor using his role as a consultant/advisor to scout out and handpick wealthy women for Marriott to wine, dine, and ultimately rob with his crew. However, in the case of Helen’s jade, something went wrong and the necklace is missing. Marlowe reasons that Marriott got cold feet and hired him as backup to prevent any skullduggery, but I’m not sure we ever get a straight answer here.

Amthor has lied to Moose and told him that Marlowe knows where Velma is and is deliberately withholding the information, so it appears Marlowe’s two cases may be connected after all! Moose is so doggedly in pursuit of his lost Velma that he gets a little violent with Marlowe. Amthor’s crony, Dr. Sonderberg, shoots Marlowe full of drugs and holds him prisoner for a few days in the hopes that he’ll reveal the location of the jade necklace. Marlowe manages to escape from his prison despite the fact that he is “tripping balls”, as the kids say. On his way out, he reveals to Moose that Amthor has been playing him for a sucker and lovable Moose encourages him to keep looking for Velma. All is well between client and detective…for the moment.

There is still about half an hour of film remaining, but I think this is a good stopping place in order to let you experience the remaining twists and turns firsthand. Where’s the jade? Where’s Velma? What’s the connection, if any, with the widow Florian? Why is Marlowe blindfolded? Will murderous psychopaths and liars ever stop showing up at his office? Will he settle down with a nice girl and stop being such a cynical bastard? You’ll get the answers to at least some of these questions.