Mystery Monday: Murder, My Sweet

Mystery Monday: Murder, My Sweet

Murder mystery movies were quite popular during WWII; an interesting fact considering the violence associated with war. Perhaps because the audience knew the films were fiction or they wanted a "puzzle" to solve is what made them well-liked. For whatever reason, the books of Graham Greene, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and many other mystery writers were made into movies almost as quickly as they could write them.

One of the movies, which is my favorite, is "Murder, My Sweet," based on Chandler's novel "Farewell, My Lovely." The film features Dick Powell as PI Philip Marlowe, Claire Trevor, and Anne Shirley (who retired at age 26 shortly after making this movie). It's an interesting film because Marlowe is not only part of investigation, but he is also part of the story because of almost becoming a victim of the murderer, not once but twice! Then during the "take down" he is temporarily blinded by the flash from a gun. Not the best way to tie up your case.

Breaking all the rules of writing, the book and the movie start with flashback, but the scene prompts so much intrigue, the reader and viewer can't help but want to continue.

Dick Powell primarily played in light comedies and musicals during the 1930s and early 1940s, so Hollywood was surprised at his casting as Marlowe. He took to the role, and the film was a rousing success. Many critics feel that it is the "purest version of Chandler on film," successfully capturing the noir flavor of the book as well as the first person narrative.

The film went on to win the Edgar Award from Mystery Writers of America in 1946.

View the trailer.

Mystery Monday: Murder, My Sweet

Mystery Monday: Murder, My Sweet

Farewell, My Lovely
First Edition

Hollywood has been turning books into movies since its inception, and the 1930s and 1940s were no exception. During these two decades, film makers took several of the crime novels written by such greats as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and produced highly successful pictures. Murder, My Sweet was a 1944 adaptation of Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely. The reason for the title change? Studio executives were concerned the public would think the movie was a musical.

Chandler, who was born in Chicago, but raised in England after the divorce of his parents, did not publish his first novel until he was 50 years old. His "day job" was as an accountant, and he eventually rose to the position of Vice President at Dabney Oil. He lost his job during the Depression and decided to go into writing full time. There was a large market for short stories and serial pieces, and Chandler found his niche in the "hard-boiled" detective style popularized by Hammett and Earle Stanley Gardner.

Author Raymond Chandler

Moving to California, he worked on several screenplays including Double Indemnity and Strangers on a Train. By the mid 1940s his books were selling so well, he could pick and choose his projects. Considered to be one of Chandler's masterpieces by most critics and movie goers, Farewell, My Lovely continues to be in print. It was remade into a movie under the original book title in 1975 with Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe, There were also several radio adaptations.

For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, the story begins with Detective Marlowe involved in a missing persons case. While at a bar, he happens to see an ex-con looking for his girlfriends who was supposed to have waited for him during his jail term. Frustrated at the lack of answers he gets about the woman's whereabouts, the felon kills the nightclub owner. Because the victim is a black man, there is little interest from the police in finding his murderer. Marlowe decides to hunt down the girlfriend in an effort to find the killer.

Movie Poster
Murder My Sweet

Typical of Chandler novels, there are twists and turns, police corruption, secret identities, and blackmail. Set in the fictional location of Bay City, most scholars agree that it is a stand-in for Santa Monica, well-known for its government corruption during the Depression. The story itself is a compilation of ideas and plot lines from three of Chandler's short stories. A classic noir book, Farewell, My Lovely is a highly entertaining read. Check your public library. You'll probably find it on the shelves.

Mystery Monday: Author Helen Eustis

At a time when mystery books seemed to be split into two schools – the hard-boiled detective story (think Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett) or the cozy whodunit (Agatha Christie), author Helen Eustis burst on the scene with a new type of mystery fiction – psychological suspense. Her books featured innovative plots and commentary on gender and class issues of the 1940s and 1950s.

Born in Cincinnati, OH on January 31, 1916, Ms. Eustis passed away in January of this year. After a stint in business school, she graduated from Smith College in 1938. She then pursued a doctorate in English at Columbia University before giving up her studies in favor of a writing career.

She was not a prolific fiction writer – only publishing seven novels during her career. But when she did write fiction, her work did well. Nineteen forty seven was a good year for her. The Horizontal Man won the Edgar for best first novel, and her short story An American Home received an O'Henry Prize. Her novel The Fool Killer was adapted into a 1965 film starring Anthony Perkins and Edward Albert.

When asked about her motivation in creating her characters in The Horizontal Man, a story in which a philandering English professor is murdered at a small college replete with psychologically unstable students and professors, she said she wrote it “because she knew so many people in college she would like to murder.”

In addition to her mystery novels, Ms. Eustis wrote for Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker and other magazines. In later years she translated books written in French by authors including Christiane Rochefort and Georges Simenon.

Consider picking up one of these fascinating reads.