Out of the Past, is a particularly unique example in the genre of film noir; while most of the shots are lit for night, the shadows are not as prominent. In terms of representing the genre, most of the scenes do not take advantage of the use of shadow that often covers faces and bodies and sometimes, as a result, even distorts a character’s appearance.The film is narrated, focusing mainly upon a flashback to drive the plot forward. In terms of the setting, it is showing a common trait of the genre.Most of the scenes take place in urban locations, despite a few scenes shot in the country, while the nature scenes that are shot even in the calmest places are darkened.

In this film we see a man, Phillip, trying to isolate himself to a small remote town and leave his past behind. Unfortunately for him his past catches up to him, in the form of his old partner when he was a detective. His partner was working for a man who wants Phillip to go and find his old girlfriend who ironically is the wife of another old man she is plotting on. Phillip gets caught up in the middle of this woman, the femme fatale Velma’s, scheme in which she would get her husbands riches and run off with the money. Fortunately Phillip gets tips on and off of who she really is by her stepdaughter Ann and is able to decipher her evil plot before it can come together. In the end he ends up running off with Ann and the movie ends with them kissing in the back of a taxi.

    In “Murder My Sweet” we see a classic noir film in action. We have a detective get entwined in different conflict that revolve around him as gets deeper and deeper into the case. Now for the film it can be argued that there are two femme fatales in this film but I would stick with one, Helen or Velma. As a femme fatal would she does end up double crossing Marlowe but we do not find this out towards the very end. Marlowe admits many times he is not the brightest detective so during his investigation he is never able to piece together that he is on a wild goose chase which attests to his inability to really solve this crime. In other noir films our detectives are the best of the best where here we are left with a detective that only knows as much as the audience. What makes this film different from the others is that Marlowe has a happy ending after the bloody ending in which most of the people he comes into contact with meet their demise. I found this happy ending characteristic of the film very strange compared to all the other films we have watched up until this point. I was sure there was going to be another twist before the credits rolled but alas nothing. Perhaps the negative part of the ending was that he would be temporarily blind but this pales in comparison to other film’s protagonists.

In Murder My Sweet, Philip Marlow, was hired by an ex-con to track down his former girlfriend. He soon finds himself in a complex position after falling in love with this femme fatale. I found the film enjoyable and all the actors were perfect characters, the camera angles created pools of light throughout the film and moody silhouettes. These shadows and angles are one of the themes I’ve picked up watching film noir and are essential to these mysterious films. Even the first shot of this movie hits you with a glaring light in a dark room while Marlow is being questioned by the police. It was truly a beautiful piece of entertainment.

Murder, My Sweet starts in a strange camera angles in the darkness with a lamp where police usually shines at the criminal. This portray a sense darkness and mysterious. Then, Marlowe narrates what had happened to his client and the jade. The femme fatale, Helen Grayle is a tramp that marries to a high society man but she is always cheap and manipulated. Its seems she wants to turn Marlowe into a criminal. Compare to the femme fatale in Double Indemnity, the femme fatale in the Murder, My Sweet never success in seducing Marlowe to achieve her goal. As always, the main character in the noir film is a clever and slick person that able to make things straight at the end of the movie.

            After seeing the film Murder, My Sweet in class one of the moments that really stood out to me was when Philip Marlowe gets drugged and knocked out.  This is a similar occurrence to Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon getting drugged and knocked out.  While both films have the characters getting drugged and knocked out, the experiences couldn’t be more different from one another.  In The Maltese Falcon it’s almost as if Sam Spade isn’t affected by it that much and just wakes up a little while later.  In Murder, My Sweet you get a full on experience of Philip Marlowe’s drugging presented in a “Twilight Zone-ish” way, which is very effective.  With this type of approach, an audience can fully gauge what Marlowe is going through.  When Philip Marlowe finally wakes up you can almost feel and sense how groggy he is.  By incorporating the effects properly and using the story at hand, it makes for a great example of how certain effects can really help aid a story.

Murder, My Sweet is an interesting film noir as it presents new elements that we haven’t seen in the movies we have watched so far. It starts off withPhilip Marlowe who is accused of murder and we go into a flashback to see how he got into this situation. All the classic material is present: bright lights of the noir city, the quick witted, money-grubbing, playful-at-times protagonist, the beautiful yet manipulative femme fatale, grungy workplace, shadows : all the things we have come used to seeing in the movies we’ve been watching.

1944 was a big year for film noir. Early film noirs  Double Indeminity and Murder, My Sweet were all released near the end of ’44 and all were box office hits.

A very nice film noir. It is a standard American melodrama, a story with complex, innumerable twists and turns, combined with the generated lingering mystery in the viewer’s mind until the last moment before the end of the movie, it was untied step by step.

Most of the film noir, the leading man is always clever, quick mind, very strong. “Murder My Sweet” is an exception, Marlowe gives a clumsy, silly feeling. The entire film seems perturbed.

The femme fatale Helen is a nice character with mature and fragile dual characteristics. She performed very vividly. That ‘is why each film noir is inseparable from a femme fatale.

However, story is so delicate, two stories perfectly strung together. Story One: Private detective looking for criminals prop former’s lover. Story Two: The classic femme fatale story.

Murder My Sweet is a Noir film circled around another private eye named Philip Marlowe, who encounters a case about this Jade necklace little did he know it was all a set up job, and not a pretty one to be involved in. In his words he’s going to be stepping into a “Black Pool”. I really enjoyed the cunning personality bought by Mr. Marlowe and his sense of humor as well, reminded me of Samuel Spade for The Maltese Falcon. Both character swing side to side on how they play the game, and who there’re playing it for. The characters are strong in will and know how to “talk the talk” when it comes to getting information. Of course both men ended up having the obstacle known that the femme fatale, but both over came them and executed justice.

Throughout the film Marlowe brings up this expression of a “black pool” he steps into whenever he gets knockout. To seems to me this black pool is almost like a dream he enters, or rather nightmare because when is entered into the psych ward we seem to envision what exactly happens during that time.I thought it was an interesting moment to included in the film, almost like he replays the moments were tension and fear are the highest for details. Still one thing i did enjoy more from this film rather then other Noir films we’ve seen in class is the fact there are not open questions. The case is closed and everyone gets there final justice, the hero remains alive and ends up reliving true feelings towards the end of the film for Mr. Grayle’s daughter and ends up with her as well. All in all i thought it was a great film and it was nice to revisit the characteristics of Samuel Spade.

First paper – due Oct. 17
Midterm – on Oct. 24

Primary Sources
ex. James M. Cain, _Double Indemnity_
Cain’s diary
Cain’s autobiography
draft manuscripts
letters written by author
contemporaneous book review

Secondary Sources
film textbook
later reviews of books reflecting back on earlier period
student paper
scholarly book or journal article
critical scholarly edition of a text