Murder My Sweet (1944) Queer Film. B+

DIRECTOR: Edward Dmytryk.

BOTTOM LINE: “Murder, My Sweet” was released under its original book title, “Farewell My Lovely,” in the United Kingdom, but was retitled to a less mellifluous moniker for its United States release. It was the first film to feature author Raymond Chandler’s primary character, the hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe and here, I think, is a good time to dig a little deeper and list those actors who have played Marlowe down through the years:

1944: Dick Powell in “Murder My Sweet/Farewell My Lovely.”

1946: Humphrey Bogart in “The Big Sleep.”

1947: Robert Montgomery in “Lady in the Lake.”

1969: James Garner in “Marlowe.”

1973: Elliott Gould in “The Long Goodbye.”

1975: Robert Mitchum in “Farewell My Lovely.”

2022: Liam Neeson in “Marlowe.”

Dick Powell is in excellent company here, and he acquits himself admirably. He also deserves credit for being the first actor to play Philip Marlowe on screen and for making a surprisingly smooth transition from Warner Bros. crooner to hard‑boiled private eye. It can’t have been easy, especially since director Edward Dmytryk and screenwriter John Paxton twist the plot into knots worthy of Howard Hawks’s The Big Sleep. The supporting cast is uniformly strong—Esther Howard, Anne Shirley, Claire Trevor, Otto Kruger, Miles Mander, and the marvelous Mike Mazurki—but nothing here quite matches Humphrey Bogart’s legendary bookstore flirtation with Dorothy Malone in Hawks’s masterpiece.

Which brings us to the film’s LGBTQ+ character. His name is Lindsay Marriott, played by character actor Douglas Walton. He appears in only two scenes before being dispatched in true queer‑coded fashion. We sense his queerness even before he enters: the elevator boy who has let him up to Marlowe’s office remarks, “He smells nice.” And then Marriott materializes—mincing around the office in a fabulous overcoat and ascot, as jittery as Bette Davis without a cigarette. Despite his protests, he is being blackmailed into making a money‑for‑jewels exchange. It’s all rather sad, and very much of its era.

Dmytryk and the film’s producer, Adrian Scott, were members of the Hollywood Ten and served jail time for their Communist Party affiliations and for refusing to capitulate to HUAC. Blacklisted, Dmytryk eventually reversed course and named names—including that of director Jules Dassin—which allowed his career to recover, though at a steep moral cost. Scott refused to cooperate, moved to England like many in his situation, and never regained his Hollywood footing. Anne Shirley, who married Scott and retired from acting after this film, sent him a “Dear John” letter requesting a divorce, which she obtained in 1948 after four years of marriage. She lived the rest of her life quietly in Los Angeles.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Harry J. Wild

RKO

Remade, under the book’s original title, by director Dick Richards, with Robert Mitchum, in 1975

NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO, APPLE TV+, YOUTUBE

https://thebrownees.net/farewell-my-lovely-1975-queer-film-b/

https://thebrownees.net/85-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1968/

https://thebrownees.net/85-queer-films-from-the-new-hollywood-1968-1980/

https://thebrownees.net/the-great-cinematographers-of-hollywoods-golden-age/