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For a suspense writer whose observations of mid-20th-century Los Angeles proved so gimlet-eyed that he has been enshrined as the city's unofficial bard, Raymond Chandler had a bumpy fling with Hollywood. The first of his five major novels to be filmed during the classic period of film noir, Farewell, My Lovely was first turned into an installment in the Falcon series of programmers, then into Edward Dmytryk's 1944 Murder, My Sweet (a success, but too short; to do justice to Chandler's atmospherics and milieu demands longer time spans than the movies allot them).

From 1946, probably the most adroit blending of style and content taken from his works was Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep. But its popularity, then and now, owes as much to the chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall – and to the frisky, irreverent tone Hawks brought to the movie – as to Chandler, whose outlook was one of dispassionate observation tinged with disgust.

The following year, The Brasher Doubloon, from the book The High Window, can be deemed a failure. That leaves the odd case of The Lady in the Lake, also from ‘47, which Robert Montgomery, starring as Philip Marlowe, ill-advisedly decided to direct himself. The movie labors under two huge handicaps: one of technique, the other of tone.

Cited often (and often by those who may not have actually seen the movie) for its subjective use of the-camera-as-character, The Lady in The Lake flounders on an idea that may have sounded good when initially floated but had to have looked bad once the first rushes came in.

Except for an explanatory prologue (the necessity for which should have raised red flags) or in scenes where he's caught in a window or mirror, Montgomery's Marlowe remains unseen. We, through the camera lens, are the detective. Conceivably, this gimmick might have worked at a later date, when swift, lithe Steadicams were part of Hollywood's technical arsenal. But in1947, the camera lumbers along as though it were being shoved through wet sand. As a result the pace slows to deadening, as though a senescent Marlowe were tracking down clues from the rail of an aluminum walker.

In consequence, time that might profitably been expended on filling in missing pieces of the puzzle gets wasted on Marlowe's getting from point A to point B. Vital and evocative parts of Chandler's novel take place in the summer resort areas of Puma Point and Little Fawn Lake; that snail of a camera, however, was not up to a hike in the great outdoors, so the movie preserves none of them.

And in tossing away chunks of the novels to accommodate budgets and shooting schedules, movie versions (like this one) mistake Chandler's strengths, which did not lay in plot. (The scriptwriters on The Big Sleep, including William Faulkner, couldn't figure out who killed one of the characters, so they asked Chandler, who didn't know either.)

His strengths were in weaving intricate webs of duplicity and deceit shot through with corruption and dread. That was heavy fare for Hollywood – even during the noir cycle. So stories tended to be simplified and atmosphere lightened: the freighted response gave way to the wisecrack, suggestive tension between two characters turned into a meet-cute, the brooding loner became a red-blooded American joe.

So, in The Lady in The Lake, the icy and questionable Adrienne Fromsett of the book (Audrey Totter) is now a sassy minx to Marlowe's snappy man-about-town, and so on. The plot deals with Marlowe's attempts to find a missing woman (an off-screen character whom the Christmas-card credits, in a droll fit of Francophone humor, call Ellay Mort).

Is a verdict possible? Some viewers find the movie's conceits and distortions amateurish and self-congratulating, while others overlook them to find a vintage mystery from postwar vaults. The Lady in The Lake remains a flawed experiment that over the years has developed its own distinctive – if not quite distinguished – period bouquet.

Drawing on his life of crimefighting to write a short story, Raymond Chandler's tough but noble P.I. Philip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery, pulling double duty as actor and director) submits his work to Kingsby Publications, home of such pulp fiction mags as LURID DETECTIVE and MURDER MASTERPIECES. Before he can say "byline," editor Adrienne Fromsett (Audrey Totter) has Marlowe up to his neck in murder, missing dames, and crooked cops -- and you can see things Marlowe's way, literally! Before all those slasher movies came along during the last couple of decades, LADY IN THE LAKE used the subjective camera treatment -- hell, the camera was practically a character in the flick! Throughout most of LADY..., we see everything exactly as Marlowe sees it; the only times we see Marlowe/Montgomery's face is when he looks in a mirror, as well as in a brief prologue, an entrè-acte segment, and an epilogue. In the trailer (featured on the spiffy new DVD version of LADY..., along with an enjoyable and informative commentary track by film historians Alain Silver and James Ursini), MGM's publicity department did its best to push the film as the first interactive movie experience: "MGM presents a Revolutionary motion picture; the most amazing since Talkies began! YOU and ROBERT MONTGOMERY solve a murder mystery together! YOU accept an invitation to a blonde's apartment! YOU get socked in the jaw by a murder suspect!" YOU occasionally start snickering in spite of yourself when the subjective camera gimmick teeters dangerously close to parodying itself, like when Totter moves in for a smooch with Our Hero The Camera. Some of Totter's facial expressions in the first half of the film as she spars verbally with Montgomery are pretty funny, too, though I'm not sure all of them were meant to be (she uses the arched eyebrow technique done so much more effectively later by Eunice Gayson of DR. NO and FROM Russia WITH LOVE, Leonard Nimoy, CQ's Angela Lindvall, The Rock, et al... :-). Having said that, the subjective camera technique works more often than not; in particular, I thought the fight scenes and a harrowing sequence where an injured Marlowe crawls out of his wrecked car worked beautifully. It helps that Steve Fisher provided a good solid screenplay for Raymond Chandler's novel, though Chandler purists were annoyed that the novel's pivotal Little Fawn Lake sequence was relegated to a speech in the recap scene in the middle (apparently they tried to film that scene on location, but the subjective camera treatment proved harder to do in the great outdoors, so they gave up). The performances are quite good overall, including Lloyd Nolan as a dirty cop and an intense dramatic turn by young Jayne Meadows. Montgomery's sardonic snap mostly works well for cynical Marlowe, though he sometimes forgets to tone it down during tender dialogue, making him sound simply cranky. Totter eventually tones down her mugging and becomes genuinely affecting as her Adrienne lets down her guard and begins falling for Marlowe. You may love or hate this LADY..., but if you enjoy mysteries and you're intrigued by offbeat movie-making techniques, give her a try!

Striking camera work letting the viewer see through the eyes of hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe(Robert Montgomery). This is an intriguing Raymond Chandler tale that has the "private dick" solving a murder while seeking a missing socialite. Montgomery directs himself and is primarily only seen in a scene looking in a mirror. Novelty of the camera work is clever and makes YOU part of the movie. Its pretty cool finding the clues. Very apt cast featuring Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Leon Ames and Jane Meadows. Fun to watch.

Out of the many Marlowe novel adaptations, this must be one of the closest to the spirit of the original. Unfortunately Chandler himself does not seem to have had the opportunity to contribute to the screenplay - although there are plenty of Chandleresque wisecracks. The film, unlike most of the other adaptions reflects the original author's full dislike of the cops (although the tough police chief having to answer a telephone call from his daughter during an interrogation is an unusual appeal for the viewer's understanding), and mistrust bordering on pathological hatred of women (I suspect that the ending is an uncharacteristic 'cop out' to assuage the producer's or popular taste). Director/star Robert Montgomery shows great self-restraint by appearing only briefly in the action. When he does show himself, mainly in mirror-reflections, the star appears (as in that other great latter day film noir, China Town) battered and bruised and not at all flattering. The plot is suitably twisted and confusing - just like the novels. And the concept of timing the whole dark affair against the backdrop of the Christmas holidays only emphasises the bleakness of the subject matter. Incidentally the idea of continuing the opening titles' jolly Christmas carol chorus in darker, more disturbing tones throughout the soundtrack is fascinating and I think unique. Audrey Totter (whatever happened to her?) makes a very sexy femme fatale. And as she plays most of her lines to camera we are seduced just as protagonist Marlowe. On top of that, her gowns are absolutely magnificent examples of forties chic. Lloyd Nolan deserves special mention as a superb heavy. What a wonderful example of Hollywood film noir.

If you want a great, serious Philip Marlowe mystery, go check out "The Big Sleep." If you're in a lighter mood, however, this one is well worth watching. The POV is cute and leads to some decent effects, but it's also tremendously goofy sometimes. The dialogue really sells it though. The lessons I learned from this movie were 1) Only men can handle guns. 2) Having four thumbs is bad. 3) Never, ever tell anyone the time. 4) If you try hard enough, you can drink whiskey through your eyes. I'm sure there are hundreds more gnomic sayings, easily applicable to daily life, scattered through it!

Seriously, though, it was a lot of fun to watch, mostly because of the problems with it, and I'd highly recommend it.

I recently saw this at the 2008 Palm Springs Film Noir Festival. Popular actor Robert Montgomery branches out into directing in this Film Noir from 1947 with mixed results. Using a subjective camera technique, Montgemery stars as detective Phillip Marlowe in a film shot from Marlowes point of view and is rarely on screen himself except for occasional mirror reflections and in a few scenes where he relates the story directly to the camera. This POV technique for an entire film can be demanding on the actors who talk to a disembodied camera instead of an actor and can wear thin on an audience after a while but although I did like the film, I can see why others may not. Based on the the Raymond Chandler novel with a screenplay by Steve Fisher who enjoyed success in the Film Noir genre with several film screenplays it has some good witty lines. The film begins with Christmas carols and the opening credits on Chrismas cards and it does take place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but that's the only thing Christmasy about it. It wasn't even released for Christmas and make it's debut in theaters in late January of 1947. Marlowe is set to give up his private eye career and become a writer instead and submits his first manuscript to an agency specializing in pulp fiction and horror stories. Adrienne Fromsett (Audrey Totter) isn't interested in Marlowe's literary talents and instead want to hire him to find out what happened to the missing estranged wife of her boss Derace Kingsby (Leon Ames). Totter's expressions, emotions, wit and beauty make a strong camera presence carry the film. Tom Tully as Cpt. Kane and Lloyd Nolan as Lt. DeGarmot make an excellent good cop-bad cop combination. Dick Simmons as Chris Lavery is excellent in a small role and Jayne Meadows as the mysterious Mildred Haveland is superb in her rapid-fire delivery. Meadows herself was on hand for the film's screening at the festival and did a Q&A for the audience after the screening in which she said she had never seen the film before even when it was first released. Beautiful blonde bit part actress Lila Leeds was only 18 years old when this was filmed in May of 1946 and was probably being groomed by MGM as the next Marilyn Monroe but in 1948 she was arrested along with Robert Mitchum for marijuana possession and as a community service part of her sentence she was given a staring role in the 1949 anti-drug film "Wild Weed." It would be her only starring role and at age 21 her film career was over. Look for great costumes on the actresses in this film by noted designer Irene. There are no location shots in this film and we never make to the lake and only learn of events that happen up there. It's an all-around strange film but a great cast and I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 and recommend it.

I'll get the obvious out of the way first. Robert Montgomery's 'Lady in the Lake (1947)' is most renowned for being one of the only mainstream films to unfold almost entirely from the first-person perspective of the main character, in this case Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. The technique had been used before, albeit on a lesser scale, in the opening five minutes of Rouben Mamoulian's 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).' In 1947, shortly after the release of Montgomery's film, Delmer Daves would take an enormous risk by filming the first hour of 'Dark Passage (1947)' without showing the face of Humphrey Bogart, though the star's status was such that he was eventually forced to emerge from the shadows (after which point, it must be said, the film becomes more conventional and marginally less interesting). Montgomery, in his last film at MGM, was also given the opportunity to direct, and he doesn't flinch from his chosen gimmick. Marlowe's face is seen only during several brief explanatory interludes, and whenever he happens to catch his reflection in the mirror.

Setting aside the gimmick – which MGM optimistically hailed as the greatest cinematic innovation since synchronised sound – 'Lady in the Lake' doesn't quite measure up to other popular Chandler adaptations of the time. Robert Montgomery may have been a great actor – I honestly can't say, this being my first film with him – but his Philip Marlowe doesn't possess the toughness of Bogart in 'The Big Sleep (1946),' nor the cocky swagger of Dick Powell in 'Murder, My Sweet (1944).' The awkwardness of the role is only accentuated by Marlowe's constantly being behind the camera, though even the occasional direct-to-camera interruptions seem to miss the mark. I don't expect that the supporting actors had much experience in speaking directly to a piece of equipment, and so their performances are capable without being particularly memorable. The chemistry between Montgomery and Audrey Totter, the potentially-villainous femme fatale, was mostly stale for this reason, as we're really only seeing one side of their conversation.

Perhaps the film's greatest weakness – and, once again, this all comes back to Montgomery's chosen gimmick – is that everything moves so slowly. One would expect those 1940s movie cameras to have been incredibly clunky, and so, in these pre-Steadicam days, Marlowe ambles from A to B with devastating sluggishness. The first-person technique, however, did work wonderfully in the sequence where Marlowe is being pursued in his car, and also when he must drag himself across the gravel to a public telephone. There are lots of prolonged silences where nothing happens, and, despite striving for realism, the film should have conceded more of a musical soundtrack to fill these voids. The one piece of music put into use, however, was an eerily effective choir song that reminded me of György Ligeti's "Requiem" from '2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).' Overall, 'Lady in the Lake' is a fascinating film noir experiment that doesn't quite manage to pull it off. Even so, it's worth a look for its unique take on Philip Marlowe and several scenes of inarguable excellence.

An experiment by director and lead actor Robert Montgomery in which every shot is a POV representing the perspective of the anti-hero/ star. Since the star is also the director this literalizes the sense that any movie is the manipulative perspective of the filmmakers. The naricisstic implications of this come to as full a fruition as you could ask for in this strange film, with Montgomery's particularly repulsive embodiment of Philip Marlowe receiving lustful gazes from all of the film's many beautiful women. It's hard to imagine when a film seemed more literally masterbatory. That it still manages to be entertaining is an impressive accomplishment. Montgomery's next film as director-star was Ride the Pink Horse, another Noir. But in it, Montgomery's tough guy becomes increasingly marginalized as the narrative progresses, to the point where he seems to almost will himself off the screen. Taken together, the two movies can be viewed as an allegory of Montgomery getting over himself.

When it came to his directorial debut Robert Montgomery bravely chose to shoot this adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel from the point of view of the main protagonist by means of the subjective camera. As the author's screenplay had not been considered suitable a shorter one was written by Steve Fisher.

Although loathed by Chandler himself and unpopular with audiences, this is nonethless an inventive and imaginative treatment which has been somewhat undervalued. The main stumbling block is the pedestrian pacing as the long, seamless takes of characters speaking into the camera as if to Marlowe himself rob the piece of the rapid editing that distinguishes the best 'film noirs' whilst Montgomery's rather chilly portrayal has been compared unfavourably to those of Dick Powell and the quintessential Marlowe of Humphrey Bogart. Good performances throughout with Audrey Totter providing a fascinating take on the customary Femme Fatale together with Tom Tully and Lloyd Nolan as Good Cop/Bad Cop.

Cinematographer Paul Vogel moves the camera so as to simulate Marlowe's eyes and there is an effective use of an eerie, wordless vocal chorus.

The film may have the reputation of being a failure but remains, for this viewer at any rate, an extremely interesting and entertaining one.

The POV of Lady the In The Lake experiment hides the fact that Robert Montgomery wasn't up to the task of being Philip Marlowe. Oh he had the tough talk down pat, but as someone said earlier he was better in Ride The Pink Horse. In this movie he doesn't feel like Marlowe, a Marlowe who can take and give a hard punch. The first confrontation he takes a punch that results in a black eye but it leaves him unconscious! Dick Powell- the surprise Philip Marlowe of all time-and Humphery Bogart-one of the best Marlowes of all time-would've required a shot from Moose Malloy or a sap to the head by some strong arm thugs to go down from one blow like that. Perhaps it was her reaction to a camera instead of an actor that made Audrey Totter seem chilled in their "scenes" together rather than Claire Trevor's cold hearted user and Lauren Bacall's cool cynic in the earlier Marlowe incantations. And MGM was never at that time at least a studio known for hardboiled,gritty crime dramas. The Christmas carols though were a nice touch and Lloyd Nolan who should have played the lead was good as usual in his role as the crooked cop. Nolan had played a PI in some Michael Shayne Bs before the noir cycle began so he knew the mannerisms and Philip Marlowe a tarnished knight with principles would've been a perfect fit. All in all Lady In The Lake is noteworthy for it's groundbreaking experiment, the appeasement of a fading leading man's ego (not the last time either)and some vision into the world of Chandler's alter ego. George Montgomery as Philip Marlowe? Blasphemy! James Garner- a 60s laidback version suitable but also a precursor to Jim Rockford who had his Chandler moments. Roert Mitchum was Philip Marlowe both in looks and world weariness a perfect match only Bogart equals him. Mr. Montgomery would ride a pink carousel horse to better success.

I saw this film on TMC on Christmas Eve 2000. I thought it was pretty interesting. The first first-person film I've ever seen. It really caught the first-person POV with which Chandler wrote the novel. I loved Marlowe, wise-cracking, one-liners ("Do you fall in love with all of your clients? Only the ones in skirts.") I thought the director handled the camera very well, with the mirrors to show the first-person perspective. I like it a lot. Great noir! Kept me riveted.

Though Dark Passage (1947) doesn't present the entire story from a subjective POV, it does do so for a good portion of the film (interspersed with cuts to an objective viewpoint, here and there). The idea works well in that film and is creatively done.

In The Lady in the Lake what we have is a completely subjective camera for almost the entire film - an interesting experiment that doesn't really work. The shots that are supposed to represent private detective Philip Marlowe's viewpoint never seem to come to life. The characters speaking to Marlowe seem to be interacting with a camera.

There is one scene after Marlowe has had a bad experience, out on a road, where the subjective idea is finally used more dramatically. It's too bad there aren't more scenes like that.

Robert Montgomery plays Marlowe mainly with his voice - except when glimpsed in a mirror - and, unfortunately, he often sounds as if he's reading from a script. Also, the whole tone of the movie is somewhat off, not really Chandleresque - more like pulp fiction.

I like Jayne Meadows but someone needed to reign her in, here (Audrey Totter, in the main female role, does pretty well but is also guilty of some overplaying).

The film has been done on a relatively low budget (low for MGM, anyway). Atmospheric parts of the novel that take place at a lake in the mountains aren't included in this version. They're merely referred to.

While I don't think this is a totally bad movie, it's a somewhat frustrating one. I think it's fun, at times, but it could have been much better.

This Movie should fit anyone's film noir definition: crooked cops, dames you cant trust, dark all interior or night scenes, protagonist as hardboiled as the bad guys, a twisted whodunit you almost forget about, who cares who did it although it still surprises in the end. The plot happens right over Christmas which often creeps into the story but Christmas is just a nuisance / inconvenience in this film noir. The first-person POV does have its hokey, awkward moments but other scenes such as the car accident and the very end make up for it. There are many films including modern films like being John Malkovich that might have first-person scenes, this is one of very few entirely shot this way, worth watching for this alone. But this film is more than a novelty, it stands on its own, the movie is two hours long, it almost feels like two movies, it reaches a certain point right at the one hour mark that feels like its going to wrap up but then goes sideways, the plot certainly did work, the time flies, you don't notice the length, always a good sign. Robert Montgomery was a believable Marlowe and the snappy wise cracking dialogue between Marlowe and Audrey Totter (Adrienne Fromsett) added up to a fun chemistry although I was having a hard time buying the usual transition to love interest. The first person technique helped Montgomery, he pulled of the dialogue but is not the greatest actor, hearing but not seeing him worked to Montgomery's advantage. Totter for the most part worked, perhaps a little melodramatic at times but undoubtedly her staring directly at the camera accentuated perhaps even created this feeling. The supporting actors were outstanding: Audrey Meadows had only two scenes, the first was captivating because we cant see her face, the second she stole to create an electric end. Lloyd Nolan as the corrupt cop totally carried his part in the plot, he was friendly enough at first but hit the just right notes as a corrupt cop. His turn at the car accident and then at the end combined with the first person technique created the two most unforgettable scenes in the movie. Even Lila Leeds had a small barely more than a walk-on role but she caught your attention, it looked like one of those "get you noticed" roles that leads to bigger and better things but alas it appears not, she went on to a series of uncredited and grind house movies.

The Lady in the Lake (1947)

This classic film noir is shot almost entirely from the point of view of the protagonist, and it is this subjective camera technique (or trick) that has made the film famous. (Hollywood regular Paul Vogel is behind the camera here.) But it is not its best point. The star is Robert Montgomery, who is not its best point, either, because he makes a sluggish and steady kind of Philip Marlowe, the famous Raymond Chandler detective played better by Bogart in The Big Sleep and Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (and much later by Robert Mitchum in two films).

But Montgomery turns out to be a marvelous director. If you remove the affectation of the camera, which is both intriguing and distracting, you have a really smart and increasingly dense telling of a great plot. And with growing admiration you have to appreciation the really sharp writing behind it all. Chandler isn't just some pulp fiction hack, and his books and their movie adaptations have stood the test of seventy years very well.

But the camera-work does demand a lot from a viewer. At times it's brilliant, playing with black out or with glancing around a room in a real time way. At other times, it makes the movie stiff. One curious decision was to have the other characters look Marlowe (the camera) in the eye, often without looking away, and so the characters are staring right at you when they speak. This isn't just the painfully stiff opening where Montgomery introduces the whole yarn, but in the midst of tense encounters. For a movie that has half an hour of this kind of camera, used with far more ingenuity and energy, check out Dark Passage from the same year (released eight months after this one).

And there is the problem of Montgomery the actor, a rather nice fellow with a solidity and calmness bordering on dull that is just not quite what we want from our detective. He delivers famously terrific lines, but there is some edge, some sarcasm, so necessary loneliness missing. This is the guy who when asked by the leading lady, "Where do you spend your Christmases," says, "In bars."

Did I ever tell you I like films with a gimmick that isn't necessarily needed to tell the story? Well, I do. 'Lady in the Lake' is such a movie. The whole film is shot from Phillip Marlowe's POV. Instead of a voice-over it has a narration in which we actually see the actor, but instead of adding some diversity those segments also have the actor speaking directly to the camera, just like in the rest of the movie in which the other characters speak to Phillip Marlowe and look at him...and us

This Phillip Marlowe is cynic beyond description. No matter how well-meaning the people are, no matter what is said to him, he smashes it down and makes fun of what is said and of who is saying it. All of this in a mean and cold-hearted tone. This gets a bit monotonous and I thought "lighten up already", but I enjoyed his snarky comebacks (some of them even cracked me up) as well as his grumpy attitude in general. It's funny how the other characters kept coming back to him although the guy surely was no fun to be around. Especially the movie's femme fatale, if we can call her that. They simultaneously loved and hated each other. Marlowe for one mainly hated her because he didn't know if he could trust her or not. I for one enjoyed the numerous minutes in which the blonde looked at me, not only for her being pretty but she had nice exaggerated mimic.

The plot is very straight forward and probably would have made an unremarkable film if told conventionally. Naturally the structure of the plot also is straight forward and it's only in the piling up of events, clues and facts that it offers something challenging to the viewer. And although it's a bit clumsy at times I enjoyed how the plot unfolded. I felt it ended with a bang when a reoccurring line of dialogue finds its final purpose and the love/hate relationship between Marlowe comes to a satisfying conclusion.

Generally the shots go on for several minutes and quite often you can see where scenes were stitched together but I didn't mind that at all. In all its staying true to the gimmick it visually doesn't look or feel much like a film noir, despite its hard-boiled-ness.

Overall the gimmick works pretty seamlessly. The often-used effect of Marlowe looking at himself in the mirror (the camera had to always stay out of the frame) is quite convincing. Only when he is interacting with things, when we see Marlowe's hand, or smoke shoots out from under the camera as he's having a cigarette it requires a certain suspension of disbelief as the positions usually don't really work out all too greatly. And if you think about it it is a bit odd how static the camera usually is. Obviously nowadays this would be shot hand-held and in the light of this we should probably be thankful the camera is this static.

Maybe having everybody look right at you becomes a bit redundant at times, but that comes with the gimmick. It surely can't be said that the movie offers much diversity nor is it even overly inventive and adventurous in the use of its gimmick, but in spite of this it always had my attention and I had fun watching it. A big reason for this IS the gimmick, which is the source of many of the movie's pluses as well as minuses.

This is clearly the best of the films based on a Chandler novel. You don't have to take my word for it, Robert B. Parker (novelist and chosen to finish "Poodle Springs" and wrote a sequel to "The Big Sleep" (which wasn't as good, but had its moments)) felt that it was the best.

Chandler did very little of the script, perhaps a loose first version or just a treatment, it was Steve Fisher who crafted this from the novel and definitely got what was important dead on. I lived in LA for ten years - in the 70s and 80s, not the 40s - and the film really gets the nature of the weather (for example) at Christmas in a way that other films (even ones like Die Hard or Lethal Weapon) don't quite pull off. The scene in the bedroom where Marlowe is searching for clues says a lot just by having the window open and the curtain riffling slightly from a breeze with bright sunlight refracted ny the translucent curtains. But it was taking the Fromsett character from a small bit in the novel to a major role in the film that makes this work.

As others have mentioned, Marlowe was not particularly smitten with women in general, and this film gets that in full. Robert Montgomery, and this script nail that aspect of Marlowe perfectly... the tension between Fromsett and Marlowe is amazing, the dialog is merciless (Fromsett blunt about living HER life for money, marrying it, and does NOT want Marlowe either in the mix or interfering.) The dialog and the way that these two amazing actors turn the lines is like watching two spinning disks on a table bump into each other and send off sparks. Despite the attraction, neither one wants the complications of the other, or really any other person.

My experience with LA is that the mind warping combination of freedom and opportunity tends to make it one of the friendliest places on the planet... and yet there is a suspicion that strong relationships interfere with freedom.

Steve Fisher's dialog was spot on with the relationship. The plotting was much better than the book, more robust (the Big Sleep was a brilliant synthesis of short stories by Chandler and the movie was great at presenting those - although one of the murders got lost, with the Bogart Bacall chemistry, who could care?) and visually very very impressive.

Also, I've noted that few of the reviewers here have mentioned how difficult it must have been for the actors to memorize so many minutes of dialog in all the scenes. That, and playing to a camera lens rather than directly against another actor, would have been difficult. And, of course, those sets aren't just standing still, they are breaking away to let the cameras cover the action from POV.

This may not be considered a great film, but in most ways it was a great film.

Hard-boiled Los Angeles private eye Phillip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) decides to submit a real story to pulpy Kingsby Publications Inc. He's brought in to talk about his story with executive Adrienne Fromsett (Audrey Totter). Instead, she hires him to find her boss Derace Kingsby's wife Chrystal without informing him. Chrystal had runaway to Mexico. She wants a divorce and marry Chris Lavery. Marlowe immediate suspects Fromsett of ulterior motives.

The premise of the first person POV is an intriguing and unique experiment which does not always work. There is something very disturbing about the actors staring right into the camera. It gets to be off-putting except for a few great touches in some of the scenes. Whether it's lingering on a beautiful girl or getting sucker punched, there are incidents where this gimmick really works. The one thing that I hadn't considered is that the scenes stop being edited. There is no back and forth during a conversation. It becomes a play directed at the audience. Again, it's off-putting and becomes difficult to maintain my focus. Totter acts her big eyes to their maximum. There is a liberal use of mirrors to get Montgomery into frame. They're really pushing the envelope but cinema may not function this way. Modern examples such as Hardcore Henry uses the concept to do action which works a little better by turning cinema into a video game. Others like 84 Charlie Mopic use found footage as the excuse to do 1st person which helps a little. The experimentation continues.

Robert Montgomery direct & play Philip Marlowe in this classic film noir where the camera is the eye's of Marlowe through out the film until you see his face later on in brief opening & closing sequences of this clever technique,in this he's searching for a missing wife,he's hired by the wife's husband's secretary the sultry Adrienne Fromsett(Audrey Totter)who he meet's while trying to sell his stories to a magazine establishment.Soon enough the punches fly & the deception begin as he manoeuvre's around to get to the truth where people

aren't what they seem as well as the police who don't like a private eye snooping on their patch & their residents, the movie teems with surprises with the usual gritty dialogue as well as the lowlife & of course the lady in distress.