Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Director:  Edward Dmytryk

Writers:  John Paxton, Raymond Chandler

Composer:  Roy Webb

Starring:  Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Miles Mander, Douglas Walton, Donald Douglas, Ralf Harolde, esther Howard

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  A night of murder the police won't let him forget! The only key to his safety... a woman's face he can't remember!

Plot:  After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.

My rating:   7/10

Will I watch it again?   Yeah.

Is it me or is this a little too complicated for its own good?   I dig the flick and it's fun.  The dialogue, acting and such is right where you want it to be for a noir crime picture but sometimes it feels like a copout when all the information you need to figure out what's going on isn't given until the massive exposition dump near the end.  Sometime it works great like in THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and sometimes it feels like cheating as in this movie.  Maybe I'm getting too worked up about it.  I don't know.  Dick Powell is always fun to watch but I do like my noir detectives to be on the darker side than wise-cracking.  Moose (played by 6'5" Mike Mazurki) was a tough and fun character.  It's still a fun ride despite my bitching about being in the dark until the end.