Murder, My Sweet (1944)

This adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel 'Farewell, My Lovely', renamed for the U.S. market to prevent audiences mistaking it for a musical (for which Powell was already famous) has private eye Philip Marlowe "hired" (almost at the point of forcible servitude) by the menacing, thuggish Joe "Moose" Malloy, a crook just out of prison after a eight year stretch, who suffers from a serious case of tunnel vision, to wit, he is obsessed with finding his former girlfriend, Velma, whom he hasn't seen in years. The case is tougher than Marlowe expected as his initially promising inquiries lead to a complex web of deceit involving bribery, perjury and theft, and where no one's motivation is clear.—Mark Thompson (updated by R.M. Sieger)