starring Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter
directed by Robert Montgomery
106 minutes
Adrienne Fromsett (Audrey Totter) hires Philip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) to find Crystal Kingsby, her employer's wife, who has been missing for two months. Marlowe visits the Kingbys' vacation home and discovers that the body of a woman, but not Crystal, was recently found in a nearby lake.
His investigation leads to conflict with a suspect, the police, and Adrienne Fromsett. She eventually tells him to drop the case but then Mr. Kingsby hires him to continue searching for his wife. The suspect with whom Marlowe talked earlier in the movie later turns up dead, Marlowe finds the suspect's landlady rooting around his place, and a police detective tries to kill Marlowe.
Most of this movie is shot from Marlowe's point of view. He is only seen in a few moments here and there. Most of those moments occur when he is looking in a mirror. It is a bit of gimmick and feels that way.
This story takes place at Christmas time but the holiday is window dressing and doesn't have much to do with the plot. They could have had it take place in January and it wouldn't have changed much.
The end of Adrienne's arc in the story didn't feel earned but I loved Audrey Totter's performance in the early going. Some of the looks she gives Marlowe when he is getting on her nerves were priceless. It was later in the movie that it didn't make any sense to me. I blame the writing and the director, for this, not the actor.
I enjoyed the spirit of this movie, for the most part, but there are some things that didn't feel earned. It all got wrapped up a little too neatly in the end to satisfy me, especially Marlowe's relationship with Adrienne.
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