Ex-con Ward Bond hijacks Alan Jenkins and beats up people looking for Velma. George Sanders is hired to hand over money to blackmailers; the man who hires him shoots him, and then is shot; Helen Gilbert and her husband want him to recover a valuable jade necklace, and there's a trail of murdered men.
It's the first film version of Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, and the first film based on Chandler's work. It would, of course, be remade two years later as Murder, My Sweet and launch Dick Powell on a new career. But this is a pretty good version shoehorned into the B series. Bond is very good as Moose Malloy, and cinematographer George Robinson shows it's an early noir by some Dutch angles when the cops are grilling Jenkins. Meanwhile, Sanders continues to walk between the raindrops as the three threads of the plot tangle and confuse. RKO certainly gave the Falcon some good mysteries to clear up! With Lyn Bari, James Gleason, Turhan Bey and Hans Conreid. Can't make a Falcon movie without Conreid in a random role!
It's the first film version of Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, and the first film based on Chandler's work. It would, of course, be remade two years later as Murder, My Sweet and launch Dick Powell on a new career. But this is a pretty good version shoehorned into the B series. Bond is very good as Moose Malloy, and cinematographer George Robinson shows it's an early noir by some Dutch angles when the cops are grilling Jenkins. Meanwhile, Sanders continues to walk between the raindrops as the three threads of the plot tangle and confuse. RKO certainly gave the Falcon some good mysteries to clear up! With Lyn Bari, James Gleason, Turhan Bey and Hans Conreid. Can't make a Falcon movie without Conreid in a random role!