Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Why don't you just look beautiful? Quit worryin about guns", April 6, 2005
"Lady in the Lake" remains a unique experience for film noir buffs, but there's good reason why the bold camera technique didn't become popular in Hollywood. The whole idea of shooting the film in subjective camera (where everything that happens is played from and to one point-of-view as it'd be in one's own experience in real life) was Robert Montgomery's, who was the star and director of the Philip Marlowe mystery.
Montgomery is Philip Marlowe, who is hired by pulp magazine publisher Adrienne Fromsett (played by Audrey Totter) to find a missing person. But, as usual nothing goes as planned and in no time at all Marlowe finds himself framed for murder. Beatings, murder, and plenty of sarcastic humor is the result!
The sharp, hard-boiled dialogue written by Steve Fisher works well, but Robert Montgomery just doesn't seem right in the role of Marlowe, and Audrey Totter seems to relish her closeups and facial expressions a little too much. The camera technique, while bold and unique, grows old very quickly and ultimately makes the film less enjoyable. The technique was used to far greater effect in the classic film noir "Dark Passage". It's worth watching at least once if you're a film noir fanatic like me, but I don't think it's worth owning.
|
|
|
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
YOU Share the Viewpoint of the Crankiest Marlowe in Cinema!, March 23, 2004
Drawing on his life of crimefighting to write a short story, Raymond Chandler's tough but noble P.I. Philip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) 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. MGM's publicity department did its best to push it 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 CQ's Angela Lindvall, Eunice Gayson of DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, Leonard Nimoy, 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 moviemaking techniques, give her a try!
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Laughfest, January 12, 2001
What a movie!GreatB/W movie that is completely shot out of the eyes of the main character Phillip Marlowe. It's about a P.I who is hired to find a missing person. The one-liners and facial expressions are hilarious. I was rolling on the floor. A must see!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Humphrey Bogart
DVD ~ Dick Powell
DVD ~ William Eythe
DVD ~ Robert Mitchum
DVD ~ Mark Stevens
