Lady in the Lake (1947)

☆ ☆ ☆

Lady in the Lake (1947) – R. Montgomery

Yes, this is the Raymond Chandler adaptation with the gimmick: we see the events through the eyes of detective Philip Marlowe.  That is, the film is shot in “first person”, so that we only see Robert Montgomery (who also directed) when he looks in the mirror or in opening and bridging scenes where he talks directly to the camera to explain things.  Apparently, the idea came from Orson Welles.  It works beautifully in places (as when the camera slowly prowls up the stairs, searching from room to room, until it finally spots a corpse in the shower) but mostly it is an unnecessary distraction.  Most of the actors seem awkward and over-expressive when they need to deliver their lines directly to us (with Montgomery’s voice heard offscreen).  The plot is typical noir (dark/tough/complicated) and, although I haven’t read the source novel, it is also likely to be typical Chandler – as in The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye (the novels I have read), the many characters are duplicitous, involved with each other in ways that are initially hidden, and even Marlowe is compromised.  Montgomery plays him straight but rather flat – Bogart, Powell, and even Gould better capture Marlowe’s sarcastic acceptance of the absurd (while still maintaining an honourable quest for the truth, broadly construed).  Nevertheless, even as a failed experiment, Lady in the Lake is worth a look as a representative entry in this important genre.