Lady in the Lake (1946)

Lady in the Lake is a 1947 American film noir that marked the directorial debut of Robert Montgomery, who also stars in the film. The picture also features Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows. The murder mystery was an adaptation of the 1944 Raymond Chandler novel The Lady in the Lake. The film was Montgomery's last for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, after eighteen years with the studio.

Chandler, a twice Oscar nominated screenwriter who did not author the screenplay for this or any other screen adaptations of his own novels, disdained Montgomery's ambition to create a cinematic version of the first-person narrative style of his Philip Marlowe novels. With the exception of a couple of times when Montgomery (in character) addresses the audience directly, the entire film is shot from the viewpoint of the central character, Marlowe. The audience sees only what he does. MGM promoted the film with the claim that it was the first of its kind and the most revolutionary style of film since the introduction of the talkies. The movie was also unusual for having virtually no instrumental soundtrack, the music in the film being instead provided by a wordless vocal chorus.

Synopsis

Tired of the low pay of his profession, hard-boiled private detective Phillip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) submits a murder story to Kingsby Publications. He is invited to the publishers’ offices to discuss his work but soon realizes it is merely a ploy. On Christmas Eve, publishing executive Adrienne Fromsett (Audrey Totter) hires him to locate the wife of her boss, Derace Kingsby (Leon Ames).

Actors