The ‘New’ Dick Powell

He had built a successful Hollywood career as a leading man in a string of musical comedies.

So when RKO cast Dick Powell as hard-boiled private eye Philip Marlowe in the 1944 movie version of Raymond Chandler’s “Farewell, My Lovely,” the studio felt it should change the film’s title, lest moviegoers mistake it for another Powell musical.

The less ambiguously titled “Murder, My Sweet,” directed by B-movie veteran Edward Dmytryk, is considered a classic of the film noir genre. It screens tonight as part of Chapman University’s Film Noir Series.

At the time “Murder, My Sweet” was released, RKO trumpeted it as “A Sensational Triumph for the NEW Dick Powell.”

That wasn’t just the usual Hollywood hyperbole. Powell’s performance as the tough yet vulnerable private detective plying the “mean streets” of Los Angeles literally transformed his career.

As a critic for the New York Times said, “This is a new type of role for Mr. Powell. He’s definitely stepped out of the song and dance, pretty-boy league with this performance.”

Perhaps Powell’s biggest accolade came from Chandler himself, who considered Powell’s Philip Marlowe closer to his own conception of his fictional private eye than that portrayed by Humphrey Bogart two years later in director Howard Hawks’ “The Big Sleep.”

“He had to love it; it was perfect,” said Claire Trevor, 88, who co-starred with Powell in the film.

Trevor, a longtime Newport Beach resident and stepmother of billionaire Irvine Co. Chairman Donald L. Bren, said Powell “turned out to be a fabulous actor. He was wonderful in the picture. His heart and soul were in it, and he applied himself like any studious actor would. He was really believable.”

Trevor’s role as the sexually charged and oh-so-dangerous Mrs. Grayle, the “big-league blond” in the film, was one of a number of similarly colorful characters she played over the years, ranging from the prostitute who is run out of town in “Stagecoach” (1939) to gangster Edward G. Robinson’s alcoholic moll in “Key Largo,” for which she won the 1948 best supporting actress Oscar. As film writer David Thompson once noted, Trevor played a “whole range of blowzy molls and blase dolls.”

“They may be the same kind of girl, but each one is different,” said Trevor, whose voice was once described as sounding like delicious trouble.

Trevor remembers “Murder, My Sweet” as being no “blockbuster” at the time of its release. “But it was a big hit. People liked it.” So did she.

“I don’t always like the picture [after making it], and I thought it was so good.”

She says she enjoys film noir.

“Some of them are very good; some are much better than the pictures today. They had a lot more suspense in them and a lot more feeling.”

Many pictures today, she complains, are simply too violent.

“It’s a cop-out,” Trevor said. “They use violence instead of a good script--or they use dirty language. There was no dirty language in [‘Murder, My Sweet’] or anything really bad, and yet it had a dangerous feeling about it. It was well directed and well written.”

Indeed. John Paxton’s screenplay was full of Chandleresque lines.

The down-on-his-luck Marlowe says in voice-over, “My bank account was trying to crawl under a duck.”

Or Marlowe after being hired by ex-con Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to find his ex-girlfriend Velma: “The joint looked like trouble, but that didn’t bother me. Nothing bothered me. The two twenties felt nice and snug against my appendix.”

Or Marlowe again: “I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in. It had no bottom. I felt pretty good--like an amputated leg.”

Trevor has her own favorite line from “Murder, My Sweet,” the reason for which will be understandable to anyone who has seen the film.

It’s when the hulking, dimwitted Malloy waxes nostalgic about his beloved Velma:

“She was cute as lace pants.”

When it comes to memorable lines, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” director Robert Wise’s 1951 science-fiction classic, has this:

“Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!”

The movie, part of Chapman University’s Science Fiction Film Series, stars Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, whose memorable line is delivered to Gort (the robot) as a plea to save the world from destruction. It screens at the university at 7 p.m. Monday.

* “Murder, My Sweet” screens at 7 p.m. tonight at Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” screens Monday, 7 p.m. Both screenings, in Argyros Forum 208, are free of charge.

‘Eel’ of Passion

“The Eel,” written and directed by acclaimed Japanese independent filmmaker Shohei Imamura,” opens Friday at Edwards South Coast Village theater in Santa Ana.

Based on Akira Yoshimura’s novel “Sparkles in the Darkness,” the film delves into the nature of a man whose brutal act of passion leaves him emotionally void.

Koji Yashuto (best known in the West as the star of “Shall We Dance”) plays a white-collar worker whose orderly life is shattered when he receives anonymous letters claiming his wife is having an affair.

After telling his wife he is going on a fishing trip, he returns home to find her in bed with her lover. In a rage, he stabs her to death.

Paroled from prison eight years later, the lonely and disillusioned man starts a new life and in the process deals with his inability to form emotional attachments.

“For the main character, I needed a man who could be an ordinary ‘salary man’ and at the same time could be a killer,” Imamura said. “I needed someone who could appear balanced and not insane--Yashuto is perfect.”

“The Eel,” which is filled with Imamura’s signature cast of eccentric characters, won the Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes International Film Festival. An internationally celebrated filmmaker since his 1958 debut film, “Stolen Desire,” Imamura is known for his uncompromising and provocative vision of Japanese society.

The film’s American distributor, New Yorker Films, says, “ ‘The Eel’ offers audiences another peek into Imamura’s often quirky, slightly offbeat and thoroughly unique take on the clash between ancient Japanese mores and modern-day madness.”

* Opens Friday at Edwards South Coast Village, 1561 W. Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana. (714) 540-0594. In Japanese with English subtitles. Running time: 117 minutes. MPAA rating: not rated.