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'Raymond Chandler's second Philip Marlowe novel has been filmed three times: first in disguise as the 1942 B-movie The Falcon Takes Over, next as the excellent noir thriller Murder My Sweet 1944 starring Dick Powell, and third as this elegant neo-noir with a perfectly cast Robert Mitchum, at 58 the oldest actor to play Marlowe. It appeared during a period of nostalgia for the interwar years (along with The Great Gatsby, The Sting, The Way We Were, Chinatown) and is set in 1941 during the months leading up to Pearl Harbor. To a bluesy score by David Shire, Marlowe goes down the mean streets of a Los Angeles lit by John A Alonzo to resemble paintings by Edward Hopper. He's searching for Velma, the missing moll of gangster Moose Malloy, and following Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak for the Yankees. He's a weary figure, aware that his chivalric values are becoming unfashionable in a changing world.' The Guardian